Reflexivity

The path perspective on modelling projects

By Tuomas J. Lahtinen, Joseph H. A. Guillaume, Raimo P. Hämäläinen

authors_tuomas-lahtinen_joseph-guillaume_raimo_hamalainen
1. Tuomas J. Lahtinen (biography)
2. Joseph H. A. Guillaume (biography)
3. Raimo P. Hämäläinen (biography)

How can we identify and evaluate decision forks in a modelling project; those points where a different decision might lead to a better model?

Although modellers often follow so called best practices, it is not uncommon that a project goes astray. Sometimes we become so embedded in the work that we do not take time to stop and think through options when decision points are reached.

One way of clarifying thinking about this phenomenon is to think of the path followed. The path is the sequence of steps actually taken in developing a model or in a problem solving case. A modelling process can typically be carried out in different ways, which generate different paths that can lead to different outcomes. That is, there can be path dependence in modelling.

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Pro-active learning to improve interdisciplinary processes

By Laura R. Meagher

Member of Board of Governors
Laura R. Meagher (biography)

I am a firm believer in looking at interdisciplinary collaboration and knowledge exchange – or impact generation – as processes. If you can see something as a process, you can learn about it. If you can learn about it, you can do it better!

I find that this approach helps people to feel enfranchised, to believe that it is possible for them to open up what might have seemed to be a static black box and achieve understanding of the dynamics of how nouns like ‘interdisciplinarity’ or ‘knowledge exchange’ or ‘research impact’ can actually come to be.

In addition to using sources such as master classes, briefing guides or articles, individuals involved in interdisciplinary work can take several (inter-related) pro-active approaches to learning about interdisciplinary processes:

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Storytelling ethnography as a way of doing transdisciplinary research

By Jane Palmer

jane-palmer
Jane Palmer (biography)

Storytelling ethnography is a valuable tool if your research traverses several disciplines and aims for insights that transcend all of them. Stories not only integrate knowledge from diverse disciplines, but can also “change the way people act, the way they use available knowledge” (Griffiths 2007).

The special qualities of transdisciplinarity are:

  • its potential for integrative inquiry and emergent solutions,
  • its engagement with community and other non-academic knowledges, and
  • the breadth of its outcomes for researchers, participants and the wider community.

These are also qualities of what I call storytelling ethnography.

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