1. Research Topics in Sustainable Development Seminar
Center for International Development
Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
October 27, 2003
Thinking, talking, doing: integrated research and the professionalisation of science-society connections
Lorrae van Kerkhoff
National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health

2. Summary Background snapshots Overview of case studies
Overview of findings
Professionalisation: speculations on where we’re heading

3. Integrated research is…??
Agenda 21 (UNCED, 1992): We need to be “Supporting new scientific research programmes … to complement and encourage synergies between traditional and conventional scientific knowledge and practices and strengthening interdisciplinary research related to environmental degradation and rehabilitation”
UNESCO (1999) “… the relationship between scientific research … and practical benefits is much more diverse and complex today than in the past, and frequently involves many players other than researchers. The progress of science … must be defended … through its relevance and effectiveness in addressing the needs and expectations of our societies.”

4. Integrated research is…??
Kinzig et al. (2001)
Interdisciplinary research will represent one of the frontiers of scientific inquiry in the 21st century, as scientists elucidate the dynamics of complex interdependent social and natural systems. … A fundamentally new level of integration in research across disparate fields is required.
Board on Sustainable Development, NRC (2000) Sustainability science will therefore have to be above all else integrative science—science committed to bridging barriers that separate traditional modes of inquiry. … It will need to integrate across styles of knowledge creation, bridging the gulf that separates the detached practice of scholarship from the engaged practice of engineering and management.

5. Integrated research is…??
Land and Water Australia, 2001
A perennial challenge for most agencies in natural resource management is that of integration: across issues and programs; across different scales of activity; across different jurisdictions; across ecological, economic and social factors; and across the spectrum from knowledge generation to its transformation and utilisation.
Chief Scientist’s Report, 2000
Integrating the innovation system across all points can increase the chance of generating more products and processes that enhance our lifestyle. The innovation system is dependent on strong links between all players, government, industry and research performers.

6. Integrated research is…??
Within and beyond science
Interdisciplinary, inter-organizational
Cross-institutional
Supply- and demand-driven
Science that is relevant and useful
(and well funded)
Policy and action well informed by science

7. Beyond inspiration…
How do practitioners think / talk about integration?
Theoretical perspectives tend to focus on barriers and boundaries
How do they conceptualise the detail?
How do the concepts compare to actual practice?
Where are they useful? Not useful?
What else is going on?
What can we learn?

8. The case studies Two cases: Cooperative Research Centres
CRC for Coastal Zone, Estuary and Waterway Management
CRC for Greenhouse Accounting
Mandate to ‘integrate’
Among researchers
With stakeholders
Different policy contexts
Local — regional
National — international
Participants should form collaborative relationships within an integrated research program. Participants should not divide the research program into discrete projects that are carried out solely by individual participants, pursuing their own separate objectives. (CRC Program, 1999).
The degree to which key user groups, including industry, have been integrated into the CRC as core participants
(CRC Program, 2001)

9. Talk of integrated research
Talk of concepts: technical
Interdisciplinarity
Models
Processes
Talk of practice: social
Negotiation
Teamwork
Identity

10. Reconciliation in practice
Commitment to action
On the ground
Political engagement
Academic change
Orientation to the future
Strategic thinking
Opportunities
Processes

11. (Conceptual) tools of the trade
Action contexts
Different ways of influencing action / effecting change
Trajectories
Distinguished by basic orientations (What’s certain? important?)
Multi-layered
Permeable, allows for interweaving

12. (Conceptual) tools of the trade
Action and trajectories: zones of change
Zone of change 1
Trajectory 1
Shared zone of change
Trajectory 2
Zone of change 2
Time

13. (Conceptual) tools of the trade
4 dimensions of science
Individual creativity
Collegial peer review
Role in society
Role in social change

14. Science and action Four steps:
Mapping the terrain – scientific skills – policy arenas
Assessing context – negotiable? – not negotiable?
Positioning research – negotiated – strategic
Research design and conduct

15. Designing and doing research
Ethos:
Greenhouse CRC ‘…to provide research outputs for greenhouse emissions accounting at the national and project level.’
Coastal CRC ‘…to bridge the gaps between science, the community and policy making organisations.’

16. A process Identify scientific skills Identify related action arenas
Can scientific and action interests be negotiated?
Strategic positioning:
Account for policy circumstances no
yes
Negotiated positioning:
Negotiate complementary research
Design and conduct relevant research programs and projects: conventional, participatory, interdisciplinary, etc.

17. Professionalisation An analogous case: strategic planning
Shift from intuitive to formalised approaches
Coordination, control, rationality in dealing with turbulent conditions
Orientation towards external environment and partners
Engaging with the future

18. Risks of codifying Mintzberg (1990) Commitment (In-) flexibility
Conservatism
Defines and reinforces categories,
Incremental change
Mechanistic, linear
Self-reflection  self-justification?

19. The rain or the dance? Quinn (1980) cited in Mintzberg (1990)
A good deal of the corporate planning I have observed is like a ritual rain dance; it has no effect on the weather that follows, but those who engage in it think it does. Moreover, it seems to me that much of the advice and instruction related to corporate planning is directed at improving the dancing, not the weather.

20. What kind of change is this?
Shift in emphasis
Incremental
Compatible with prevailing scientific practice
Focus on skill-building
Shift in values
Profound
Significant break from tradition
Focus on challenging ‘the system’
Which strategy should we adopt?

21. The process Values? Incremental? Identify scientific skills
Identify related action arenas
Can scientific and action interests be negotiated?
Strategic positioning:
Account for policy circumstances no
yes
Negotiated positioning:
Negotiate complementary research
Values?
Design and conduct relevant research programs and projects: conventional, participatory, interdisciplinary, etc.
Incremental?