Evidence for Policy Design (EPoD)’s Post

▶️Thought of the day: Studying serves as a fundamental tool in honing our critical thinking abilities. By developing this skill, we gain the capacity to assess, envision, and potentially solve various challenges effectively. Through critical thinking, we can identify and evaluate outdated processes or strategies that do not align with our desired goals. However, it can be disheartening when our critical thinking skills are undervalued, and we are discouraged from asking probing questions or exploring beyond our designated responsibilities. When we reflect on the world we inhabit and observe issues such as poor work ethics, flawed policies, authoritarian governance, and a lack of sustainable practices, we may wonder about the root cause. The simple answer lies in the prioritization of short-term gains over long-term benefits. Social scientists play a vital role in maintaining equilibrium in public decision-making processes. They are equipped to navigate complexities and ensure that policies serve the greater good for all members of society, be it manufacturers, farmers, educators, or others. It is imperative that social scientists should actively engage in shaping and influencing policy decisions to foster a more sustainable and equitable future for all.

Recognize contributions instead of divide and conquer? Look at this initiative, it reads almost utopian! Utrecht University "will no longer use two separate categories to distinguish between two groups of employees: scientific staff and support and administrative staff." The goal behind this: The university 💡 "...wants to encourage teams to talk to each other more often about their common goals and what each person's role is in reaching those goals. No one has to know or do everything. There is room for different talents and different contributions. For example, this may create more room for a PhD candidate to work on public engagement. It also creates more room to consider the expertise of colleagues, independent of formal job titles. Think of a data specialist who collaborates on scientific publications or a valorization officer who also teaches."  Thanks for sharing, Stephanie Zihms! Dear colleagues, what do you think? #academia #collaboration #change Erkki Raulo Claudine Leysinger Verity Elston Utta Isop Fiona Philippi Anna Pilz

In fact, the main challenge with disciplinary boundaries is that the pace of innovation surpasses our administrative capacity to put it into bins. This problem is a sibling of a ubiquitous tension in many industries: The demands of the professional world exceed the ability of institutions (e.g., higher education and vocational training institutions) to supply candidates with the requisite skill set.

🚀 Missed "Public Policy in a Dynamic World" with Laveesh Bhandari? Access the Highlights Now! If you couldn't join us for the enlightening #ISPPPolicyRelay event featuring Laveesh Bhandari, President of the Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP), we've got great news! The recording and summary of the session, held on January 31st at the ISPP campus, are now online for you to explore. 🔍 Quick Insights: 1. Embrace Change: Rapid technological advances demand swift policy adaptation. 2. Widen Participation: Inclusivity in policymaking enriches decision-making. 3. Iterative Policy Crafting: Policies should evolve through continuous feedback. Laveesh urged for policies that are more accountable, transparent, and directly engaged with community needs. His insights are a call to action for a new era of policy formulation and implementation. 👉 Discover the full insights and more here: https://lnkd.in/e93CuaZt Parth Shah | Luis Miranda | Ram J V | Dhruva Mathur | Urvashi Shahi | Siddhartha Warwade | Manu Sakunia #PublicPolicy #Innovation #ISPP #LaveeshBhandari #Adaptation #Inclusivity #CSEP #Opportunities #Challenges #Sustainability #Inclusion

"Organisations can’t learn and develop, or become more effective if they don’t understand what participation in a project is like. Value is more than a statistic, it's human, lived, highly contestable and complex." https://buff.ly/3Rqmmwb This post is adapted from a paper that Henry Mulhall (Cards on the Table) gave at a symposium in April 2023. The event, hosted by the University of Leeds, was called Participation: Norms and Storms. It aimed to explore how participation in art and culture is often mediated by societal norms, but also how terms like ‘co-production’ and ‘public engagement’ can become uncritical and normative within art practices. It draws heavily on learning shared at the Meaningful Measurement event we hosted earlier this year, so we thought you'd enjoy reading it. Estimated reading time: 8 mins

Global Dialogue Week is here! https://lnkd.in/eT5sQNsb Lots of sessions and webinars on global governance, environment, sustainability. Here is the one that I will be presenting on. Would love to see you there.  Join me, Amanda DeWitt, Sarah Minghini, and Trifol Headman to learn about how to incorporate teaching about environmental sustainability and service-learning in the classroom. Tuesday, November 14, 10-11:30AM EST (Session B1): Project-based methods to engage students in environmental-sustainability and climate-change learning: Building a learners’ toolbox https://lnkd.in/eW4YxgSp In an era when it seems overwhelming to ameliorate or keep up with the scale of environmental problems, it can be challenging to find teaching methods that engage students and empower them to be agents of change. Drawing on experiences from an undergraduate course on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, this panel introduces project-based learning activities that students can take into their communities. Course instructor and Associate Professor of Political Science and Global Studies, Roni Kay O’Dell, will introduce her learner-centred teaching approach to curriculum and course design. Amanda DeWitt, Director of Service Experience, will introduce service-learning theory and practice that can be implemented in college campuses. Students in Political Science, Sarah Minghini and Trifol Headman, will describe two projects they created and implemented: An on-campus walk that introduced university students to the SDGs, and a project on sustainable clothing where students created messages for social media and worked with a local thrift store to host an on-campus clothing drive. Together presenters will share what worked, offer suggestions for successful course and project design, and provide examples of teaching and learning resources. Participants in this webinar will be encouraged to contribute their own ideas. This session is organized by the Human Rights Thematic Group of the Human Development and Capabilities Association (HDCA). "The HDCA is a global community of academics and practitioners that seeks to build an intellectual community around the ideas of human development and the capability approach, and relate these ideas to the policy arena." #humandevelopment #sustainabledevelopment #sustainabledevelopmentgoals #pedagogy #servicelearning #activelearning #learnercenteredteaching

Thank you so much Chris Dimos for contributing to our case studies! Chris' top advice for policy engagement: 1. Start internally. Get in touch with the IPR and work with the University’s Engagement Team as they can give guidance and facilitate your engagement with policymakers.  2. Look for schemes that are out there already to engage your research with policymakers, such as the UKRI Policy Fellowships. There are also opportunities provided by the Parliament and the Royal Society.  3. Networking is vital, especially with policy organisations that you believe are the most relevant to you and your research. 4. Do stuff your own way. Do not hesitate to take the lead and do not get overly discouraged by the views of others. Sometimes you may see things others cannot and vice-versa. Read more below: 🔽

In 2015, the first Leading Academic Change survey was released. The importance and need for academic innovation has not abated. There are a few more days to participate in Version 2.0 of this national benchmarking survey and share your perspective with peers on how to nurture and implement academic innovation and leadership in support of teaching and student success.

Happy Friday Join me on blogwithclem.blogspot.com Today's topic is Global Development

Murray Davis' 1971 essay "That's Interesting" is a staple of doctoral education in management. It's influence is (too) strongly felt in the way we frame our papers and how our papers are reviewed. "I wasn't surprised by the findings of this paper" (and similar) is straight out of the Davis rulebook. I have long been less than happy with both Davis' positive argument that social science theories are influential not because they are useful or even true, but because they are "interesting," meaning they "deny certain assumptions of their audiences" and in particular with what is seen as the obvious normative corollary to this: we should strive for theories that are "surprising," "counter-intuitive," "interesting." It was therefore great to be able to contribute (with Peter G Klein) to a group discussion on the legacy of Davis (1971) in the Journal of Management Inquiry. Our main critique of Davis is the following: " the interestingness criterion jams the process of error correction in science. Not only does it weaken the selection environment, but it also affects the variation and heredity side of the evolution of knowledge by prioritizing differentiation, incentivizing scholars to dress up otherwise mundane research as flashy and counterintuitive, complicating the task of evaluating such research. The emphasis on novelty, excitement, and even surprise to stand out—as well as the common requirement at many journals that empirical papers also make a “theoretical contribution”—has likely contributed to the explosion of constructs and labels, mechanisms, and techniques over the last few decades, much of which has been adopted or promoted by self-styled “communities” (sometimes with their own standards of evaluation). The resulting complexity has further complicated the process of evaluating knowledge claims."