Researchers in numerous fields assert that research partnerships involving academics and nonacade... more Researchers in numerous fields assert that research partnerships involving academics and nonacademics are essential for developing solutions to pressing and complex problems. While theoretically justified and urgently needed, working across institutional and epistemological boundaries to produce knowledge and create solutions turns out to be complex and challenging. Given the potential and often realized challenges of collaborations, and the need for partners to come together to develop workable solutions, additional research is needed on process in research collaborations. With this paper, we contribute to the literature on process and outcomes in the development of community-university research teams. Specifically, we study local government officials’ (LGOs) process and outcome preferences for engaging in community-university research partnerships and their perceptions of academic researchers. Our data were generated from open-ended responses to a statewide survey of LGOs in Maine...
Why Research Partnerships? Why Now? We are recognizing the limitations with past research pract... more Why Research Partnerships? Why Now? We are recognizing the limitations with past research practices We are increasingly understanding that some problems that can only be addressed through partnerships We are increasingly seeing the need for many types of expertise if problems are to be understood and solved We are increasingly recognizing the need for Knowledge-to-Action
... Les Boden Susan Klitzman Charlotte Ryan ... and Technical Information; Alterna-tive Press Ind... more ... Les Boden Susan Klitzman Charlotte Ryan ... and Technical Information; Alterna-tive Press Index; BioBusiness; Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature; EBSCO Publishing Databases; Ergonomics Information Analysis Centre; IBZ (International Bibliography of ...
Research in. the area of person perceptiWon has been dominated by the assumption that people seek... more Research in. the area of person perceptiWon has been dominated by the assumption that people seek_stable trait information and view others as highly consistent. To examine whether perceivers would' ha e difficulty in 'thinking of ways that peopl.,ghavg,changed, and eporting instances of such change, 120 coil gelstudekts were asked to complete Short essays in Ighich they reporied areas of constancy and of change in their bgst-friends and n themselves., Overall, the most 'frequent reference was to trait. attributes, wilich ili Resillts showed change judgments, were eqeally. as f equent as judgments' of sameness, and this was true in judging others as well as self., accounted for 40 percent of all judgmentsch!judgments were significantly more likely when describing areas(of constanc rather than change, and. when describing a friend rat4er than self. Subjects were more.likely to refer to constancy in interests, aryl more likely to refer to changes in goals and maturation han to constancy in thi$ area. The redUlts provide clear evidence of/the richness and diversity of'intuitive judgments of change/in persons. (JAC) .
Universities are under tremendous pressure to go global and local. There are calls for deepening ... more Universities are under tremendous pressure to go global and local. There are calls for deepening local engagement (Tierney 1998; Stanton et al. 1999; Trickett and Espino 2004; Kellogg Commission 1999). At the same time, universities are being advised to build a reputation that transcends the local by establishing worldwide visibility and creating a global presence (Douglass, King, and Feller 2009).
New solutions : a journal of environmental and occupational health policy : NS, Jan 2, 2015
One of the most urgent issues confronting science these days is identifying ways to do research t... more One of the most urgent issues confronting science these days is identifying ways to do research that will increase its impact on pressing problems. While this concern is hardly new, the pronounced current interest is reflected in the large number of approaches being explored to address this problem. They include work on science to action, engaged research, community-based participatory research, participatory action research, citizen science, and the democratization of science. All reflect efforts to take on the problematic nature of science as it has come to be practiced. Karen Messing’s book, Pain and Prejudice: What Science Can Learn about Work from the People Who Do It, is a must read on this theme of the obstacles to science being effective in addressing workplace issues.
Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 2015
Funded by the National Science Foundation's Ethics Education in Science and Engineering program, ... more Funded by the National Science Foundation's Ethics Education in Science and Engineering program, the Northeast Ethics Education Partnership (NEEP) has developed and implemented expanded human subjects training for graduate student researchers and faculty engaging with individuals and groups representing place-based communities and cultural groups. This paper reports on the importance of training graduate students in a series of short courses in environmental science, environmental engineering, and related fields including environmental studies, with an emphasis on research ethics involving place-based communities, cultural competence, and community-based research. New course content, recruitment, implementation strategies, and outcomes for this training effort at the two partnering universities are provided for this initiative.
New solutions : a journal of environmental and occupational health policy : NS, 2003
We hear more and more about the necessity of "sustainable regional development" as an a... more We hear more and more about the necessity of "sustainable regional development" as an alternative to and defense against globalization. While we certainly agree with this notion, we ask what might prevent it from becoming yet another "top-down" development scheme with good intentions but dubious results. We would argue that no road to development is sustainable if it is not deeply democratic and reliant on an informed, concerned public; the expressed needs of the public must be an essential aspect of regional development. Our focus here is on the university, the main supplier of the experts and technologies utilized by the undemocratic processes of globalization, but it might also be a partner in a democratic process of regional sustainable development. To do this, however, experts in academia must resist the temptation to assume they know what is best and work in concert with community forces to define and create sustainable development. To put it simply, if exp...
NEW SOLUTIONS: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy, 2005
The article "Technical assistance: Providing grassroots groups access to scientific and technical... more The article "Technical assistance: Providing grassroots groups access to scientific and technical information" by Barbara Berney (New Solutions, Vol. 15, No. 1) addresses the important topic of how community groups concerned with toxics draw on the skills of intermediaries. The article notes the central problem faced by many communities is that decisions about toxics and their impact on health are played out in the technical science arena and communities are rarely positioned to act in this arena. Communities often need intermediaries to aid them in interpretation within this complex data landscape. This article assesses the similarities and differences in how various intermediary groups go about this challenging task of assisting communities and groups. The article is filled with fascinating points as it analyzes how communities work with intermediary groups in preparing for communicating with policy-makers, regulators, and health authorities. A central underlying theme concerns the goodness of fit between toxics groups and the needs of communities. Readers are asked to consider: What might be missing? Might there be ways that these intermediary groups could do a better job? Will these groups solve the problems of the gaps between science and the community? As a reader, I came to this article with great interest because I work with many different community groups on urban environmental problems. Many of these groups include refugees and immigrants who are new to the United States and are unfamiliar with its regulatory rules and assumptions. Much of our community work has been funded by the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), under a program that calls for setting up environmental justice partnerships. These partnerships-there are now many around the country-for the most part do not include entities like the intermediaries described in this article. Certainly the funding does not stipulate that such groups 103
An intriguing paradox exists in our society with regard to personal change. On the one hand, we s... more An intriguing paradox exists in our society with regard to personal change. On the one hand, we seem to believe that people can change and even (in the case of objectionable or negative behavior) have a responsibility to change. Enormous effort in our society is devoted to the task of bringing about change in the self and others. On the other hand, we often seem to assume that change—despite its being heralded as an admirable goal—is not really possible and cannot occur. From the personologist to the ordinary citizen, people warn of the futility of pinning hopes on bringing about change in persons.
In an intriguing cartoon, the cartoonist and social commentator Jules Feiffer (1982) focuses on t... more In an intriguing cartoon, the cartoonist and social commentator Jules Feiffer (1982) focuses on two lovers and their concerns with the possibility that the other will change, or fail to change, at various points during their relationship. In the cartoon, one of the lovers says that in the year they were together they talked a lot about change. Initially they begged each other not to change. At various points they said to each other “Why won’t you change?” and “You’ll never change!” and still later, an accusing “You have changed!” when the other behaved in some undesirable way. The sequence ends with the lovers encountering each other on the street a year after they broke up and barely recognizing each other because they had changed so much. This dialogue in which people are preoccupied with change strikes us as amusing but also as familiar in certain respects.
Just as everyday social perceivers show a marked interest in change, so too do researchers in the... more Just as everyday social perceivers show a marked interest in change, so too do researchers in the social sciences. The pervasiveness of this professional interest in change can be seen in any number of ways. It is apparent, for example, in the range of topics that have been targets of change research. From television viewing habits to sexual practices, from political views to leisure activities, from the problem of child abuse to the problems of old age, few aspects of personal and social life have been untouched by attempts on the part of researchers to study change. Researchers have sought to assemble information capable of providing answers to the questions of change: Are certain practices becoming more common or less? In certain areas are things improving or deteriorating? Is life becoming better or worse? The breadth of the interest in change is also apparent in the wide variety of entities that have been examined for changes of various kinds. Change across the life span in the individual has been a focus of interest, but so has change across decades in large aggregates of individuals and societies as wholes. The investigation of change has sometimes been directed at the study of change in small groups but it has also involved the investigation of change in large-scale organizations.
Intuitive change judgments often arise in an after-the-fact fashion. Perceivers do not ordinarily... more Intuitive change judgments often arise in an after-the-fact fashion. Perceivers do not ordinarily start out expecting to assess change in the future and so proceed to gather information about events in a uniform manner over time in order to have appropriate information at hand when an occasion for assessing change arrives. On the contrary, it is typically not until some occasion calling for a change judgment occurs that an interest in gauging change in a particular area comes into play.
Researchers in numerous fields assert that research partnerships involving academics and nonacade... more Researchers in numerous fields assert that research partnerships involving academics and nonacademics are essential for developing solutions to pressing and complex problems. While theoretically justified and urgently needed, working across institutional and epistemological boundaries to produce knowledge and create solutions turns out to be complex and challenging. Given the potential and often realized challenges of collaborations, and the need for partners to come together to develop workable solutions, additional research is needed on process in research collaborations. With this paper, we contribute to the literature on process and outcomes in the development of community-university research teams. Specifically, we study local government officials’ (LGOs) process and outcome preferences for engaging in community-university research partnerships and their perceptions of academic researchers. Our data were generated from open-ended responses to a statewide survey of LGOs in Maine...
Why Research Partnerships? Why Now? We are recognizing the limitations with past research pract... more Why Research Partnerships? Why Now? We are recognizing the limitations with past research practices We are increasingly understanding that some problems that can only be addressed through partnerships We are increasingly seeing the need for many types of expertise if problems are to be understood and solved We are increasingly recognizing the need for Knowledge-to-Action
... Les Boden Susan Klitzman Charlotte Ryan ... and Technical Information; Alterna-tive Press Ind... more ... Les Boden Susan Klitzman Charlotte Ryan ... and Technical Information; Alterna-tive Press Index; BioBusiness; Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature; EBSCO Publishing Databases; Ergonomics Information Analysis Centre; IBZ (International Bibliography of ...
Research in. the area of person perceptiWon has been dominated by the assumption that people seek... more Research in. the area of person perceptiWon has been dominated by the assumption that people seek_stable trait information and view others as highly consistent. To examine whether perceivers would' ha e difficulty in 'thinking of ways that peopl.,ghavg,changed, and eporting instances of such change, 120 coil gelstudekts were asked to complete Short essays in Ighich they reporied areas of constancy and of change in their bgst-friends and n themselves., Overall, the most 'frequent reference was to trait. attributes, wilich ili Resillts showed change judgments, were eqeally. as f equent as judgments' of sameness, and this was true in judging others as well as self., accounted for 40 percent of all judgmentsch!judgments were significantly more likely when describing areas(of constanc rather than change, and. when describing a friend rat4er than self. Subjects were more.likely to refer to constancy in interests, aryl more likely to refer to changes in goals and maturation han to constancy in thi$ area. The redUlts provide clear evidence of/the richness and diversity of'intuitive judgments of change/in persons. (JAC) .
Universities are under tremendous pressure to go global and local. There are calls for deepening ... more Universities are under tremendous pressure to go global and local. There are calls for deepening local engagement (Tierney 1998; Stanton et al. 1999; Trickett and Espino 2004; Kellogg Commission 1999). At the same time, universities are being advised to build a reputation that transcends the local by establishing worldwide visibility and creating a global presence (Douglass, King, and Feller 2009).
New solutions : a journal of environmental and occupational health policy : NS, Jan 2, 2015
One of the most urgent issues confronting science these days is identifying ways to do research t... more One of the most urgent issues confronting science these days is identifying ways to do research that will increase its impact on pressing problems. While this concern is hardly new, the pronounced current interest is reflected in the large number of approaches being explored to address this problem. They include work on science to action, engaged research, community-based participatory research, participatory action research, citizen science, and the democratization of science. All reflect efforts to take on the problematic nature of science as it has come to be practiced. Karen Messing’s book, Pain and Prejudice: What Science Can Learn about Work from the People Who Do It, is a must read on this theme of the obstacles to science being effective in addressing workplace issues.
Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 2015
Funded by the National Science Foundation's Ethics Education in Science and Engineering program, ... more Funded by the National Science Foundation's Ethics Education in Science and Engineering program, the Northeast Ethics Education Partnership (NEEP) has developed and implemented expanded human subjects training for graduate student researchers and faculty engaging with individuals and groups representing place-based communities and cultural groups. This paper reports on the importance of training graduate students in a series of short courses in environmental science, environmental engineering, and related fields including environmental studies, with an emphasis on research ethics involving place-based communities, cultural competence, and community-based research. New course content, recruitment, implementation strategies, and outcomes for this training effort at the two partnering universities are provided for this initiative.
New solutions : a journal of environmental and occupational health policy : NS, 2003
We hear more and more about the necessity of "sustainable regional development" as an a... more We hear more and more about the necessity of "sustainable regional development" as an alternative to and defense against globalization. While we certainly agree with this notion, we ask what might prevent it from becoming yet another "top-down" development scheme with good intentions but dubious results. We would argue that no road to development is sustainable if it is not deeply democratic and reliant on an informed, concerned public; the expressed needs of the public must be an essential aspect of regional development. Our focus here is on the university, the main supplier of the experts and technologies utilized by the undemocratic processes of globalization, but it might also be a partner in a democratic process of regional sustainable development. To do this, however, experts in academia must resist the temptation to assume they know what is best and work in concert with community forces to define and create sustainable development. To put it simply, if exp...
NEW SOLUTIONS: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy, 2005
The article "Technical assistance: Providing grassroots groups access to scientific and technical... more The article "Technical assistance: Providing grassroots groups access to scientific and technical information" by Barbara Berney (New Solutions, Vol. 15, No. 1) addresses the important topic of how community groups concerned with toxics draw on the skills of intermediaries. The article notes the central problem faced by many communities is that decisions about toxics and their impact on health are played out in the technical science arena and communities are rarely positioned to act in this arena. Communities often need intermediaries to aid them in interpretation within this complex data landscape. This article assesses the similarities and differences in how various intermediary groups go about this challenging task of assisting communities and groups. The article is filled with fascinating points as it analyzes how communities work with intermediary groups in preparing for communicating with policy-makers, regulators, and health authorities. A central underlying theme concerns the goodness of fit between toxics groups and the needs of communities. Readers are asked to consider: What might be missing? Might there be ways that these intermediary groups could do a better job? Will these groups solve the problems of the gaps between science and the community? As a reader, I came to this article with great interest because I work with many different community groups on urban environmental problems. Many of these groups include refugees and immigrants who are new to the United States and are unfamiliar with its regulatory rules and assumptions. Much of our community work has been funded by the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), under a program that calls for setting up environmental justice partnerships. These partnerships-there are now many around the country-for the most part do not include entities like the intermediaries described in this article. Certainly the funding does not stipulate that such groups 103
An intriguing paradox exists in our society with regard to personal change. On the one hand, we s... more An intriguing paradox exists in our society with regard to personal change. On the one hand, we seem to believe that people can change and even (in the case of objectionable or negative behavior) have a responsibility to change. Enormous effort in our society is devoted to the task of bringing about change in the self and others. On the other hand, we often seem to assume that change—despite its being heralded as an admirable goal—is not really possible and cannot occur. From the personologist to the ordinary citizen, people warn of the futility of pinning hopes on bringing about change in persons.
In an intriguing cartoon, the cartoonist and social commentator Jules Feiffer (1982) focuses on t... more In an intriguing cartoon, the cartoonist and social commentator Jules Feiffer (1982) focuses on two lovers and their concerns with the possibility that the other will change, or fail to change, at various points during their relationship. In the cartoon, one of the lovers says that in the year they were together they talked a lot about change. Initially they begged each other not to change. At various points they said to each other “Why won’t you change?” and “You’ll never change!” and still later, an accusing “You have changed!” when the other behaved in some undesirable way. The sequence ends with the lovers encountering each other on the street a year after they broke up and barely recognizing each other because they had changed so much. This dialogue in which people are preoccupied with change strikes us as amusing but also as familiar in certain respects.
Just as everyday social perceivers show a marked interest in change, so too do researchers in the... more Just as everyday social perceivers show a marked interest in change, so too do researchers in the social sciences. The pervasiveness of this professional interest in change can be seen in any number of ways. It is apparent, for example, in the range of topics that have been targets of change research. From television viewing habits to sexual practices, from political views to leisure activities, from the problem of child abuse to the problems of old age, few aspects of personal and social life have been untouched by attempts on the part of researchers to study change. Researchers have sought to assemble information capable of providing answers to the questions of change: Are certain practices becoming more common or less? In certain areas are things improving or deteriorating? Is life becoming better or worse? The breadth of the interest in change is also apparent in the wide variety of entities that have been examined for changes of various kinds. Change across the life span in the individual has been a focus of interest, but so has change across decades in large aggregates of individuals and societies as wholes. The investigation of change has sometimes been directed at the study of change in small groups but it has also involved the investigation of change in large-scale organizations.
Intuitive change judgments often arise in an after-the-fact fashion. Perceivers do not ordinarily... more Intuitive change judgments often arise in an after-the-fact fashion. Perceivers do not ordinarily start out expecting to assess change in the future and so proceed to gather information about events in a uniform manner over time in order to have appropriate information at hand when an occasion for assessing change arrives. On the contrary, it is typically not until some occasion calling for a change judgment occurs that an interest in gauging change in a particular area comes into play.
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Papers by Linda Silka