Papers by Nadarajah Sriskandarajah
Action Learning and Action Research Journal , 2002
An academic group providing basic undergraduate courses in methods and project work was strengthe... more An academic group providing basic undergraduate courses in methods and project work was strengthened by new appointments and shifted from a teaching only to a teaching and research role. This was welcome, but led to internal tension and an unclear identity. A participatory process enabled new vision for the organisation to be set and an accurate and inclusive name being agreed upon. Challenges of working with competing interests within academia are identified and discussed.
Vietnam National University, 1996
World water policy, Jul 5, 2023
Routledge eBooks, Oct 5, 2015
Preface. Editors' Introduction: Why Action Research for Democracy? Part One: Renewal of Worki... more Preface. Editors' Introduction: Why Action Research for Democracy? Part One: Renewal of Working Life and Welfare Institutions Through Democratisation. Openings by Action Research and Interactive Research Introduction to Part One 1. Interactive Research: A Joint Learning Process with the Unions Maria Bennich, Lennart Svensson and Goran Brulin 2. Design as Democratic Process - and Implications for Innovation Bo Westerlund and Yngve Sundblad 3. Democratising Innovation Policy by Gender Scientific Participatory Research Malin Lindberg 4. Empowering Dialogues: A Way to Democratise Knowledge Production? Ann-Christine Larsson and Sofia Nordmark 5. New Forms of Public Participation: The Festival of Difference as Action Research on the Road to a More Inclusive Labour Market Ditte Tofteng and Mia Husted 6. Redefining Democratic Welfare - Openings and Future Orientations: Action Research in Danish Day Care Centres Annegrethe Ahrenkiel 7. Action Research with Teachers: Action and Critique in a Project on Multicultural Education Signe Hvid Thingstrup 8. Educational Action Research and the Development of Professional Teacher Knowledge Hilde Hiim Part Two: Action Research: Rethinking the Societal Role of Science: Democratisation, Sustainability and Historical Experience Introduction to Part Two 9. Can Action Research Strengthen Democratic Dimensions in Gender Mainstreaming Processes? Ewa Gunnarsson 10. Organising Research Institutions Through Action Research Jonas Egmose 11. Towards Democratic Scientific Inquiry?: Participatory Democracy, Philosophy of Science and the Future of Action Research Erik Lindhult 12. Artistic Sense in Action Research Birger Steen Nielsen and Kurt Aagaard Nielsen Postscript.
This book presents theoretical discussions and practical examples of Action Research from Scandin... more This book presents theoretical discussions and practical examples of Action Research from Scandinavia, Latin America and Africa, primarily dealing with how to combine nature conservation and manage ...
World water policy, May 1, 2023
Drought and elephants are interconnected factors that determine food security in the Limpopo Nati... more Drought and elephants are interconnected factors that determine food security in the Limpopo National Park (LNP) Multiple Use Zone (MUZ) communities. About 30.000 people inhabit the so called MUZ relying on rain fed agriculture for their livelihoods. The low and unpredictable rainfall pattern (320 to 450 mm year-1) under semi arid conditions, coupled with low input technology shape the main farming systems. Cropping in different locations, seeding at every rainfall event regardless of the season, mixed crops to ensure crop diversity and reduce crop failure risk are some of the adaptive strategies of MUZ communities to cope with recurrent drought events. The effectiveness of all the adopted strategies is further challenged by elephant invasion in the park setting, with consequent crop damage. This paper assesses how MUZ communities respond to drought and elephant pressure to overcome food insecurity. Participant observation, in-depth and semi-structured interviews, participatory mapping and a survey with 106 households were used to gather qualitative and quantitative data on socioeconomic and seasonal livelihoods variations, between February 2008 and July 2009. Results show a positive relationship between droughts and crop damaged by elephants. The number of elephant raids increases with intensity and severity of drought, up to five or more invasions per cropped area. As a consequence, 48.1% of households reduced the cropped area while 52% also decreased crop diversification, and therefore amplified their exposure to food insecurity due to the limited livelihood opportunities. The limited opportunities for diversifying MUZ livelihood and overcoming food insecurity call for urgent intervention to seek alternative Park management strategies. A systemic and action-oriented approach is proposed to work towards harmonizing people-wildlife coexistence.
World Water Policy
Groundwater contamination derived from human activities including farming is a serious problem th... more Groundwater contamination derived from human activities including farming is a serious problem threatening water security in the Northern Province (NP) of Sri Lanka. Gathering all existing research knowledge on the province's water resource base to create a digital repository is a key action in the 3‐year action research project on water security. Papers gathered in the repository showed that water quality, particularly salinity in groundwater and its contamination, was a prominent theme in research over the past two decades. Thus, the scope of this bibliometric study is restricted to published work on water quality pertaining to the North during 1969–2021. Publications listed in four electronic databases, namely, Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science, and Google Scholar yielded 118 scholarly publications. This paper provides an overview of the publication types and distribution, titles of journals and conferences, authorship, institutions, countries, themes, and keywords used. Final 2...
Oilseed rape is the main oil-bearing plant of moderate climate zones. The area sown with oilseed ... more Oilseed rape is the main oil-bearing plant of moderate climate zones. The area sown with oilseed rape is on a steady increase worldwide due to the rapidly growing demand for vegetable oil in food and other industries. Heavy and high quality oilseed rape yield can be produced only if the conditions for growing, development, wintering, nutrition, formation of yield structural elements that vary in relation to natural-climatic factors, soil peculiarities, agricultural practices used and growing technologies, are brought maximally close to optimal. Development of oilseed rape production for 2003-2010 with a view to increasing competitiveness of rapeseed and its products on the domestic and international markets is predicted taking into account the findings of the experiments conducted according to the methodologies approved by the methodological committees of the Lithuanian Institute of Agriculture and the Lithuanian University of Agriculture for 1990-2002 and having assessed the current situation on domestic and foreign markets, as well as oilseed rape production strengths and weaknesses, problems and factors limiting development of rapeseed growing and on the basis of the main provisions of the "Agricultural and Rural Development Strategy" and "Rural Support Foundation". Rape areas in Lithuania supposedly will increase up to 210000 ha and average rape yield-up to 2,6 t ha-1 until 2010. Winter and spring oilseed rape, agroclimatic resources, vegetable oil.
Systems thinking in practice (STiP) education is poorly institutionalised across the Higher Educa... more Systems thinking in practice (STiP) education is poorly institutionalised across the Higher Education (HE) sector though needs to contextualise issues and studies and recognise interconnections are much in evidence across many different sectors. This paper reports on the design and implementation of a course-based initiative for PhD students keen to incorporate systems approaches (systems theories and methodologies) into their research practice. This initiative is of particular relevance to societies like ISSS from the systems and/or cybernetics fields (here after cyber-systemics). The model that has been developed can be used as a ‘wrap-around’ to any conference offering where enhancement of STiP capabilities may be desired or warranted. The key elements of the learning system design are (i) a sponsoring host University able to offer credits for training; (ii) a process design based on systemic inquiry; (iii) pre and post-conference time dedicated to the participants framing of the...
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Papers by Nadarajah Sriskandarajah