Category: knowledge

Seeing the world like Wikipedia – What you should know about how the world’s largest encyclopedia works.

Wikipedia has become focal point in the way in which information is accessed and communicated within modern societies. In this post, Zachary J. McDowell and Matthew A. Vetter discuss the principles that have enabled Wikipedia to assume this position an…

Q and A with Dr Dylan Mulvin on Proxies: The Cultural Work of Standing In

We speak to Dr Dylan Mulvin, Assistant Professor in LSE Department of Media and Communications, about his book Proxies: The Cultural Work of Standing In, which examines the ways in which proxies shape our lives, the histories of their production and ho…

Book Review: Inevitably Toxic: Historical Perspectives on Contamination, Exposure and Expertise edited by Brinda Sarathy, Vivien Hamilton and Janet Farrell Brodie

In Inevitably Toxic: Historical Perspectives on Contamination, Exposure and Expertise, editors Brinda Sarathy, Vivien Hamilton and Janet Farrell Brodie bring together contributors in a timely call to place ‘toxicity’ back at the centre of public health discussions, exploring different toxic landscapes in North America and Japan to denaturalise the presence of inorganic contaminants in an environment. Revealing toxicity as the outcome … Continued

When evidence does not matter – What Brazil teaches us about the fragility of evidence based policymaking

An underlying assumption of modern political states is that they are rational systems that ‘follow the science’ to achieve optimal outcomes for their citizens. Whilst COVID-19 continues to foreground the strengths and weaknesses of different national scientific advice systems, Flavia Donadelli draws on evidence from Brazilian policymaking to argue that evidence informed policymaking is a … Continued

Despite concerns, COVID-19 shows how social media has become an essential tool in the democratisation of knowledge

Social media has played a significant role in mediating the communication of information about COVID-19, although coverage of social media is more often than not negative. In this post, Ronnie Das and Wasim Ahmed, highlight some of the ways in which social media has become essential to societal responses to the crisis and how social … Continued

DMPonline at the University of Birmingham: the joys of a ‘tangible tool’ in a complex environment

Left to right: Georgina Hardy, Vicky Wallace, Judith Hegenbarth, James Barnett, Lynne Harris, Kam Bhurji
Data management planning, as we know, is a good thing; but the concepts around it can seem daunting for newcomers.  At University of Birmingh…

Beth Humphries shares how Bath Spa University uses DMPonline

Knowledge exchange 
DMPonline case study – Bath Spa University by Beth Humphries

Bath Spa University has research specialisms in social sciences, but also humanities and creative practice – areas where many researchers have not historically consi…

The fragmentation of federal expertise has enabled the politicisation of Covid-19 numbers in the USA

As in any emergency or disaster, institutional agreement over the statistics of the Covid-19 pandemic is incredibly important. During the crisis, President Trump has questioned federally requested research around the spread of the pandemic and the amount of equipment needed to tackle it. Philip Rocco writes on how Trump’s efforts to undermine a common understanding of … Continued

Knowing that and knowing how – Applying expertise to complex problems

Expertise is often understood in disciplinary terms, as the mastery of knowledge within a particular field of study. In this repost, Gabriele Bammer argues for the particular nature of expertise in research integration and implementation and suggests how this form of expertise is key to addressing the complex challenges currently facing society.  What is expertise … Continued