| 1. |
- Adolfsson, Caroline, et al.
(författare)
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Collaborative introspection as a methodological tool of reflexivity - from multidisciplinary to transdisciplinary co-production
- 2021
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Ingår i: International Transdisciplinarity Conference (ITD21), 13-17 Sept: Creating spaces and cultivating mindsets for learning and experimentation.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This paper explores reflexivity through "collaborative introspection" as a methodological tool for transcending a multidisciplinary dialogue and achieving transdisciplinary co-production of knowledge. Reflexivity is argued to be applicable for critically addressing assumptions and ideologies of the research team (Popa et al., 2015), joint problem framing (Pearce & Ejderyan, 2019), experimentation (Popa et al., 2015), or more generally as a focal area to be used for addressing challenges in transdisciplinary projects (Jahn, et al., 2012; Polk, 2015). However, discussions on reflexivity rarely place focus on how a reflexive dialogue can be used to gather empirical material in a collaborative manner, making use of the participating researchers’ subjectivity, personal experiences and understandings of a specific topic. The authors of this text are part of a transdisciplinary research team exploring the role of tourism in multicultural societies. The team involves researchers from the fields of design, marketing, tourism studies, human-computer interaction, and migration studies. In the project we collaborate with each other across disciplines in different case studies. However, we have experienced a tendency to fall back into our disciplinary silos, where we explore the same topic from our own disciplinary lenses. As an attempt to bring ourselves together we decided to go personal. Instead of looking at the role of tourism in multicultural societies from our disciplinary viewpoints, we dug into our memories of acting as tourists ourselves in a reflective session. More specifically, inspired by the tool Tell your story by means of an object (td-net, 2021), we shared and reflected upon our own tourism experiences through our core project concepts, which are diversity, inclusivity and integration. The dialogue that emerged forced us to focus on our research topic not as researchers who are expected to maintain objectivity but rather as individuals allowing ourselves to be subjective. This created a feeling of working ‘together’ instead of ‘with’ each other. The reflections created genuine and honest dialogue highlighting our national, cultural, gender and racial differences. The differences and similarities of our personal experiences depend on the social categories and identities that we are part of. Thus, by bringing our personal stories as empirical material, we created an opportunity to listen to each other beyond our disciplinary boundaries. It made us understand the layers of hierarchy, privilege and disadvantages that we face in our lives as individuals, and to understand instances of inclusion and exclusion in tourism at a deeper level. From our experience, we propose what we term "collaborative introspection" as a reflexive methodological tool for transdisciplinary research and practice. Collaborative introspection exercises challenge the commonly held idea of neutrality. It can be used as a tool for a transdisciplinary group to come together, transform thoughts and develop empathy and ethics in research. References: Jahn, T., Bergmann, M. & Keil, F. (2018). Transdisciplinarity: between mainstreaming and marginalization, Ecological Economics 79 Pearce, B. J., & Ejderyan, O. (2020). Joint problem framing as reflexive practice: honing a transdisciplinary skill. Sustainability science, 15(3), 683-698. Polk, M. (2015). Transdisciplinary co-production: Designing and testing a transdisciplinary research framework for societal problem solving. Futures, 65, 110-122. Popa, F., Guillermin, M., & Dedeurwaerdere, T. (2015). A pragmatist approach to transdisciplinarity in sustainability research: From complex systems theory to reflexive science. Futures, 65, 45-56. Td-net (2021, April 7). Tell your Story by Means of an Object. Retrieved from: https://naturalsciences.ch/co-producing-knowledge-explained/methods/td-net_toolbox/_tell_your_story_by_means_of_an_object_
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| 2. |
- Jernsand, Eva Maria, 1967, et al.
(författare)
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Small but diverse: the role of urban and rural communities in place-based diversity and inclusiveness
- 2019
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Ingår i: Mistra Urban Futures annual international conference Realising just cities - lessons, impacts and outcomes, 15 October 2019, Sheffield, UK.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The workshop will focus on the roles of networks, institutions and projects in urban and rural communities in generating diversity and inclusiveness. There will be three presentations on cases in different countries, focussed on impacts, challenges and opportunities of different types of initiatives. This will be followed by generating shared knowledge with participants in the session, through workshop activities. Leader: Eva-Maria Jernsand and Emma Björner
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| 3. |
- Kotze, Shelley, 1986, et al.
(författare)
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Double jeopardy within Swedish integration: Using South–North collaborations to explore the role of gender within transdisciplinary integration projects
- 2019
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Ingår i: International Transdisciplinarity Conference 2019: “Joining Forces for Change”, TD-Net – Network for Transdisciplinary Research / Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences, 10–13 September 2019, Gothenburg, Sweden.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Sweden is now a highly multicultural society, and as such is dealing with a multiplicity of integration issues. Accordingly, approaches to integration must also be multifaceted in their nature, conducted by transdisciplinary teams within a diverse range of projects. The current approach is to integrate immigrants into the labour market, for which a lauded policy has been implemented (MIPEX). However, when looking at outcomes, the OECD data (2013) is placing Sweden at the bottom of its ranking, with 57% of 15-74-year-olds born outside of Sweden in employment, compared to 67% of native-born Swedes. A possible reason for the gap is the relatively high proportion of native-born women in employment. But, this does not explain why immigrant women’s levels of employment are consistently 10% lower than immigrant men’s. This creates a gender gap between immigrant men and women, and a gap between native-born and immigrant women. As such, immigrant women are experiencing a double-jeopardy in labour-market integration, both as women and as immigrants. Studies exploring instances of the double-jeopardy problem have been conducted in the US (De Jong et al 2001), Canada (Boyd 1984), Australia (Foroutan 2008) and Israel (Reijman & Semyonov 1997). However, this research is still considered novel as it utilises transdisciplinarity to explore the ways in which gender is being used to inform the process of integration. Drawing on the conceptualisation of transdisciplinarity from Zurich 2000, this research draws from a diversity of different projects and approaches to address the real-world problem of double jeopardy experienced by immigrant women. It does so by exploring the experiences and reflections from academics and researchers; government employees; sustainability strategists; social entrepreneurs and NGO volunteer and staff. The projects led by these actors are linked by the aim of providing social integration and the use of the concept of gender in doing so, albeit some more explicitly than others. This presentation explores how the hypothesis of double jeopardy plays out in practice. The aim of our research is to understand the ways in which a transdiciplinarity of actors apply the concept of gender within labour market integration and how this affects tangible outcomes for women. This has been undertaken through a South–North collaboration, using a Swedish-Kenyan collaboration programme within Mistra Urban Futures – SKILLs, aiming towards sustainable urban development. Our research applies a gender analysis of local case studies from impoverished areas of Gothenburg. The discussion is informed by challenges (and solutions) identified in Kisumu (Kenya) and provides a set of co-produced recommendations. The following research questions are pursued: 1. How does labour-market integration consider and use the concept of gender? 2. What effect(s) does the use of gender have upon the outcomes for women within labour-market integration projects? 3. How can the use of the concept of gender be improved within labour-market integration to provide outcomes for women that are equal, fair and sustainable? Initial findings suggest that gender as a concept is experienced differently by immigrant women and Swedish women. In questioning how women from the Global South experience integration projects in the context of the Global North, the collaboration has identified the following aspects: agency; choice of approach; cultural awareness; role modelling; stereotyping and; tokenism – within transdisciplinary projects from both research sites. With these challenges in mind, some integration projects may prove problematic at best and unsuccessful at worst because of this under-researched dimension.
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| 4. |
- Kotze, Shelley, 1986, et al.
(författare)
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Using South-North collaborations to explore the role of gender within immigrant integration projects
- 2019
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Ingår i: 2019 RINGS Conference: “Genders and Feminisms in a Polarised World – Sustainability, Futures and Utopias”, The International Research Association of Institutions of Advanced Gender Studies / Tallinn University – Gender Studies Research Group, 2–4 October 2019, Tallinn, Estonia.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- One of Sweden’s current predicaments is that it is a highly multicultural society in a European context, facing a crisis through the vulnerability and anxieties relating to the increasing immigrant populations being closely related to an increasing polarisation. In a polarised society, gender is at risk of again becoming the invisible “third” face of policies trying to facilitate migration, overwhelmed by the complexity and jeopardies of integration and disintegration, homogeneity and diversity, equality and inequality, inclusion and exclusion. Sweden has developed a lauded policy, most particularly within the formal opportunities offered to immigrants when accessing the labour-market (MIPEX). However, the index does not measure the outcomes of such policy. The OECD data (2013) is placing Sweden at the bottom of its ranking, as it has the largest gap, in levels of employment between native-born Swedes and those born outside of Sweden. Possible reasoning for the gap is the relatively high proportion of native-born women in employment. When immigrant employment numbers are explored along gendered lines immigrant women’s levels of employment are consistently 10% lower than those of immigrant men. This not only creates a gender gap between immigrant men and women, but also a gap between native-born and immigrant women. As such, immigrant women are experiencing a double-jeopardy in labour-market integration, both as women and as immigrants. Therefore, we ask if intersectional actors are taken into account in designing policies; how they reflect the differences of immigrant women trying to integrate; and how can immigrant women change Swedish society and its labour force? This presentation explores how the hypothesis of double-jeopardy plays out in practice. The aim of our research is to understand the ways in which different approaches to labour-market integration apply the concept of gender, and how this affects the tangible and sustainable outcomes for the women involved. This will be undertaken through a South–North collaboration, using a Swedish-Kenyan collaboration programme within Mistra Urban Futures – SKILLs, aiming towards sustainable urban development. Drawing upon experiences and reflections from works of academics, researchers and NGOs, our research applies a gender analysis of local case studies from impoverished areas of Gothenburg. The discussion is informed by challenges (and solutions) identified in Kisumu, and provides a set of co-produced recommendations. Initial findings suggest that gender as a concept is experienced differently by immigrant women and Swedish women. In questioning how women from the Global South experience integration projects in the context of the Global North we attempt to initiate discussion how labour-market integration can produce more tangible, sustainable and equitable outcomes for immigrant women.
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| 5. |
- Kraff, Helena, 1983, et al.
(författare)
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Initial involvement of stakeholders in transdisciplinary projects - exploring issues of expectations, roles and inclusion
- 2019
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Ingår i: International Transdisciplinarity Conference 2019 - Joining forces for change, Gothenburg 10-13 September.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This paper identifies complexities of transdisciplinary research, focusing on the initial involvement of stakeholders early on in the process, and the pressures that highly collaborative environments give rise to. The initiation and launch of a transdisciplinary project exploring the role of tourism in multicultural societies serves as an illustrative example of these pressures. The combination of two fields, tourism and migration studies, which are normally situated far apart from each other, implies a need for a highly diversified constellation of project actors. This, and the aim of transdisciplinary research to be transformative, raise expectations and create tensions between the involved public, private, civil and academic actors. The purpose of this paper is to identify central complexities and tensions in the initial stages of projects that hinder prosperous, functional and robust collaboration. Challenges in transdisciplinary projects are to a large extent closely connected the specificity of the particular context and actor constellation. However, previous research, the empirical example, and the authors experience of engaging in such projects in numerous settings, illustrate how issues of expectations, language, roles, inclusion and exclusion, agency and power dynamics tend to emerge, although in different forms, independent of project type. Participatory observations during the project launch of the empirical example, where 35 stakeholders participated, show how participants saw opportunities in experimenting with the intersection between tourism and multiculturalism and envisaged synergy effects. However, the multidimensional nature of both concepts presented challenges in finding a common understanding and drawing meaning. This therefore meant that expectations on the outcome of the project varied greatly, ranging from highly academic, which can influence a broader audience, to localized practical results, such as products, tools and methods for inclusion and successful development. The large number of stakeholders also meant that expectations exceeded the range of case studies, as well as organisations and individuals possible to involve and consider. Extreme efforts would need to be taken to keep contact with all proposed partners. This connects to the language barrier that derives in collaborative projects, where actors find it hard to understand each other’s disciplinary expressions. During the launch, issues of language also emerged in connection to its international and multicultural nature, which exemplified how language preludes notions of inclusion and exclusion. The launch was held in Swedish since all present public and private partners were Swedish. This did however exclude one of the international researchers in the project from most parts of the presentations and discussions. Also, concerns were raised that an important stakeholder group, newly arrived immigrants, whom may have difficulties with both Swedish and English, were fully excluded from the launch. Research is traditionally the responsibility of universities and hence, many stakeholders coming into transdisciplinary projects experience role confusion, where they are not clear on what they are expected to contribute with or deliver. Some stakeholders may also take passive roles and sit back, with expectations of a report once the project is finalized. To conclude, the multifaceted nature of transdisciplinary projects enables you to view issues from a multitude of perspectives, providing possibilities to reach desired outcomes relevant for all stakeholders. Having a project launch enables you to recognize the perspectives of stakeholders which often are overlooked. A launch is however not enough, and it is imperative to provide platforms to continue dialoguing on the pertinent issues and tensions that come to the surface during initial stages of a project.
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| 6. |
- Omondi, Lillian, et al.
(författare)
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Getting and Keeping a Foot in the Door: Strategies by Migrant and Informal Sector Women to Remain Relevant in the Labour Market
- 2019
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Ingår i: Research on Humanities and Social Sciences. - 2224-5766 .- 2225-0484. ; 9:22, s. 14-21
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 5 and 8 focus on gender equality; decent work and economic growth respectively. The achievement of these goals requires a realization that gender parity is significant to the growth of global economies, and that meaningful inclusion of women in the labour market is a major contributor to reducing the global gender gap. Over the years, there has been an increase in the participation of women in the labour market. Despite the various measures put in place, this inclusion continues to be hampered by structural and cultural factors. However stereotypic roles and responsibilities as well as systematic structural inequalities within the labour market continue to serve as barriers to optimal involvement and participation in gainful employment. This article seeks to explore these gender related inequalities that threaten to exacerbate women’s economic vulnerability and dependence for specific localized groups of women in Kenya and Sweden. Using a framework based on structure, culture and agency, the article illuminates how these women navigate challenges presented by the nature of the job, multiplicity of roles and language as an empowering tool. Key insights from the study established that the women in the different contexts experienced similar threats and used their agency to maneuver these so as to participate as effectively as they could in the labour market. The coping mechanisms employed by these women present opportunities for policy makers and advisors in both contexts to explore in the quest to improve women’s participation in the workforce.
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| 7. |
- Palmer, Henrietta, et al.
(författare)
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Clustering and assemblage building
- 2020
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Ingår i: Comparative Urban Research from Theory to Practice: Co-production for Sustainability. - Bristol, UK : Policy Press. - 9781447353126 ; , s. 89-112
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This chapter describes comparative knowledge production by way of bringing together already existing research financed by other means and local development projects within a defined area of research and intervention. The projects were all dealing with migration but based in different urban contexts, and they were brought together in a systematic way we call clustering. This methodology was developed through a joint venture of comparative knowledge production involving researchers, practitioners and civil society actors. Clustering represents a method for comparison and knowledge production across discrete research and development projects within a joint field or theme, but based in dissimilar societal contexts. Inspired by assemblage theory, relevant key questions were identified to guide the comparative work. This approach enabled participants to exchange and discuss experiences, build new knowledge and elaborate potentials across projects and localities without full understanding of the often very different background, context and dynamic of each project. The contribution lies primarily in the chapter's presentation of a methodology for knowledge exchange and building in transdisciplinary and translocal setting, without a budget to fund a rigorous and systematic comparison on the empirical level.
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