| 1. |
- Brauer, Rene, et al.
(författare)
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A wider research culture in peril: A reply to Thomas
- 2021
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Ingår i: Annals of Tourism Research. - : Elsevier BV. - 0160-7383 .- 1873-7722. ; 86
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper calls for greater rigor when it comes to issues relating to research around the ‘impact’ of research impact. It addresses some of its criticisms but also expands on the research program associated with the impact of tourism research. We conclude by addressing the fundamentality of the challenges posed by ‘research impact’. We argue they go to the very core of academic scholarship, as the commoditized neoliberal treatment of impact represents an existential challenge that goes beyond tourism research.
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| 2. |
- Brauer, Rene, et al.
(författare)
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How to write a REF impact case study? Critical discourse analysis of evidencing practices
- 2016
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Ingår i: “Making an impact: Creative constructive conversations” International Conference, 19-22 July 2016, School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This paper applies critical discourse analysis to scrutinize submissions to the “REF [Research Excellence Framework] 2014 Impact Case Study” platform. More specifically, it focuses on the rhetorical practices used within these submissions to evidence research impact as outlined by the Higher Education Institutions (HEI) within tourism studies. The evidencing practices used within the submissions to Panel 26 (Sport Science, Leisure and Tourism) included quantitative sources and measures (e.g. Google Scholar, citation counts, journal ranking scores, monetary value of research grants, value of policy investment, industry revenue figures, etc.) and implicated ‘high status’-end users (e.g. government bodies, the UN, industry, NGOs) as their main type of evidence. The evidencing of impact did not differ depending on whether the research was of quantitative or qualitative character, neither on the type of research impact claimed. Instead, the disciplining of the epistemic evidencing practices was enforced by the outlined guidelines for submission (verifiable evidence, word count, type of impact). Leaning on Collins and Evans’ (2007) notion of ‘expertise’ used to conceptualize evidencing practices, this paper discusses the implication of such evidencing for an evaluation practice that sets out to assess the quality of research impact. The rhetoric such evidencing evokes, however, is not necessary indicative of the impact claimed. Furthermore, the evidencing practices used within the REF marginalize so-called negative impacts (failures), despite their specific value for research and, consequently, for societal progress at large.
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| 3. |
- Brauer, Rene, et al.
(författare)
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The impact of tourism research
- 2019
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Ingår i: Annals of Tourism Research. - : Elsevier BV. - 0160-7383 .- 1873-7722. ; 77, s. 64-78
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The exceedingly competitive climate of academia has increased the emphasis on performance-based research funding. In this paper we evaluate the UK's government assessment of research impact and critically comment upon the implications for future research conduct. The key findings are as follows; firstly we provide a summary of UK tourism research impact. Secondly, we demonstrate the effect of the resulting significance gap, and comment upon the consequences of the Research Excellence Frameworks' (REF) research impact assessment in terms of a research culture change. Lastly, we proposition that the current assessment structure can have negative long-term consequences in that key issues facing tourism fall outside 'good' research impact.
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| 4. |
- Brauer, Rene, et al.
(författare)
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The value of the negative
- 2016
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Ingår i: 4S (Society for Social Studies of Science) / EASST (European Association for the Study of Science and Technology) Conference: “Science and Technology by Other Means”, Barcelona, Spain, 31 August–3 September 2016.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Assessing the value of research results is long-known to be a difficult task. The problem lies in distinguishing between positive and negative results, because this demarcation always depends upon the underlying value system. Regardless of this philosophical difficulty, research assessments largely focus on positive results (i.e. positive impacts of research). For example, UK's 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) reported that an "impressive [array of] impacts were found from research in all subjects" (REF 2015); accordingly, no negative impacts were reported. This effectively marginalises negative results in favour of positive results, inadvertently deeming them 'valueless'. As a marketing strategy for research, it is indeed a powerful approach. However, as an objective scientific standard to justify what research gets funded (or not), due to this one-sided focus, it is less useful. However, negative results can be cognitively and sociologically extremely beneficial (cf. Pinker 2002, Taleb 2014). The paper explores the construction of REF's impact assessment in the case of tourism studies. We show that the impact criteria not only shift the emphasis on positive results, but also emphasize economic gains and short-term impacts. By unpacking the underlying values implicit within the REF, we propose a new socio-material approach that does not marginalise the value of negative results. By using Collins and Evans' (2007) notion of 'interactional expertise', we argue that the underlying value problem can be addressed sociologically.
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