Session Description: Integrating different ways of knowing can provide transformative insights into the complex problems that research teams often engage. But knowledge integration is hard! What does it even look like? What tangible steps can we take? These tools give us two snapshots. Be sure to bring your Field Notebook with you and pull up our growing inventory of tools presented in this series.
Tool 1: The Give & Take Matrix, presented by Sibylle Studer and Michael Stauffacher. The Give & Take Matrix charts knowledge sharing pairs between participants or parts of a research project. It aids knowledge integration by showing which pieces of knowledge can be shared between which subprojects. It can also aid conflict transformation by showing how everyone will contribute to the effort.
Presenters: Dr. Sibylle Studer is Head of Project Methods at the Network for Transdisciplinary Research (td-net), responsible for the td-net toolbox, and currently engaged in the development of the SHAPE-ID Toolkit (launch in June 21). Her background includes inter- and transdisciplinary research, policy studies, & evaluations with a focus on energy research and nonprofit management. Follow td-net @tdnetCH. Professor Michael Stauffacher holds a doctorate in sociology and co-directs the Transdisciplinarity Lab at ETH Zurich. Within the Swiss Academies, he is a member of the board of the "Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences" and sits on the steering committee of the Sustainability Research Initiative and on the Energy Commission. Follow him @Michael_Stauff.
Tool 2: Argument Standard Form, presented by Bethany Laursen. Argument Standard Form is a logically-ordered list of the main reasons (a.k.a. premises) to believe something (a.k.a. the conclusion) is true. Anyone’s perspective can contribute a premise or part of one, so the tool shows how different knowledges can be integrated through logic-based reasoning. It is also good for evaluating knowledge integration to see if it makes sense and includes all relevant perspectives
Presenter: Bethany K. Laursen is both an independent consultant with Laursen Evaluation & Design, LLC and Assistant Dean of the Graduate School at Michigan State University. She studies knowledge integration and tools that help us do it better. Bethany is a member of the Toolbox Dialogue Initiative. Follow her @bklaursen.