DESIGNING INTERDISCIPLINARY TEAMS
FOR TRANSDISCIPLINARY POLICY
Marybeth Shea and Cameron Mozafari
University of Maryland
Mid-Atlantic Chapter; Ecological Society of America, 2014
OVERVIEW
1.
Introduction
a.
b.
Ecology is interdisciplinary and rich for environmental policy
Concepts (incommensurability, stasis theory, transdisciplinariity)
2.
Case (dietary supplements team)
3.
Science communication intervention with stasis theory
a.
b.
4.
Stasis theory is intuitive and supports the scientific method
Status theory offers efficiencies in developing environmental policy
advisory documents
c. Humanists can be part of ecology deliberation and policy formation
Cautions
5.
Ecology example: a campus study forest
TAKE-AWAYS
• Stasis theory can be used as an organizing conceptual tool.
• Cooperative and organized question-asking practices calm
complex interdisciplinary science deliberations, yielding a
context to propel productive science policy work forward.
• Stasis theory helps arrange and structure a science policy
advisory document.
ECOLOGY
OFTEN MEANS POLICY CONTEXTS
•
Ecologists should consider stasis theory as a powerful tool in approaching team
science for environmental policy making.
•
In science teams organized to address environmental policy, stasis theory offers
a way around disciplinary or expert “silos,” making a path toward consensus by
all disciplines about what research finding can “speak to power.”
•
Stasis questions can help arrange and “sort” complex material arising from sub
disciplines in ecology for an environmental advisory document, creating both
synergies and efficiencies.
•
Stasis theory and science communication specialists can help ecological
scientists arrange knowledge for policy advisory documents.
•
Stasis theory is intuitive and compatible with scientific method, as well as
calming in high stakes policy advisory settings, including stakeholder views.
CONCEPTS
• Incommensurability – lack of a common measure
between disciplinary practices; contributes to disciplinary
“silos”
• Stasis theory – hierarchy of five lines of question to
interrogate a complex situation; stasis is a resting point in
a deliberative process, a point of equilibrium
• Transdisciplinarity – interdisciplinarity of scientists in
academia and the professions, but also actively seeking
stakeholder and community knowledge
CASE:
STALLED SCIENCE TEAM
Interdisciplinary team of government scientists charged
with writing a policy advisory document concerning the
safety of a plant-based dietary supplement
Biochemist
Toxicologists (2)
Animal scientist
Botanical anthropologist
Psychopharmacologist
ENTER:
SCIENCE COMMUNICATION SPECIALIST
Observes process; arranges and edits drafts underway by team;
identifies approaches to non expert audiences.
Notes collegial but intense and time-consuming interactions, like
• “Your ethnography?: interesting, but not useful for policy.”
• “We should begin with the liver toxicity studies because these
findings demonstrate potential harm to human health and use
hypothesis testing in large samples, with vetting statistics.”
• “Before we discuss experimental data, the bio-active molecules
and synthesis pathways must be identified and confirmed
during industrial processing.”
SIDE CONVERSATIONS WITH
SCIENCE COMMUNICATOR
In private, team members were more direct and exercised:
• “To not confirm the plant identify at the beginning as a
way to check product purity is irresponsible.”
• “The ethnographic information on traditional uses of
the plant material should be in a footnote only, leaving
room for more experimental data studies.”
• “We need clinical case studies regarding human effects
more than we need additional toxicology reports on rat
livers. I do not trust the meta-analysis used here.”
STASIS THEORY PROPOSED
Why?
•
To arrange and organize their knowledge
•
To foster comfort and calmness to the high stakes, hectic, and complex
situation that surround the policy question
What is stasis theory?
•
Five hierarchal lines of questioning from classical and contemporary
rhetorical theory used to resolve conflict; each line of question offers a
stasis or equilibrium point in the deliberation
Why? Stasis theory allows disciplinary knowledge and procedure to be
“binned” into conceptual containers that build a directional, process-based
collaborative model for science knowledge to enter policy
5 QUESTIONS SELF-“BIN” INTO
CONTAINERS
conjecture
definition
cause/
effect
value
policy
STASIS CATEGORIES TO ORGANIZE
CLIMATE CHANGE DISCUSSIONS
Consider statistics regarding the overall increase in temperature
of the Earth’s atmosphere.
“What is going on?”
(conjecture)
“What should we call this phenomenon?”
(definition)
“What are its causes and what will result from it?”
(cause/effect)
“What harm can the results pose?”
(value)
“What can, should, or must we do about it?”
(policy)
5 SELF-ASSIGNED BINS
DIVIDE AND PROPEL LABOR
conjecture
definition
cause/
effect
value
policy
Stasis “Bin”
Example Question
Scientist(s) Involved
Conjecture
Where does the supplement come
from? What exactly happens when the
supplement is ingested?
Vetting of the plant material
species by botanical
anthropologist; biochemical
pathway by biochemist
Definition
What are the component parts of the
supplement?
Biochemist first identifies the bioactive compounds, later attesting
to their integrity in manufacturing
process; work confirmed by
botanical anthropologist,
regarding known companion
compounds by plant species
Cause/Effect
What does the supplement do, and why Botanical anthropologist on
does it do this?
“history of use”:
psychopharmacologist for
biomedical pathways
Value
Are the effects of the supplement
harmful or benign?
Toxicologists (2) and animal
scientist who look at doses in
animal model studies
Policy
Can we say that it is safe to ingest, and
to what degree of certainty?
The summation document is
vetted by the regulatory
specialist.
DELIBERATION AND DRAFTING
FEEDBACK/EDITING OPPORTUNITY
conjecture
definition
cause/
effect
value
policy
Source ------------------------------------ Path ------------------------------------------- Goal


…
DISCUSSION?
Caveats:
• Time consuming
• Requires establishment of trust
• Face-to-face setting might be essential
• Back-work and side conversations with the
science communicator important
• Inclusion of non-science expertise, from the
humanities or stakeholder presence, can pose
threats to disciplinary authority
• Non expert audiences need accommodation –
teaching – about complexity
FATE:
URBAN (CAMPUS?) FOREST
Stasis “Bins”
Example Question
Scientist(s) Involved
Conjecture
Is the urban forest patch special?
Ought this forest patch of 12 acres be
preserved? Do the values embodied in
wild urban forest preclude
development? Is this campus forest a
classroom and laboratory?
Identification of forest type by
forester, as requested by
community (value arises here,
too, including opportunity costs
for development or other use) as
baseline and to identify needs.
Definition (s)
What are the component parts of the
forest? What abiotic and biotic
conditions need analysis and
definition? What study opportunities
does forest make possible?
Forester inventory work invites
collegial collaboration by soil
scientist, hydrologist, geologist;
botanist, zoologist, etc. Work can
be solo but is shared.
Cause/Effect
What does the forest do, as a system?
What are the effects that forest offers
to large systems? What happens if the
forest is made smaller or eliminated?
Ecologists, in collaboration with
definition-focused scientists,
confirm existence baseline
functions like wildlife habitat,
biological corridors, heat island
mitigation, carbon sequestration
and nutrient cycling, pollinator
sources, wild crop
relatives…leads to value
Value
What are the values or benefits
embodied in the forest’s existence?
What are the losses, if the forest is
developed? Can the losses be valued
economically? Pedagogically?
Hydrologists and watershed
specialists document the
ecosystem services of water
quality and pollution filtering…
Many other valuing exercises by
scientists, community members
and stakeolders…….
Policy
What ought we do? Should the forest
be preserved? Should the forest be
studied further to establish value?
What values would the science miss
but should be considered also?
Development of document:
statement, policy advisory
document, environmental impact
statement...or request for study
and research.
SOURCES
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