Interdisciplinary Research Agenda Research Articles

Mainstreaming civic tech and citizen sensing: a research agenda on co-creation methods, data interfaces, and impact pathways

In this perspective article, we propose an interdisciplinary research agenda that addresses citizen science approaches embedded in civic tech initiatives and citizen sensing scenarios. The proposed agenda builds on the multi-level perspective framework (Geels, 2004; Geels, 2019) to inform research on how such ‘niche innovations’ like citizen sensing become mainstreamed in broader socio-technical systems and modes of governance. To support research across use case scenarios and make analyses more comparable internationally, we identify three core areas of interdisciplinary future research and practice development: 1) uses of co-creation methods to develop project objectives and align stakeholders; 2) designs of interfaces for gathering, communicating, and archiving civic data for different types of users; and 3) modeling impact pathways of individual projects that include civic tech activists and citizen scientists, academic researchers, journalists, and policymakers. For impact pathways, we highlight the importance of collaborations with data-driven approaches in journalism.

Research on coupled socio‐ecohydrological systems—implementing a highly integrative and interdisciplinary research agenda in the Doctoral School “Human River Systems in the 21st Century (HR21)”

AbstractThe access to an adequate quantity and quality of water is vital to sustain healthy ecosystems and human socioeconomic development. However, the shift from an agrarian, solar energy based to an industrialized, fossil fuel‐based socio‐metabolic regime has put natural water resources under stress and led to dramatic transformations of riverine landscapes in the Anthropocene. Thus, we need interdisciplinary research approaches that integrate the knowledge and methods from ecology, humanities, and engineering. The Doctoral School “Human River Systems in the 21st Century” (HR21) studies riverine landscapes as coupled socio‐ecohydrological systems (SEHS) within four research clusters, that is, connectivity, metabolism, vulnerability, and governance. HR21 analyzes the transformation processes and coevolution of nature and society in rivers and their response to future environmental, social, cultural, and economic drivers of change. HR21 aims to improve the understanding of the coupling of the socioeconomic, ecological, and hydrological systems within industrialized riverine landscapes to support their urgent, more sustainable transformation. To discuss how this agenda can be implemented, five different HR21 PhD projects are presented, clearly routed in one scientific domain, applying a combination of the research clusters and addressing various topics: (i) hydropower effects in high alpine river ecosystems, (ii) wastewater impacts on carbon storage and greenhouse gas fluxes in tropical wetlands, (iii) the nutrient retention and ecosystem service potential of floodplains in large river catchments, and the influence of hydrometeorological variables on (iv) the runoff response and on (v) the transit time distribution of runoff, both impacting water resource management at the basin level. These examples highlight how disciplinary PhD research can be framed within an interdisciplinary research agenda to coupled SEHS.

Consumer cynicism: Interdisciplinary hybrid review and research agenda

AbstractOver the years, consumers have been questioning the intentions and actions of firms, resulting in a cynical attitude and behaviour. Due to the severity of the outcomes that cynical consumers may display, reputed journals and prolific researchers have addressed the core issue in their own unique ways. However, no single study offers a uniform, comprehensive, and contemporary review of consumer cynicism literature. Thus, we use an interdisciplinary approach to study the literature spanning 47 years (1976–2022) on cynicism in consumer research, psychology, and organizational domains through a hybrid review involving bibliometric and systematic literature reviews. Following the SPAR‐4‐SLR protocol, this review shows the most cited and co‐cited articles, researchers, and keywords in cynicism research. We infer that the consumer cynicism construct draws heavily from the organizational behaviour area, possessing the potential to be correlated with, and extended to interdisciplinary research. Also, we offer an all‐inclusive model of the predictors and predictands of consumer cynicism based on the ADO‐TCM framework. We close this study with its academic contributions, practical implications, and future research directions using the ADO‐TCM framework.

Loss and Damage from Climate Change: Knowledge Gaps and Interdisciplinary Approaches

Loss and damage from climate change have risen to a prominent position on the international agenda. At COP27 in 2022, the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) ratified a decision to establish a loss and damage fund to compensate low- and middle-income countries that are suffering negative impacts from climate change. The fund is meant to address the Global Adaptation Gap, which describes the rising cost of adaptation needed to cope with climate change impacts due to delayed action to curb greenhouse gas emissions and remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. This essay highlights issues around loss and damage from climate change from a variety of natural and social science perspectives. From three months of discussions, an interdisciplinary perspective and research agenda on this topic have crystallised, which is outlined here. Given that the implementation of the loss and damage fund still needs negotiation and commitment from signatories to the UNFCCC, it is timely now to address some important knowledge gaps on how loss and damage can be measured, quantified, valued, understood, communicated, and adapted to. Hence, it is necessary to understand the complex interactions between people, politics, nature, and climate in this interdisciplinary context.

Degrowth vs. Green Growth. A Computational Review and Interdisciplinary Research Agenda

Degrowth vs. Green Growth. A Computational Review and Interdisciplinary Research Agenda

To boldly go where no one has gone before: a critical realist approach to space accounting

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how critical realism can be mobilised as a meta-theory, or philosophical under-labourer, for research on space accounting and how this may further inquiries into the known as well as the unknown implications of space exploration and commercialisation.Design/methodology/approachThis is a conceptual paper that applies critical realism to the field of space accounting using cost management in space contracts as an illustrative example.FindingsAdopting a naturalised version of critical realism that recognises the complex interplay between natural and social realities, the author nuances the distinction between intransitive and transitive objects of knowledge and advances a framework that may be used as a starting point for a transfactual mode of reasoning. The author then applies this mode of reasoning to the topic of cost management in the space sector and illustrates how it may enhance our insights into what causes cost overruns in space contracts.Research limitations/implicationsBy adopting a naturalised version of critical realism, the author establishes a philosophical framework that can support the broadly based, inter-disciplinary research agenda that has been envisaged for research on space accounting and possibly inform policy development.Originality/valueThis paper is the first to apply a critical realist perspective to space accounting and lays a philosophical foundation for future research on the topic.

The academic landscape of sustainability in management literature: Towards a more interdisciplinary research agenda

AbstractSustainability research is vast and complex, making it difficult to grasp the big picture. To help researchers understand the field better, we created a comprehensive knowledge map of sustainability in management literature by utilising citation‐based clustering and text mining techniques to analyse 25,737 sustainability‐related papers across 22 academic disciplines, as categorised by the Chartered Association of Business Schools (ABS)'s Academic Journal Guide. We identify 23 research streams, with the top three being corporate social responsibility, operations & supply chain and tourism. Each research stream has varying degrees of definition coverage, levels of analysis, levels of interdisciplinarity and connections to the 17 United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Goals #9, #10, #12 and #13 receive more attention than Goals #3, #14 and #15. Our findings suggest a need for more interdisciplinary collaboration between researchers, and we propose four research directions to achieve this.

The future of deaf tourism studies: An interdisciplinary research agenda

In this conceptual paper we aim to provide a critical interdisciplinary theorisation of deafness from phenomenological and post-phenomenological perspectives. We argue that in studies of tourists' embodied experiences, the sonorities of travel have been rarely explored. We suggest that a consideration of the role of sound, and by extension deafness, within tourism studies can lead to a more nuanced and critical approach to the multiplicity of sensory capabilities that are exercised in tourists' experiences of travel. We conclude with a proposed research agenda for deaf tourism studies that reconsiders epistemological and technological approaches. Overall, we seek to contribute to current debates in tourism predicated on understanding “deafnesses” across time and space.

Increased Utilization of Storm Surge Barriers: A Research Agenda on Estuary Impacts

AbstractRising coastal flood risk and recent disasters are driving interest in the construction of gated storm surge barriers worldwide, with current studies recommending barriers for at least 11 estuaries in the United States alone. Surge barriers partially block estuary‐ocean exchange with infrastructure across an estuary or its inlet and include gated areas that are closed only during flood events. They can alter the stratification and salt intrusion, change sedimentary systems, and curtail animal migration and ecosystem connectivity, with impacts growing larger with increasing gate closures. Existing barriers are being used with increasing frequency due to sea level rise. New barrier proposals typically come with maximum closure frequency recommendations, yet the future adherence to them is uncertain. Given that the broader environmental effects and coupled‐human dynamics of surge barriers are not well‐understood, we present an interdisciplinary research agenda for this increasingly prevalent modification to our coastal zone.

In Search of the Social in Psychological Capital: Integrating Psychological Capital into a Broader Capital Framework

During the past decade, a rich literature emerged focusing on “psychological capital,” a multidimensional concept encompassing self-efficacy, hope, optimism, and resilience. So far psychological capital has been predominantly studied in the areas of work and organizational psychology, management, and organizational behavior. This paper argues that (1) the relevance of psychological capital is much broader than assumed so far and (2) that not only the outcomes but also the (social) origins and sources of psychological capital need to be studied. More specifically, the key questions that we address in this paper concern (1) how the notion of psychological capital can be integrated into a broader capital framework that allows studying (the reproduction of) social inequalities, (2) what such integration adds to disciplines such as psychology and sociology, (3) and which avenues for further research can be derived from such framework? Informed by the work of Pierre Bourdieu, we argue that psychological capital is the missing link to develop a comprehensive framework for studying (the reproduction of) social inequalities. Based on our theory building, we develop an interdisciplinary research agenda.

Political Polarization during Extreme Events

This technical note calls for an interdisciplinary research agenda to study the intersection of policy problems and extreme events. We argue that extreme events can unveil chronic problems in societies such as political polarization. We used social media data following the 2014 Soma mining disaster in Turkey as an illustrative case study. Our findings indicate that polarized sense-making during and following extreme events can hinder the effectiveness of response and recovery operations. We conclude with some recommendations for using social media data during response operations to improve disaster communications in contexts characterized by high levels of political polarization.

Understanding the Digital Companions of Our Future Generation

The main protagonist in Kazuo Ishiguro’s latest novel is Klara, an artificial friend whose existential goal is to be a child’s companion. Some aspects of this fictional narrative have begun to gradually enter our daily lives. Products reminiscent of Klara are available abundantly on the market: smart toys, adaptive learning applications, and companion robots. Children can relate to these products and perform activities together with them. Preliminary research has shown fundamental differences between existing technologies and these emerging children’s digital companions. However, we still do not know much about their benefits and risks. This paper explores different and even contradicting perspectives on the phenomenon. We present the discussion from four perspectives - 1) temporality, 2) use, 3) trust and ethics, and 4) sociotechnical design - and conclude the paper with an agenda for interdisciplinary IS research. The agenda points to the need for a psychological, medical, engineering, and temporal research community to understand this emerging sociotechnical phenomenon and design its future for the better.

Respiratory psychophysiology and COVID-19: A research agenda

After multiple waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become clear that the impact of SARS-CoV-2 will carry on for years to come. Acutely infected patients show a broad range of disease severity, depending on virus variant, vaccination status, age and the presence of underlying medical and physical conditions, including obesity. Additionally, a large number of patients who have been infected with the virus present with post-COVID syndrome. In September 2020, the International Society for the Advancement of Respiratory Psychophysiology organized a virtual interest meeting on ‘Respiratory research in the age of COVID-19’, which aimed to discuss how research in respiratory psychophysiology could contribute to a better understanding of psychophysiological interactions in COVID-19. In the resulting current paper, we propose an interdisciplinary research agenda discussing selected research questions on acute and long-term neurobiological, physiological and psychological outcomes and mechanisms related to respiration and the airways in COVID-19, as well as research questions on comorbidity and potential treatment options, such as physical rehabilitation.

Incorporating history into disparities research: A model for interdisciplinary collaboration and trust building

AbstractBackgroundTrust and mistrust of the healthcare system by Black and African American individuals is often cited as a primary barrier to willingness to access healthcare and low representation in clinical research. The United States Public Health Service Syphilis Study at Tuskegee is most often cited as the sole reason for this mistrust, however similar and widespread injustices, as well as the history of segregated health systems particularly in the stroke belt, laid the foundation for current health and research inequities. Medical discourses and practices positioned the Black or African American body as “inferior” and created disparities in research, diagnostic practices, and service provision.MethodOur team collaborated with a historian of psychiatry and disability to document the historical factors that have created structural inequities in the South and beyond. The historian (KS) collected archival material related to Milledgeville Central State Hospital in Georgia including physical documents like annual reports, case studies, policies and procedures, and letters from patients. Annual reports which contained extensive diagnostic data were photocopied, computerized and analyzed to characterize patient diagnosis (mental, physical, age‐related), cause of death, and cost expended per patient, by race and gender.ResultsOur data documents the impact of segregated services, racist medical attitudes, abusive treatments, malpractices, physical labor exploitation, unlivable conditions, use of unapproved drugs, and involuntarily sterilizations in B/AA patients from 1956‐1970. Significant diagnostic disparities by race were obvious especially for “cerebral arteriosclerosis” and “schizophrenia”. Here we present data on first admissions diagnosis by age, gender, and race, as well as death rate and cause, and group level fiscal reports.ConclusionAn analysis of historical data demonstrates clear linkages with current issues and practices. Addressing structural racism in research, education and service provision requires an honest reckoning with past practices that persist today. We demonstrate the ways that scientific teams can work with trained historians to unpack the consequences of past policies and set out a method and agenda for collaborative interdisciplinary research moving forward.

Health economics of health justice partnerships: A rapid review of the economic returns to society of promoting access to legal advice.

Welfare legal problems and inadequate access to support services follow both the socioeconomic and the health inequalities gradients. Health Justice Partnership (HJP) is an international practitioner-led movement which brings together legal and healthcare professionals to address the root causes of ill health from negative social determinants. The aim of this paper was to identify the current evidence base for the cost-effectiveness of HJP or comparable welfare advice services. A rapid review format was used, with a literature search of PubMed, CINAHL, ASSIA, PsycINFO, Medline, Cochrane Library, Global Health and Web of Science identifying 496 articles. After removal of duplicates, 176 papers were screened on titles and abstracts, and 20 papers met the eligibility criteria. Following a full-text screening, a further 14 papers were excluded due to lack of economic evaluations. Excluded papers' reference lists were scanned, with a further 3 further papers identified which met the inclusion criteria. A final pool of nine studies were included in this review. Studies focused on the financial benefit to service users, with only three studies reporting on cost effectiveness of the interventions. Only one study reported on the economic impact of change of health in service users and one study reported on changes in health service use. This review highlights the current evidence gap in evaluating the cost-effectiveness of adequate access to free legal welfare advice and representation. We propose that an interdisciplinary research agenda between health economics and legal-health services is required to address this research gap.

Consolidating a research agenda for vaccine mandates

A workshop on mandatory vaccination was pitched to the World Public Health Congress in 2019 and the resultant special issue was pitched to Vaccine in 2020. During this project, the COVID-19 pandemic pushed vaccine policy to the forefront of global public health policy, and the imposition of vaccine mandates prompted a new wave of scholarship in the field. This introductory article employs the heuristic of Lasswell’s (1956) policy cycle to synthesise the findings of the articles in the special issue. It considers the temporal lifetime of mandates and highlights findings regarding: the emergence of mandates as a policy option, public support and policy instrument design, what matters in the implementation of mandates, and what we can learn from evaluating them. The second half of the paper categorizes the included papers in terms of what aspects of mandates they study and the methods they employ to do so, in order to formulate a guide for future researchers of vaccine mandates. Scholars study either speculative or existing mandates – research can address several stages of the policy cycle or just one of them, ranging from attitudinal research to implementation studies and impact studies. Historical and contextual studies that take deep dives into a particular mandate are a much needed resource for studying emerging mandates, too, and scoping and framework- building work will undoubtedly be valuable in understanding and appreciating the wealth of knowledge production in this growing field. This special issue can serve as a roadmap for a consolidation of this interdisciplinary research agenda, and provide a helpful resource for decisionmakers at this historical juncture.

Governing AI – attempting to herd cats? Introduction to the special issue on the Governance of Artificial Intelligence

ABSTRACT Artificial Intelligence raises new, distinct governance challenges, as well as familiar governance challenges in novel ways. The governance of AI, moreover, is not an issue of distant futures, it is well underway – and it has characteristics akin to ‘herding cats’ with a mind of their own. This essay introduces the contributions to the special issue, situating them in broader political and social science literatures. It then provides a sketch of an interdisciplinary research agenda. It highlights the limits of 'explainable AI', makes the case for considering AI ethics and AI governance simultaneously, identifies as an underappreciated risk 'system effects' that arise from the introduction of AI applications, and calls for policymakers to consider both the opportunities and the risks of AI. Focusing on the (ab)uses of AI, rather than the complex, rapidly changing and hard-to-predict technology as such, might provide a superior approach to governing AI.

Forward-looking impact assessment – An interdisciplinary systematic review and research agenda

New and established ventures are under increasing pressure to consider how their current actions impact our future world. Whilst many practitioners are paying greater attention to their future impact, most impact assessment research focuses on the retrospective measurement of impact. Limited studies have explored how impact assessment is used as a tool to forecast or predict the intended impact of organisational action. This study aims to overcome this gap by exploring forward-looking approaches to impact assessment. An interdisciplinary systematic review of the impact assessment literature was conducted to answer the question: “How and why do organisations utilise forward-looking, future-oriented approaches to impact assessment?“. The findings elaborate on the common research themes, challenges, and gaps in understanding forward-looking impact assessment. An integrated process model is developed to show the relationships between various antecedents, methods, and effects of forward-looking impact assessment. Based on the review, the paper puts forward a research agenda to provoke further inquiry on forward-looking, future-oriented approaches to impact assessments related to four research themes: uncertainty, values and assumptions, stakeholder cooperation, and learning. The study contributes to the impact assessment literature by providing an overview of how the current literature comprehends forward-looking approaches and insights into how a more holistic view of temporality in impact assessment can be developed.

Evolution of Interdisciplinary Approaches Among Research-Oriented Universities in Vietnam Toward a Modern Industrial Economy: Exploratory Study.

Vietnam's 2045 development plan requires thorough reforms in science and technology, which underlines the role of research-oriented universities in generating and transforming knowledge. Understanding the current research performance and productivity in Vietnam is important for exploiting future agendas. This study aims to explore the growth patterns and collaborations in the scientific publications of Vietnam. Data on documents in the Web of Science Core Collection database were searched and extracted to examine the research performance in Vietnam. Publication growth patterns in both quantity and quality were examined. The evolution of research disciplines and collaboration networks were also analyzed. Trends in the growth in the number of publications, citations, and average citations per publication between 1966 and 2020 were presented. Temporal tendencies of the 10 most productive research areas in each period were illustrated. VOSviewer software was used to analyze the discipline network, country network, and institution networks. The trends and the geographical distribution of the number of publications and citations were analyzed. A total of 62,752 documents in 8354 different sources from 1966 to 2020 were retrieved. A substantial growth was observed in the Vietnamese scientific output during this period, which was mainly research with international collaboration. Natural sciences such as mathematics, materials science, and physics were the top 3 most productive research fields during 1966-2020 in Vietnam, followed by experimental research fields such as multidisciplinary sciences, plant sciences, public, environmental, and occupational health. In 1966-2020, there was the emergence of multidisciplinary research-oriented universities in both public and private sectors along with a significant increase in the number of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary publications. Although the scientific quality has improved, these publications are still of mostly medium quality as they are concentrated in middle-ranking journals. Our study highlights the notable growth in research performance in terms of both quality and quantity in Vietnam from 1966 to 2020. Building multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research agenda, developing networks of local and international researchers for addressing specific local issues, improving the participation of private sectors, and developing science and technology mechanisms are critical for boosting the research productivity in Vietnam.

Business and Human Rights in Latin America: A Systematic Review of Scholarship

AbstractLatin America has traditionally been both an object of great interest to business and human rights (BHR) scholars and a source of important contributions to the discussion of the most pressing challenges in the field. This article is an attempt at a systematic review of the Latin American contributions to the BHR scholarship to date. It relies on systematic data collection and qualitative analysis of an original dataset of existing literature on BHR in the Latin American context, with the hope of providing a baseline assessment of the state of the field and contributing to building an interdisciplinary and diverse research agenda moving forward. Special focus is paid to how particular regional characteristics shape Latin American contributions. More broadly, the article offers an opportunity to reflect on the place of Global South perspectives in the development of the field.