Notion Of Contribution Research Articles

From response and adaptation to learning, agency and contribution: making the theory of practice architectures dangerous

What is higher education praxis in a world beset by crises? Sjølie et al. (2020) explore this in relation to academics’ learning during the, using the theory of practice architectures, to highlight key responses and adaptations to the Coronavirus pandemic. I offer a re-reading of their cases of changing practice, challenging a sense of being accepting of, resigned to, and unfolding ‘under’ given circumstances. Instead, I highlight agentic, transformative praxis, where people act individually and collectively towards alternative futures. Drawing on Stetsenko’s transformative activist stance, I point to ways the theory of practice architectures might be put to work ‘dangerously’, as part of a struggle for a better world. Envisioning a reinvigoration of a politically charged theory of practice architectures, I argue the it offers particular value through the concept of learning as coming to practise differently, sharpened through a notion of contribution rather than participation.

Developing a conceptual evaluation framework for gender equality interventions in research and innovation

In this article, we discuss the development of a conceptual evaluation framework to design and assess gender equality interventions and their effects in research and innovation. The conceptual framework presented herewith embraces the complexity, gender-sensitive and theory-based evaluation approaches ensuring that design and evaluation of gender equality interventions consider the complex systems that constitute the context in which the interventions operate. The evaluation framework offers a non-linear concept, where the notion of contribution - not attribution - to achieve impact is central to the integration of team, organizational and system factors in policy design and evaluation. The paper opens the “black box” to address the question of how and why a policy intervention works and in which context and discusses a systematic process on how to approach the interwoven linkages between input, implementation and effects in gender equality interventions in research and innovation, accounting for context sensitivity and methodological pluralism. The evaluation framework may serve as reference for researchers, evaluators, policymakers and other stakeholders in designing and assessing gender equality interventions, and in further developing their evidence, and theoretical and methodological base.

IMPARTIAL OBSERVATION AND PARTIAL PARTICIPATION: Feminist Ethnography in Politically Charged Japan

ABSTRACT Using reflexive accounts from her own research, the author of this article discusses her struggles as a Japanese feminist anthropologist with what “contribution” actually means in different research contexts. The author compares her dissertation research on a feminist group with her ongoing research project on right-wing opponents of feminism. As a feminist, the author found it relatively easy to practice the idea of contribution with feminists as her research subjects. The situation was much more complex, however, when studying conservative opponents of feminism, whose views were directly oppositional to the author's views and to the human rights principles supported by the American Anthropological Association. By examining her fieldwork experiences on these two types of activists, the author discusses the possibilities and constraints of ethnographic practices such as participant observation, archival research, and contribution to the people anthropologists study and to feminism. The author also discusses the role that the internet is playing in current research contexts, and argues that the distinction between home and field is increasingly blurred. This study complicates the notion of “native anthropology,” contending that as the anthropologist engages deeply in politically charged situations in the field, the distinction of native versus other may no longer be accurate. By illustrating complexities surrounding the practice of fieldwork, the author complicates the notion of contribution, and shows that one possible way to grapple with the difficult question of what and to whom to contribute is to listen to diverse, complex voices, not only of feminists but also of their political opponents, antifeminist conservatives.