Collaborative Research Project Research Articles

SO MANY STAKEHOLDERS, SO MANY CONTRACTS!

Abstract Elder financial fraud is a growing challenge for adult protective services (APS), financial institutions, and state and federal law enforcement agencies that seek effective interventions to protect older adults from continued financial loss. One solution is temporary account holds that prevent suspicious withdrawals from an older or vulnerable adult’s account while investigation and additional interventions are put in place. With funding from the Administration for Community Living, this project seeks to understand the outcomes of temporary account holds on elder safety and financial autonomy in Minnesota. We first worked to improve communication between APS and other Minnesota state agencies to ensure that cases are properly referred and that protection activities are coordinated to achieve the best outcomes for the older adult. Like most collaborative research projects that involve university researchers and state agencies, significant legal agreements were necessary. Multiple subawards and cost share agreements were drafted, data use agreements were created, and IRB approvals from multiple entities were sought. In this presentation, Dr. DeLiema will share lessons learned about how researchers can better prepare for the administrative burden and delayed starts associated with completing these legal administrative processes. She will describe common areas of conflict and competing interests between state agencies and universities around data privacy and ownership, strategies for finding common ground, and possible workarounds to fulfill project aims. Dr. DeLiema will also highlight how to “pitch” a collaboration to community stakeholders using a value proposition that outlines the benefits of the project to the stakeholder.

Performing Yuánfèn: An Exploration of Untranslatable Words in the Lacunae Project

In this paper, we discuss a collaborative research project called Lacunae: Embodying the Untranslatable. The issue of untranslatability has been a much-discussed topic in translation studies, with recent debate linking it to performability. Although untranslatability has received some attention lately, the debate has been largely theoretical, confined to a textual conception of translation. In the study discussed in this article, we explored an applied approach to (un)translatability, working with/through the body in space, positing the body as the vehicle for deciphering the untranslatable. We draw on an embodied way of knowing as a phenomenological framework to construct knowledge as lived experience. The study aimed to investigate the lexical, intercultural, and aesthetic potential of performing untranslatability by exploring a series of untranslatable words through research-based theatre. The data generation process involved a retreat where nine researchers/artists/practitioners addressed the research question through practices like process drama, Butoh, physical theatre, improvisation, and visual arts on mixed media. In this paper, first, we introduce the theoretical framework and context of the study. Next, we illustrate the methodology, data analysis, and findings, with reference to one untranslatable word from the Chinese language, yuánfèn 缘分, loosely translated as ‘serendipity in relationships and life events’. We contemplate the practice in this workshop through a philosophical, pedagogical, and research-based lens. Finally, we contemplate future iterations of this project, reflecting on how performing yuánfèn could inform theatre-based research on migration and identity in education.

Digital worker inquiry and the critical potential of participatory worker data science for on‐demand platform workers

AbstractThe knowledge that workers have of the systems they work under is an outcome of strategic choices by platforms and by workers themselves. Based on three initiatives undertaken by food distribution workers in Scotland, this article explores the obstacles that platform workers face when conducting inquiries into their systems of control, and investigates the potential for workers to overcome these obstacles through collaborative research projects. By drawing analogies from the history of workers' inquiries into changing labour processes, the article evaluates these three initiatives in light of previous efforts by workers to monitor complex and concealed management structures. It offers a new concept of ‘worker data science’ to describe the techniques, skills and methods that workers require to arrive at answers to questions that emerge through their inquiries, and concludes that such purposive science has the potential to equip workers to support one another and to resist and challenge some of the commands and calculations that emerge from platforms' hidden algorithmic systems.

Navigating Everyday Multiculturalism in the Culture Chats Writing Program

Taking a grounded approach to multiculturalism and the lens of informal learning and community of practice, this study reports findings from a community-based collaborative research project that explored a group of immigrant women writers’ perceptions of and experiences with multiculturalism in a community writing workshop in Metro Vancouver, a highly multicultural and multilingual regional district in the Province of British Columbia. Drawing on observation, interviews, and written artifacts created by women writers regarding their experiences with and reflection on everyday multicultural encounters, we illustrate how learning possibilities and multilayered dimensions of multiculturalism unfolded within the quotidian intercultural setting of the writing workshop, and how the shared practices of writing and intercultural communication contributed to the construction of an ephemeral community of “hybrid knowing and knowledge.”

Les études italiennes en Pologne à la lumière d’une analyse bibliométrique des publications des années 2000 à 2020

The paper off ers an analysis of the complete body of research writings produced between 2000 and 2020 by all Polish Italian Studies scholars currently affiliated with university faculties and departments of the two major disciplines of modern philology: linguistics and literary studies. The argument is based on the bibliometric data compiled as part of the research project “Bibliography of Italian Studies in Poland: Digital Repository, Text Digitization, Bibliometrics,” under which 2716 publications authored by 139 scholars from 19 Polish research institutions were analysed. The statistics presented in the paper cover the type of research publication, language, place of publication, the author’s affiliation relative to the place of publication and the number of authors. Our findings indicate that Polish Italian Studies scholars mainly choose to publish chapters in collected volumes (mostly conference proceedings), with their contributions being single-authored and written in Italian (meaning that their research is largely geared to an Italian-speaking readership, and collaborative research projects are very rare). Their research papers were as a rule published in Polish journals, often those published by university faculties, and the internationalisation of research (publishing in languages other than Polish) was only apparent. Slow changes in publishing practices have been observable in recent years as a consequence of the guidelines of the Ministry of Education and Science on the assessment of research performance and the promotion of publication in foreign journals and publishing houses.

Developing critical literacy: An urgent goal

Due to the recent changes in higher education, including a major shift to online learning and the reform of education, critical literacy skills of today’s generation of college students face the peril of an increasing decline. All students, developmental and non-developmental in online and face-to-face environments, need the well-organized, systemic effort of college educators to enhance students’ critical literacy, including critical thinking, reading, writing, and research skills taught in an integrated manner. To promote postsecondary critical literacy, the Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network and centers for teaching and learning (CTLs) can expand collaborations with existing “writing across the curriculum and in disciplines” units by incorporating a “reading across the curriculum and in disciplines” component. They can also support undergraduate and graduate curriculum rooted in this integrated concept. CTLs and the POD Network can advance collaborative pedagogical and research projects focused on integrated critical thinking, reading, writing, and research skills. Such projects would involve writing and reading faculty, instructors in various disciplinary areas, librarians, and external partners.

Elevating Student Voices and Addressing Their Needs: Using Youth Participatory Action Research to Improve School Climate During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic and shifts to virtual learning drastically altered school environments, often leaving students without a say in the many changes happening in their lives. To understand how diverse adolescents experienced their school’s climate during the COVID-19 pandemic and elevate youth voice in school decisions, we conducted a youth-participatory action research project in collaboration with a Title 1 middle school in California. Fourteen students participated in this YPAR study—mostly students of color. This mixed-methods study utilized both qualitative and quantitative data. Qualitative sources included meeting transcripts and chat logs, field-notes, and responses to open-ended survey questions, all of which were coded inductively. Quantitative data sources included pre- and post-surveys on students’ feelings of belonging, mattering, empowerment, and perceptions of school climate, which were compared via paired sample t-tests. Students sought to improve one of the few-shared experiences of school during the pandemic, the school lunch, and showed increased feelings of empowerment and mattering over the course of the project. These findings provide insight into students’ experiences of school climate during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as offer implications for both practitioners and researchers on the importance of including youth voice in the issues that impact their lives.

Promises and Pitfalls of Intersectional Politics: The Black Coalition for Rights in Brazil

Based on evidence collected in a collaborative research project, this article studies the Black Coalition for Rights created in Brazil in 2019. Compared to previous experiences of antiracist struggles in Brazil, the Coalition stands out for its decentralized organization, its ability to convey political content through adequate aesthetic forms, its capillarity in the domestic sphere, and its transnational articulations. Equally striking is its intersectional character understood as both the emphasis on the transversal character of racism and the stress of the interdependent character of social struggles against different forms of inequalities (with regard to gender, race, class, etc.). The Coalition has so far proven to be particularly successful in terms of its mobilization capacity, its public visibility, and its agenda-setting power. According to our preliminary findings, its success can be explained, to a great extent, by its ability to vocalize a broad set of political claims and, consequently, to fill the gap left by other civil society actors demobilized by the far right-wing backlash in Brazil and the pandemic. Since January 2023, in the context of a new progressive government, the Coalition has started facing difficulties in preserving its intersectional and socially encompassing character.

Teachers’ Commitment to Promoting Education for Sustainable Development: Outcomes of a Faculty Collaborative Action Research Project

The Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Working Group (consisting of teacher educators within the School of Education at The University of the West Indies, Mona Campus in Jamaica), conducted a collaborative action research project to infuse ESD skills, issues, perspectives, and values into six courses. The study explored students’ views on the role of teachers in promoting ESD, their personal commitment to ESD, and whether these views were influenced by the infusion process. The study involved 140 undergraduate and graduate students, comprising both pre-service and in-service teachers, and an instrument was developed to gather pre- and post-course responses to open-ended prompts. The results showed development in students’ awareness about their roles and personal commitment to ESD after the infusion process. The findings indicate that teacher education programmes have the potential to promote sustainable development and empower teachers as change agents.

Ethical reflections on groundwater in contaminated areas

Groundwater science has a well-known relationship with social issues when dealing with risk assessment, yet there is a lack of case studies on the topic. Here, we present reflections for dealing with two ethical challenges: (i) the access and use of public domain monitoring data and (ii) the dissemination of scientific research data and its controversial character. The case study is a long-term collaborative research project aiming to bridge the social and natural sciences to tackle ethical questions and their implications for technical reporting and scientific production in a highly contaminated area situated in Portugal. The method included comprehensive interviews with hydrogeologists within the common project, the consulting of documents and the collaborative analysis of situations in online meetings between sociologists and hydrogeologists. The interviews and formal discussions were recorded, transcribed and analysed. In the two cases related to groundwater assessment in contaminated areas we found that researchers refer to emotions and moral dilemmas when they come into regular contact with social actors. Results also show that a different kind of knowledge is produced in these cases and point to three types of researchers’ positionality. The significance of this paper is to encourage reflection and action on ethical issues in the scientific community and specifically in geoethics. Bringing researchers together to share their practice will help to disentangle some of the negative emotions and moral dilemmas of scientific practice and increase the attention researchers pay to other people’s points of view and interests so as to improve the robustness of scientific data.

Create to Collaborate: using creative activity and participatory performance in online workshops to build collaborative research relationships

BackgroundCreative methods/practices have been highlighted as helpful to develop more collaborative, equitable research partnerships between researchers and communities/public-participants. We asked artist partners to design four online workshops, one on each research priority area: school environments and mental health; wellbeing within the Somali community; air pollution; health data. We aimed to understand whether creative processes can enable public-participants and researcher- participants to meet in a neutral space to discuss a research theme and begin to build collaborative relationships through more equal engagement. Ideas could be taken forwards with seed funding, providing opportunity for collaboration to continue beyond initial workshops.MethodsDifferent artist partners designed and facilitated four workshops. Evaluation data was collected on each workshop using participatory observation and fieldnotes, alongside chatlog data, and one-to-one interviews with 21 workshop participants, providing a contextually rich, comparative evaluation across four diverse workshops. Analysis was thematically driven.ResultsArtist partners took different approaches to designing workshops. The workshops began with introductory games and activities, and there was less emphasis on introductions of people’s roles, with the intention to avoid hierarchical dynamics. Whilst public-participants enjoyed this, some researchers found it challenging and reported confusions over their workshop roles. Disrupting usual practice and challenging norms was not always an easy experience. There were examples where emergent, co-created knowledge was enabled. However, it was more challenging to facilitate longer-term collaborative research projects from the workshops due to different stakeholder priorities, and lack of staff time/ less sense of ownership for further work.ConclusionsCreative activities can influence and impact the types of conversations between public-participants and researchers in a way that changes and challenges power dynamics, shifting towards public-participant driven discussion. Whilst deconstructing hierarchies is important, supporting researchers is key so that any discomfort can be productive and experienced as a vital part of co-production. Longer term collaborative research projects were limited, highlighting a need for facilitation beyond initial workshops, and a sense of ownership from workshop participants to take things forwards. Workshops like these may lend themselves well to research prioritisation. However, taking community-led ideas forwards within research funding landscapes remains challenging.

Developing a climate change inequality health impact assessment for health services.

To develop a Climate Change Inequality Health Impact Assessment (CCIHIA) framework for health services; to provide a systematic process for assessing potential unequal health impacts of climate change on vulnerable and marginalised populations and places; to support effective planning to address these impacts; and to develop contextually appropriate local strategies. Type of program: A collaborative interdisciplinary scoping research project involving two universities and two local health districts (LHDs) in New South Wales (NSW) to develop a CCIHIA framework. This work builds upon the health impact assessment (HIA) approach, which systematically assesses proposals' potential health and equity impacts by involving stakeholders in developing responses. The project involved four main activities: understanding stakeholder requirements; conceptualising climate change vulnerability; considering the role of health services; and integrating findings into a conceptual framework. Stakeholders identified key functions that should be addressed across the framing, process and utility of the CCIHIA framework. The resulting conceptual framework outlines contexts and social stratification, the differential impacts of climate change (including factors influencing unequal impacts) and the health system's position, and also identifies key potential points of intervention. The challenge of addressing the complexity of factors and resulting health impacts is reflected within the CCIHIA framework. While there are many intervention points within this framework for health services to address, many factors influencing unequal impacts are created outside the health sector's direct control. The framework's development process reflected the focus on collaboration and the interdisciplinary nature of climate change response. Ultimately, the CCIHIA framework is an assessment tool and an approach for prioritising inclusive, cross-cutting, multisector working, and problem-solving.

Profiling European citizen scientist: Evidence from Poland

This article investigates the profile of citizen scientists in Poland who actively participated in a project to inform the Polish government's strategic objectives for 2050. While citizen science, involving public collaboration in scientific research, has been extensively studied in various countries, a notable gap exists in understanding the characteristics of citizen scientists in Poland. Employing a methodology that integrates both qualitative and quantitative approaches, the study utilises a collaborative survey and online deliberations to gain insights into the profiles of Polish citizen scientists. The article's primary focus is on delineating the demographics of Polish citizen scientists and comparing them to the characteristics of their peers’ established profiles in other European countries. Intriguingly, our analysis reveals that the environment and green transition theme predominantly attracted male citizen scientists, deviating from prevailing literature that typically associates environmental citizen science with higher female involvement. Additionally, the key findings suggest a portrait of Polish citizen scientists as an older, educated cohort with a discernible concern for societal issues. The article emphasises the importance of these insights for shaping the landscape of citizen science in Poland and provides guidance for similar future initiatives.

The Language Quadriptych in content and language integrated learning: findings from a collaborative action research study

ABSTRACT In this study, we report the findings from a collaborative action research project carried out between three secondary school teachers (Biology, History, Literature) from a Spanish-English bilingual school in Argentina, and Author 1. The project emerged in response to the teachers’ interest in providing their learners with further opportunities to use English as an additional language in the content and language integrated learning (CLIL) classroom. The experience included a series of workshops on lesson planning and reflection around the Language Triptych (Coyle et al. 2010. CLIL: Content and Language Integrated Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Data were collected through classroom observations, teaching and learning artefacts, and interviews with the participating teachers. Data were analysed through qualitative content analysis. We particularly pay attention to how the participating teachers put forward what we shall call the ‘Language Quadriptych’ to account for their learners’ linguistic and cognitive needs and wants in relation reflecting on their learning, alongside constructing disciplinary knowledge in English.

SOFT SKILLS FOR THE SUCCESS OF INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

Research collaboration is expected to offer many advantages, including the pooling of ideas, the creation of a shared identity and efficiency in the production of resources. This viewpoint has led to the development of a Europe-wide project involving several partner universities over 9 years. Many researchers are joining forces to work on collaborative projects, in the hope of benefitting science and the common good. However, these projects can be hampered by a number of difficulties, including too little recognition of the importance of cross-disciplinary skills in bringing a group project to a successful conclusion. Our presentation will review the specific features of the collaborative research context and focus on the specific cross-disciplinary skills required with the objective to successfully complete collaborative research projects. Our methodology based on qualitative research will show our experience of several international collaborative projects, which we will supplement with a corpus of exchanges and interviews. Our findings from this project show that among the causes of the difficulties encountered, those relating to cross-disciplinary skills are central and among the skills required for collaborative research projects to run smoothly, our results highlight some of them. Our research shows the importance of the social link and soft skills in collaborative research projects and could be useful in future to those who want to start a new project and who may have underestimated the central importance of these soft skills.

Why is Citizen Science important for libraries?

Citizen science, as part of open science, holds significant importance for its participants, including citizen scientists and professional scientists who engage in collaborative scientific research (Booney et al., 2009). However, the benefits that organizers of citizen science gain are rarely emphasized. These organizers can include governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, corporations, universities (Walker et al., 2016), as well as institutions such as libraries. Citizen science is important for libraries because it increases civic and research interests, scientific publishing, and scientific progress (Trouille, Lintott, and Fortson, 2019). Additionally, it helps libraries attract new users, enhance social cohesion, and improve the perception of library's social value (Cigarini et al., 2021). With the help of citizen science, libraries can enrich their collections and make them more accessible (Ignat et al., 2018), and librarians can develop new competencies.The presentation aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the specific ways in which citizen science can benefit libraries and how libraries can effectively utilize citizen science to achieve their goals. Therefore, the benefits of citizen science for libraries will be discussed in detail, with examples and practical insights provided to illustrate their potential impact. The presentation will include an analysis and experience of the National and University Library in Zagreb with carrying out citizen science activities and the advantages this institution had for librarian education. It will highlight the essential role of libraries as implementers of citizen science activities and the impact of such activities on the positioning of libraries in local society and the scientific community.

Iingoma Zomzabalazo in Conversation: An Archival Engagement with Recordings of Liberation Songs

This text is a remix of an archival engagement with recordings/performances of 'freedom songs' or 'liberation songs' in a south or southern African context. The authors began this collaborative research project as part of a course in the Masters in History degree programme at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). The essay includes a re-edited, updated transcript of dialogue the authors shared along with two mix(tap)es they produced together. The conversation speaks of songs as archives, archives of song(s), and memory/ies pertaining to anti-Apartheid struggle and ongoing Fallism.

Timing of restoration of bowel continuity after decompressing stoma, in left-sided obstructive colon cancer: a nationwide retrospective cohort.

With the increasing use of decompressing stoma as a bridge to surgery for left-sided obstructive colon cancer (LSOCC), the timing of restoration of bowel continuity (ROBC) is a subject of debate. There is a lack of data on immediate ROBC during elective resection as an alternative for a 3-stage procedure. This study analysed if immediate ROBC during tumour resection is safe and of any benefit for patients who underwent decompressing stoma for LSOCC. In a Dutch nationwide collaborative research project, 3153 patients who underwent resection for LSOCC in 75 hospitals (2009-2016) were identified. Extensive data on disease and procedural characteristics, and outcomes was collected by local collaborators. For this analysis, 332 patients who underwent decompressing stoma followed by curative resection were selected. Immediate ROBC during tumour resection was compared to two no immediate ROBC groups, (1) tumour resection with primary anastomosis (PA) with leaving the decompressing stoma in situ, and (2) tumour resection without PA. Immediate ROBC was performed in 113 patients (34.0%) and no immediate ROBC in 219 patients [168 with PA (50.6%) and 51 patients without PA (15.4%)]. No differences at baseline between the groups were found for age, ASA score, cT, and cM. Major surgical complications (8.8% immediate ROBC vs. 4.8% PA with decompressing stoma and 7.8% no PA; P =0.37) and mortality (2.7% vs. 2.4% and 0%, respectively; P =0.52) were similar. Immediate ROBC resulted in a shorter time with a stoma (mean 41 vs. 240 and 314 days, respectively; P <0.001), and fewer permanent stomas (7% vs. 21% and 80%, respectively; P <0.001) as compared to PA with a decompressing stoma or no PA. After a decompressing stoma for LSOCC, immediate ROBC during elective resection appears safe, reduces the total time with a stoma and the risk of a permanent stoma.

Comments: The New “Gold Rush” Hunts for Subsurface Hydrogen

_ A gold strike was announced in late October. But in this case the gold was naturally occurring hydrogen in a former coal basin. Known as “white” or “gold” hydrogen, the reported discovery of naturally formed underground hydrogen was made in northeastern France’s Lorraine coal basin, a region between France and Germany. The last coal mine was shut down 20 years ago. Researchers at the French National Centre of Scientific Research (CNRS) were testing a probe designed to analyze gases dissolved in the water of deep underground rock formations, looking for methane, when they detected hydrogen concentrations at depths of 1100 m (14%) and 1250 m (20%). Their calculations estimated the deposits’ potential as between 6 and 250 million metric tons of hydrogen. This wasn’t their first discovery of underground hydrogen in the area. Philippe de Donato and Jacques Pironon made a similar finding “by chance” as part of the Regalor research project in collaboration with Française de l’Energie (FDE), an independent multienergy company, the University of Lorraine, and CNRS. FDE announced the discovery in a press release in May, saying the measurements of hydrogen were made in its previously drilled Folschviller wellsite in the carboniferous aquifer of the Lorraine basin. Launched in 2018, the project’s aim was to confirm an assessment carried out in 2012 by France’s IFPEN petroleum and new energies institute. After analyzing a sample of the soil under the basin, the institute concluded that it contained 370 billion m3 of methane, which represents 8 years of gas consumption in France. De Donato and Pironon said, “The work carried out within the framework of the Regalor project has made it possible to demonstrate that the fluids within the carboniferous formations of the Lorraine mining basin are very significantly enriched in hydrogen, with a measured concentration of 15% at 1093 m depth and estimated at 98% at 3000 m depth.” FDE said in May that it applied for an exclusive mining exploration permit for the exploration of natural hydrogen in the basin. The permit covers an area of 2254 km² in the Grand Est region. The company said a site for a pilot will be identified based on the results obtained and then built to initiate local production and recovery of natural hydrogen in the Grand Est Region. In its October investor update, FDE said measurements will be performed in three of its existing wells by the end of the year to determine the extent of the hydrogen deposit. Reservoirs have also been discovered in the US, Canada, Finland, the Philippines, Australia, Brazil, Oman, Turkey, and Mali. In Mali, the Bourakebougou water well, Bougou-1, was drilled in 1987 in the Taoudeni Basin (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2018.08.193), a large sedimentary system present mainly in Algeria, Mauritania, and Mali. The well was cemented after a gas explosion occurred during drilling operations at a measured depth of 112 m. Unplugged in 2011 for use as a pilot well for local hydrogen production, gas was reported comprising 98% hydrogen, 1% nitrogen, and 1% methane. Hydrogen was then produced as an energy resource to supply local electricity through a company named Petroma, renamed Hydroma. From 2017 to 2019, the company drilled 24 wells. Among the new breed of gold prospectors are several startup companies including Natural Hydrogen Energy, Koloma, Helios Aragon, Gold Hydrogen, HyTerra, and H2Au. Helios Aragon owns exploration permits in northern Spain’s Aragon region and will begin drilling the Monzon-2 appraisal well in 2024 at a cost of $12 million. Estimates for the well are 1.1 million tons of hydrogen, and the company claims the Monzon field holds 5 to 10 million tons within its permits and more than 100 million tons in the region. Natural Hydrogen Energy and HyTerra claim the “first wildcat well targeting natural hydrogen in Nebraska,” the Hoarty well at Project Geneva. HyTerra also holds leases in the Nemaha Ridge in Kansas. The cost advantages of subsurface hydrogen are frequently cited by the early prospectors. For example, the wells in Mali have the potential to generate hydrogen gas at a cost of 50 cents/kg (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2018.08.193), which is only one-tenth the cost of producing hydrogen via electrolysis using solar, wind, geothermal, or other renewable energy sources. If commercialization and economies of scale pan out, this may become the gold standard for hydrogen energy. For Further Reading The Curious Case of Geologic Hydrogen: Assessing its Potential as a Near-Term Clean Energy Source (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2022.01.005) by E.M. Yedinak, US Department of Energy, Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy. The Occurrence and Geoscience of Natural Hydrogen: A Comprehensive Review (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2020.103140) by V. Zgonnik, Natural Hydrogen Energy LLC.

Social imaginaries methods and socio-engineering competences in sustainable river management (a case study in the living lab Upper Citarum)

The Living Lab approach has become popular and developed in the past decade. It could provide a configuration to pursue a shared vision of integrated water resources management of the Citarum River in West Java - Indonesia. The multi-stakeholder situation and the growing recognition of interdependencies among stakeholders foster the complexity of addressing sustainable river management for the Upper Citarum River. To gain insights on essential competencies and adaptations in higher education curricula, the Environmental Engineering Department of the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering-ITB, Telkom University Indonesia, and Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands, joined hands in a collaborative research project. This study aims to develop a socio-engineering aspect for sustainable river water quality management in the Environmental Engineering Field and Curricula. The methods used are social imaginaries of Participatory Mapping and a Poetry Route that allowed the involved river bank communities to activate their role and take positions in the living lab. Institutional stakeholders, acting in a facilitating role, learned to gain and share information from and with the community. The result concludes that social imaginaries methods enable a new perspective in developing community-based programs and advocate further exploring the socio-engineering competencies of environmental professionals.