Transforming research
Research practices are fast evolving. The rise of interdisciplinarity, the popularity of co-produced research, the ever-increasing importance of impact and the decolonial turn present challenges to traditional approaches to research and provide innovative and pioneering new methods and theories with which to address the challenges of the 21st century.
With the creation of the Transforming Research section of the blog and the establishment of our new subject collection for books on Challenge-Led Research Practices, Bristol University Press aims to become a home for work that explores these new research practices. You can find out more about our titles in this area, and how to submit a book proposal, on our website.
Kate Pahl, co-author of the upcoming book ‘Collaborative Research in Theory and Practice: The Poetics of Letting Go’, reflects on the connected communities project and some of the lessons she learned that are essential to collaborative interdisciplinary work.…Read more
Peter Beresford, author of 'Social Policy First Hand', on why the govenrnment should be paying attention to user-led and co-produced research approaches. …Read more
Tina Haux, author of 'Dimensions of Impact in the Social Sciences', discusses her concerns about the rush to research the effect of COVID-19 and how we should be working with colleagues across the disciplines to establish what we can learn from previous crisis, health and otherwise.…Read more
Kat Smith, Justyna Bandola, Nasar Meer, Ellen Stewart and Richard Watermeyer, authors of 'The Impact Agenda', examine UK efforts to incentivise and measure research impact via REF and lay out their recommendations for a new research agenda in the UK.…Read more
Sue Cohen, a long time community development worker, reflects on her time working on co-produced research projects and the different opinions often held by academics and community practitioners.…Read more
Juan Tauri, Bristol University Press author and indigenous criminologist, examines the problems indigenous researchers face when dealing with ethics boards and points to solutions.…Read more
To what extent do collaborative practices present a changing setting for research? Bianca Vienni Baptista, researcher at the Transdisciplinary Lab at ETH Zurich, explores what factors help, or hinder, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research.…Read more
Philippa Grand, Publisher at Bristol University Press, explores interdisciplinarity, how it is changing university structures, research and teaching, and how publishing might adapt to support these new research practices.…Read more
On the publication of 'Comparative Urban Research from Theory to Practice: Co-Production for Sustainability', lead editor David Simon reflects on the value of ‘deep’ forms of participation in addressing urban sustainability and the innovative approach taken by Mistra Urban Futures based in Gothenburg, Sweden.…Read more
Kristen Mills, Jennifer Lawlor, Jennifer Neal, Zachary Neal, and Kathryn McAlindon explore how educators and policy makers conceptualise research in order to illuminate points of alignment and misalignment as well as future directions for bridging policy and practice. Their article 'What is research? Educators’ conceptions and alignment with United States federal policies', published in Evidence & Policy, has been awarded the 2019 Carol Weiss Prize.…Read more