Category / Research themes

CEMP Research & Innovation bulletin & cluster meeting

Awarded & submitted bids, Funding opportunities

The updated CEMP bulletin is here: CEMP Cluster bulletin and agenda 4.7.13

The final CEMP cluster meeting of this academic year is on Thursday 11th July, in the CEMP office, from 10-12.

Please note it’s a game of two halves:

10-11: bulletin review (to include discussion around the new AHRC Collaborative Skills call, attended by Iain MacRury).

11-12: CEMP staff website development meeting 

And the ‘broken record’ says – all are very welcome to join us or if you spot something in the bulletin that takes your fancy or have a different idea for a project that CEMP can help set up, but can’t join the cluster, please email Julian. 

Do you have an interest in Digital Technology and its use in Business?

Research themes

The joint meeting between the Creative & Digital Economies Research Theme and the Entrepreneurship & Economic Growth Research Theme took place last week.  The small but focused group discussed strategies of moving forwards with the themes and ideas on how to bring people together.

The group decided that it need a central focus, and will use the recently signed Digital Manifesto as a way to bring people together for future meetings.  To read more about the Digital Manifesto please read Samantha Leahy-Harland’s post here (link).

For the next joint meeting brief presentations will be given to initiate a focussed action list.  So if you feel your area of research can benefit from speaking to other colleagues in areas such as social media and digital technology, and how businesses are using these emerging technologies come prepared to talk about possible collaboration projects and bids and your specific area of research.

Another link area is small local businesses, such as rural business or family run business.  Again if you feel you could benefit from shared knowledge and experience join us at our next meeting.  

It is hoped these actions can then be taken forward towards joint bids in areas such as Horizon 2020 (link), and to bring together like minded colleagues to share knowledge and experience.

If you would like to read a copy of the Digital Manifesto or want to discuss this further please get in touch via Nikki Gloyns ngloyns@bournemouth.ac.uk

The date of the next meeting is TBC likely to be in September.

Yawning Up-State Post-Visit Report Part 2 – Santander Travel Scholarship – Dr Simon Thompson

Awarded & submitted bids, Fusion, Post-award, REF Subjects, Research themes

Science Center, Bard College, Rhinebeck, New York State.

 

Bard College, Rhineback, New York State.

 

Circada.

 

L-R: Dr Andrew Gallup; Dr Simon Thompson.

 

Most people can relate to yawning as all of us have done this at some time, with some of us being prolific yawners. However, little is known about the reasons for us yawning or the mechanisms involved.

My work on the link between cortisol and yawning has been published and is gaining momentum in the scientific community with presentations at the First International Conference on Yawning in Paris in 2010 and a forthcoming symposium being planned by me at Bournemouth University.

My travel scholarship enabled me to visit key workers in the field in upstate New York and with affliations with Prinecton University and Bard College (see photos). This has been so successful that we envisgae research collaboration between BU and the USA. I was even able to meet with the assistant to the world famous Professor Oliver Sack’s to discuss my resaerch and to “put it on the map” in the neurological community!

A bonus of my trip was to encounter first hand an extremely rare circada that hatches in the region I visited only every 17 years! What a privilege!

I am most grateful to Santander for their generous support and I believe this trip will help me make significant steps forward in my clinical research i yanwing and multiple sclerosis at BU.

The ‘Clone Wars’: Episode 1 – The Rise of 3D Printing and the Implications for Intellectual Property

Training

Do you, or any of your colleagues / students want to find out more?

17 July 2013

Bournemouth University, Executive Business Centre, 89 Holdenhurst Road, Bournemouth BH8 8EB 

Arrival from 6pm for a 6:30pm start 

The Centre for Entrepreneurship together with the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy and Management (CIPPM) will present a series of workshops which will focus on 3D printing with particular focus on the Intellectual Property implications.  The workshops will be led by Dr. Dinusha Mendis, Co-Director of CIPPM.

This workshop will be based on Dr. Dinusha Mendis’s recently published paper on this topic and will provide an overview of the challenges to IP as a result of 3D printing. In looking to the future and in drawing parallels with the entertainment industry and the download culture, Dr. Mendis will consider whether any lessons can be learnt from the past and if so, how they can be applied to this new type of technology which will most certainly challenge IP laws.  The presentation will also suggest that rather than focusing on stringent IP laws the future lies in adopting new business models in adapting to this new technology.  In conclusion Dr. Mendis will present some thoughts for the future in taking this suggestion forward.

Workshop 2 and 3 will take place later in the year and will include a hands-on workshop with a 3D printer, and a round table discussion about the future of 3D printing. 

This is a free event for businesses, BU students, BU staff and BU Alumni. Refreshments will be provided.

To find out more or to book your place please visit http://bucfe.com/events/3d-printing-intellectual-property-law/

Flying through Mexico – a reconnaissance tour

Fusion

 

I visited Mexico for 2 weeks earlier this month (6-20 June) to assess the potential for future research collaboration and to establish links between Bournemouth University (BU) and Mexican organisations. As I have the role of School of Applied Sciences (ApSci) Academic Lead for Students Placements, one of my objectives was to find potential hosts for our students and also opportunities for staff and student exchange. The talks I gave (5 in total!) allowed me to disseminate some of the work I do, the wider teaching and research at ApSci and to promote BU overall. After the talks there was always a good interaction with students and staff and I think there is a good chance that this was the start of long-lasting partnerships between BU and at least some of the organisations I visited:

  • Instituto de Investigaciones Oceanologicas, Universidad Autonoma de Baja California, Ensenada – researchers from other departments and also from CICESE (Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education) also attended the talk, what was very good. Many thanks to Dr Amaia Ruiz de Alegria Arzaburu for organising everything. It was great to catch up with you and hopefully we will be doing something together soon.
  • Instituto de Ingenieria, Universidad National Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico City -attendance to the talk was very good and there was also an interview and material will be added to their website, so quite good dissemination. Dr Rodolfo Silva Casarin is a star, brilliant head of a very interesting group, it was great to have met him after so many emails we have exchanged in the recent past. Many thanks!
  • CINVESTAV (Center for Research and Advanced Studies), National Polytechnic Institute, Merida – here I had a closer contact with research conducted by staff and PhD students and also with coordinators of relevant programme, including some clear demonstration of will for visiting BU and start collaboration. Thanks to Dr Ismael Marino Tapia for the invitation and for being such a great host. Very interesting research are being conducted in CINVESTAV.
  • Laboratorio de Ingeniería y Procesos Costeros, Universidad National Autonoma de Mexico, Sisal – this people are so lucky, they have brand new facilities right at the beach, beautiful settings and they are building new labs, which I’m sure will host great quality research. The talk was well attended and hopefully we will be able to keep in touch with colleagues that were very interested in staff and student exchange. Many thanks to Dr Ernesto Tonatiuh Mendoza Ponce and Dr Cecilia Enriquez for the opportunity to visit your facilities – I look forward to working with you.
  • Instituto EPOMEX (Instituto de Ecología, Pesquerías y Oceanografía del Golfo de México), Universidad Autonoma de Campeche – Thanks to Dr Gregorio Posada Vanegas for introducing the research conducted at EPOMEX and for facilitating the contact with students and other staff. The interactions  after the talk were very informative and hopefully we will continue our collaboration in the future.

This was my first time in Mexico and I had the opportunity to see a bit of very different parts of the country, talk to researchers and students and learn about their work, culture and life style. I call it a tour because in two weeks I visited Ensenada in Baja California, Mexico City and a number of locations in the Yucatan Peninsula, including Merida, Sisal, Campeche and also part of the coast of Quintana Roo. So every other day I was packing and unpacking, which was very tiring. But all worth it for the people I met and the things I learned.

Many thanks to BU’s EUADS (EU Academic Development Scheme) funds for allowing me to engage in this reconnaissance tour.

I will keep you posted of further developments from this initiative.

Fusion supports Euro PR History Network advance

Delegates to the EPRHN Planning Meeting

With financial support from the Fusion Investment Fund, the European Public Relations History Network (EPRHN) held its first planning meeting at BU on Wednesday June 26.

The network was founded virtually in 2012 by Prof Tom Watson of the Media School and drew interest from 33 academics and practitioners in 11 European countries. It was approved.as a project by EUPRERA (Europe’s PR education and research association) in autumn last year.

Its aims are to develop and produce information about the history and historiography of public relations in Europe through the identification and formation of archives, transnational research, joint research bids and the production of publications in print and online formats.

The meeting of EPRHN’s core group brought seven historical researchers from Germany, Romania, Spain, Scotland, Turkey and Bournemouth. Fusion assisted their attendance through travel bursaries.

Among the actions to be progressed are a bid to the EU’s COST (Cooperation in Science and Technology) scheme, which was facilitated on Wednesday by Paul Lynch of RKE; a second edition of its Archives Record publication; and a panel session on ‘developing the history of European public relations’ at EUPRERA’s annual conference in October.

Prof Watson, who was supported by Dr Tasos Theofilou in the organisation of the meeting, said it had been highly productive. “There’s a limit to what we can achieve by email and Skype. The EPRHN made a big forward step because FIF helped bring key members together”. It will also assist Prof Watson and Dr Theofilou to fully launch the group at the October conference.

“At present, 13 countries are represented in the network. We hope to widen that base and engage many more historical researchers in its activities”, said Prof Watson.

For more information about EPRHN and BU’s contribution to the burgeoning field of PR history, go to: http://historyofpr.com.

CEMP Conversations this week and next

PG research

An extract from this morning’s conversation is here: CEMP conversation Tom Stacey

Tom Stacey shared an article about second language acquisition and related this to his own PHD research into coding as language acquisition.

He also talked about the practice-based element of his research, of which this robot is an example.             

Next week – on Friday 5th July, at 11.30 – 12.30, in the CEMP office, our final CEMP conversation of the academic year will take place.

We’ll be discussing two related items:

(1) Marketa Zezulkova’s book chapter on a holistic approach to media literacy education:  Marketa Book Chapter

(2) Richard Wallis’s recently published article, co-authored with David Buckingham, on the construction of media literacy within the policy context of the Communications Act: European Journal of Communication-2013-Wallis-0267323113483605

It should be a cracker, and,as always, all colleagues are very welcome to join us, in the current CEMP office, for the last time!

Papers from 19 countries at 4th PR history conference

Boston University (BU) speakers at IHPRC 2013

Aussie academics at IHPRC 2013

 

 

The fourth International History of Public Relations Conference, held at BU on June 24-25, attracted papers from 19 countries. Organised by the Institute for Media & Communication Research in The Media School, it covered topics as diverse as the Royal Family’s first PR adviser to PR in Kazakhstan, and publicity for the launch of Gone With The Wind in 1939.

Held at the Executive Business Centre, there were two strong themes: the historiography of public relations and historical aspects of the professionalisation of PR. They symbolised the conference’s development since 2010 from largely descriptive narratives to a more analytic, sometimes critical approach.

The conference welcomed the authors of five new or recent books and witnessed the launch of the first title in Routledge’s New Directions on Public Relations and Communication Research series which has been developed and edited by Dr Kevin Moloney of the Media School. The book, Public Relations and Nation Building: Influencing Israel, was written by Dr Margalit Toledano and Prof David McKie.

Prof Tom Watson gave the keynote presentation about the state of scholarship in public relations history. He called for historians to move away from “comfortable” topics to more critical investigation into the use and abuse of public relations.

The conference dinner was addressed by Bob (Robert S.) Leaf, a pioneers of international public relations in the 1960s to 1980s, when he was the international chairman of the leading public relations consultancy Burson-Marsteller. Mr Leaf recently published a memoir, The Art of Perception. Delegates also attended a “meet the editors” session which featured contributions on research and publishing by the editors of four major academic journals in the field.

Papers and presentations will be published on the conference website, http://historyofpr.com, in the late summer. Planning for the 2014 conference, which will be held at the EBC on July 2-3 next year, will start shortly.

Research Ethics: Insights from the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health and the Centre for Social Work, Sociology & Social Policy

PG research, Publishing, Research Ethics, Research Integritiy

Ethics contributions

Collage of research ethics contributions

Academics based in HSC have experience in a wide-range of research.  In the process of reflecting on all aspects of the research process several members of HSC have published about ethical issues that they have had to address in their own research.    This BU Blog highlights some of these key HCS papers which may help fellow academics and students across the globe address similar ethical questions.  HSC has a history of publishing on research ethics, Professor Emerita Immy Holloway wrote about the researcher who may have a dual role, or even conflicting role, as researcher and health care professional (1).  More recently, several midwifery researchers in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health wrote about the issues facing practitioners doing research in the field where they work, especially concerning the similarities and differences between professional ethics and research ethics (2-3).  Negotiating ethical paths cleaved by competing concerns between protecting research participants and over-managing the ethical process is tricky.

In her book Rainforest Asylum: The enduring legacy of colonial psychiatric care in Malaysia Dr. Ashencaen Crabtree in the Centre for Social Work, Sociology & Social Policy, addresses the problematic issue of gate-keepers in research together with the ethics of critical observation of abuse (potential or actual), as well as the ethics of advocating on behalf of research participants (4).

The fear that the ethical application process in the UK is becoming more and more cumbersome and bureaucratic has been widely recognised as highlighted by Prof. van Teijlingen and colleagues (5-6).

Research ethics review processes are also considered in terms of access to participants regarded as ‘vulnerable’ in a recently published paper by Dr. Ashencaen Crabtree (7) of ethnographers working in health settings who are seeking to understand the context of care and patient/service user experiences.  She concludes that paternalistic control of participation on the grounds of ethical protection of vulnerable people seriously disenfranchises potential participants in preventing them from being able to share their relevant, lived experiences as recipients of service provision.

Prof. van Teijlingen and BU Visiting Fellow Dr. Padam Simkhada highlighted that the social, cultural and economic contexts in which research is conducted often differ between developing and developed countries.  However they stress that researchers need to apply for research ethics approval to the relevant local authority, if national legislation requires one to do so (8).

A new and challenging area of research is the use of discussion boards as a source of research data.  In their paper Dr. Bond and BU colleagues discuss both practical and ethical dilemmas that arise in using such data (9). In earlier research, Prof. Parker of the Centre for Social Work, Sociology & Social Policy, highlighted some of the benefits and dangers of using email and the Internet for research as the potential for electronic media continues its rapid growth (10).

Obtaining informed consent is something that all researchers need to consider. However, in some research situations obtaining consent can be particularly challenging.  Prof. Hundley and colleagues discuss the ethical challenges involved in conducting a cluster randomised controlled trial, where consent needs to be considered at a number of levels (11).  In a second paper issues of consent during pregnancy, where there is the potential for harm to two participants, are considered (12).

In research into the implications of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 for social research, Prof. Parker explored the contested meanings and difficulties associated with informed consent in social research, highlighting some of the challenges raised by an almost unquestioned acceptance of biomedical research ethics in social research and questioning whether potential ‘harm’ is different in this context (13, 14). This research has led to further explorations of the potential for ethical covert research by Prof. Parker and Dr. Ashencaen Crabtree.

 

The way forward

There a plenty of challenges to research ethics in both the health and social care sectors.  Ethical considerations relate to technological developments such conducting research over the Internet or the analysis of tweets.  HSC staff will continue to publish on a range of moral dilemma as well as practical issues related to research ethics.  Moreover, academic from the two centres are planning a Masterclass on research ethics to be held in early 2014.

 

 

References

  1. Holloway, I., Wheeler, S. (1995) Ethical Issues in Qualitative Nursing Research, Nursing Ethics 2: 223-232.   Web address:  http://nej.sagepub.com/content/2/3/223.full.pdf+html
  2. Ryan, K., Brown, B., Wilkins, C., Taylor, A., Arnold, R., Angell, C., van Teijlingen, E. (2011) Which hat am I wearing today? Practicing midwives doing research, Evidence-Based Midwifery 9(1): 4-8.
  3. van Teijlingen, E.R., Cheyne, H.L. (2004) Ethics in midwifery research, RCM Midwives Journal 7 (5): 208-10.
  4. Ashencaen Crabtree, S. (2012) Rainforest Asylum: The enduring legacy of colonial psychiatric care in Malaysia, London: Whiting & Birch.
  5. van Teijlingen, E., Douglas, F., Torrance, N. (2008) Clinical governance and research ethics as barriers to UK low-risk population-based health research? BMC Public Health 8(396)                            Web address: www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1471-2458-8-396.pdf
  6. van Teijlingen, E. (2006) Reply to Robert Dingwall’s Plenary ‘Confronting the Anti-Democrats: The unethical Nature of Ethical Regulation in Social Science, MSo (Medical Sociology online) 1: 59-60  Web address:  www.medicalsociologyonline.org/archives/issue1/pdf/reply_rob.pdf
  7. Ashencaen Crabtree, S. (2013) Research ethics approval processes and the moral enterprise of ethnography. Ethics & Social Welfare. Advance Access: DOI:10.1080/17496535.2012.703683
  8. van Teijlingen E.R., Simkhada, P.P. (2012) Ethical approval in developing countries is not optional, Journal of Medical Ethics 38 :428-430.
  9. Bond, C.S,  Ahmed, O.H., Hind, M, Thomas, B., Hewitt-Taylor, J. (2013) The Conceptual and Practical Ethical Dilemmas of Using Health Discussion Board Posts as Research Data, Journal of Medical Internet Research 15(6):e112)  Web address: http://www.jmir.org/2013/6/e112/
  10. Parker, J.  (2008) Email, ethics and data collection in social work research: some reflections from a research project, Evidence & Policy: A Journal of Research, Debate & Practice, 4 (1): 75-83.
  11. Hundley, V, Cheyne, HC, Bland, JM, Styles, M, Barnett, CA.. (2010) So you want to conduct a cluster randomised controlled trial? Lessons from a national cluster trial of early labour, Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice 16: 632-638
  12. Helmreich, R.J., Hundley, V., Norman, A., Ighedosa, J., Chow, E. (2007) Research in pregnant women: the challenges of informed consent, Nursing for Women’s Health 11(6):  576-585.
  13. Parker, J., Penhale, B., Stanley, D., 2010. Problem or safeguard? Research ethics review in social care research and the Mental Capacity Act 2005. Social Care & Neurodisability, 1 (2): 22-32.
  14. Parker, J., Penhale, B., Stanley, D. (2011) Research ethics review: social care and social science research and the Mental Capacity Act 2005, Ethics & Social Welfare, 5(4): 380-400.

 

Vanora Hundley, Sara Ashencaen Crabtree, Jonathan Parker & Edwin van Teijlingen

 

 

FIF Networking visit to New Zealand

Funding opportunities, Fusion

My Fusion journey started well before the Fusion fund came into being. Medicine 2.0 logoI’ve attended several Medicine 2.0 conferences, increasing my network of people researching in a similar area to myself along the way.  Last year this led to an invitation to visit Prof John Sullivan at the University of Otago, New Zealand. The University of Otago, founded in 1869, is New Zealand’s oldest university.

My research interests are around the role of the Internet and Social Media in supporting people living with long term conditions, and the related implications for healthcare professionals’ practice and education. Prof Sullivan researches in the area of sport concussion, including projects examining the role of the world wide web (www) in facilitating concussion awareness.

I applied to the Staff Networking and Mobility strand for support to take up this invitation, and was awarded funds for a 2 week visit to explore potential collaboration in research and education initiatives.

While I was there I was invited to give a guest lecture, where I shared some recent research I have undertaken into the ethics of using online discussion boards as research data. I was lucky enough to meet other Otago academics with an interest in this, including Dr Lynley Anderson in the Bioethics Centre, and Dr Lisa Whitehead, the Director of the Centre for Postgraduate Nursing.

I had an inspiring fortnight, mainly at the Dunedin campus. The School of Physiotherapy were kind enough to give me office space and computer access during my stay.  The University of Otago has grown over the years and has a historic core, surrounded by a collection of buildings of various ages and styles. Prof Sullivan took me on a walk around the campus and told me something of its history.

University of Otago. Copyright C Bond
I also visited several local coffee shops, where a lot of networking meetings seem to happen. Prof David Baxter, the Dean, gave me an overview of the work of the School, and I discussed research into low back pain with Dr Ramakrishnan Mani, and use of the Internet in education with Dr Daniel Ribeiro.

I also visited the University of Otago’s Christchurch campus where Dr Whitehead is based.

The Centre for Postgraduate Nursing is located in the City Centre, and while there I took some time out to walk around the areas of the downtown area that have been opened to the public after the devastating earthquakes suffered by the city two years ago.

I’ve come back with ideas for two possible research projects that now need to be developed, and funding found.

If anyone would like to know more about my research, or to discuss the Staff Mobility and Networking fund, please email me (cbond)

 

CEMP Research & Innovation Funding Bulletin & Cluster Meeting

Funding opportunities

Here is the slightly late, but updated, CEMP Research and Innovation Funding Bulletin: CEMP Cluster bulletin and agenda 20.6.13

The next cluster meeting is on Thursday 27th June, 10-11.30 in the CEMP office and, as always, anyone interested in a funding opportunity in the bulletin or wanting to develop another idea for a CEMP project, is very welcome indeed.

Or if you are interested in discussing a project / funding call but cannot attend the meeting, please contact Julian McDougall.

 

Comment on BU Blog leads to academic publication

Guidance, PG research, Publishing

Authorship differs between disciplines

Paper by Hundley et al. published 2013

Last year Prof. Matthew Bennett1 raised some interesting issues about academic authorship on this award-winning BU Blog.  Authorship is an issue that many academic colleague see as challenging.   On September 27th, 2012 two of us replied to this blog by adding some of our own observations on the web. 2   Having penned our online comments we discussed the issue with BU Visiting Faculty Dr. Padam Simkhada Senior Lecturer in International Health at ScHARR, University of Sheffield (www.shef.ac.uk/scharr/sections/ph/staff/profiles/padamsimkhada).  Between the three of us we came to the conclusion that the issue of academic authorship can be very confusing as well as tricky.

 

We discussed a wide-range of issues around academic authorship, including who should be an author and who should not be so, the order of authors, and that there are different conventions between different academic disciplines.  Being academic we rapidly came to the conclusion that there was a paper in this.  We drafted our ideas, searched the literature for other discussions on authorship, general guidelines on authorship, etc.   We wrote the paper and submitted it to the academic journal Health Renaissance; an Open-Access journal, which is freely available world-wide.  The editor liked it and published our paper ‘Academic authorship: who, why and in what order?’ this month as a guest editorial. 3

 

 

We would like to highlight that there are two separate messages in the publication of this paper.  The first message is about academic scholarship; some of our colleagues may find the content of this paper is a useful guide in deciding authorship order, or at least in helping to open the debate about who should be included as co-author and who is not eligible.  The second message is more about academic citizenship, namely that messages on the BU Blog and even comments in reply to other people’s messages may contain useful information to the wider academic community and should be taken further.  Our message here is don’t see the BU Blog as an end point, see it as a stepping stone to the wider academic world!

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen*, Prof. Vanora Hundley* & Dr. Padam Simkhada**

* Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health, HSC, Bournemouth University

** ScHARR, The University of Sheffield

 

References:

1.      Bennett, M. (2012) What’s in a list?, BU Research Blog, http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2012/09/27/whats-in-a-list/?utm_source=digest&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily

 

2.      Hundley, V., van Teijlingen, E. (2012) Response to What’s in a list?, http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2012/09/27/whats-in-a-list/#comment-17234

 

3.      Hundley, V., van Teijlingen,      E., Simkhada, P. (2013) Academic authorship: who, why and in what order? Health Renaissance 11      (2):98-101  www.healthrenaissance.org.np/uploads/Download/vol-11-2/Page_99_101_Editorial.pdf

Joint research theme meeting – Creative & Digital Economy / Entrepreneurship & Economic Growth

Staff are invited to attend a ‘joint’ meeting of the Creative & Digital Economies and Entrepreneurship & Economic Growth research themes. The idea behind the meeting is to cross-pollinate staff ideas and ensure that research themes do not become silos.

The meeting will take place on 26 June (12-2pm) in the EBC (EB705). The meeting will provide a useful platform to catch up on what’s happening within each of the themes. We would also like to hold a number of ‘elevator pitches’ from staff who have an idea(s) on funding applications or joint research papers and would like to work collaboratively with another member(s) of staff. For example, you may need a specific skill or have a gap in your knowledge to develop a funding application/paper – so here’s your chance to get some momentum into your idea. Each ‘pitch’ should last no more than 3 minutes (no powerpoint slides!).

If you have an idea and would like to pitch it to other staff, then please let Professor Dean Patton or Dr John Oliver beforehand.

CEMP Conversation: 27:6:13

PG research

The next CEMP conversation – our fortnightly readers’ and writers’ group – will take place on Thursday June 27th 12 – 1pm in the CEMP office.

This time we’ll be discussing this article, provided by CEMP research student Tom Stacey:

Psychological Science-2013-Frost-0956797612472207

Tom will make a link from the article to his own PHD research and open the discussion.

As always, anyone who wants to read the article and join the discussion is very welcome indeed.

 

BU research on the Japanese Tohoku tsunami

Dr Maharaj Vijay Reddy from the School of Tourism has recently returned from the Tohoku region of North East Japan, where he explored the nature of the impact of the 2011 on the tourism industry of the North East Japan and identified the priorities for socio-economic revival and sustainable future of the coastal communities and local businesses including agriculture and fisheries. The Great East Japan earthquake (8.9 magnitude) and the tsunami that followed have had catastrophic impacts on Northern Japan creating economic, nuclear and humanitarian crises in 2011. The major part of fieldwork was carried out with the financial support offered by the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation in London.

Dr Reddy’s very intensive fieldwork in March 2013 covered all the four Prefectures of the Tohoku on the Pacific coast, namely Miyagi, Iwate, Aomori and Fukushima. He has completed over 80 semi-structured interviews by meeting with multidisciplinary stakeholders from the four worst affected Prefectures as well as respondents and relevant organizations in Tokyo and other parts of the Japan. This significant project was completed with the prompt local help offered by the Directors related to the Departments of Environment, Fisheries, Infrastructure, Industry and Tourism within the Prefectural Government Offices of Miyagi, Iwate and Aomori.

Respondents include ANA Airlines, Japan East Railway, JAL City Hotels, Metropolitan Hotels, Monterey Hotels, Toyoko Inn Hotels, Tourism Associations based in famous locations such as Matshushima (Miyagi), Hachinohe (Aomori) and Morioka (Iwate), leading tour operators including JTB, relief agencies such as the Nippon Foundation, Ocean Policy Research Foundation and many other local businesses whose opinions are being translated (from Japanese language) ‘anonymously’ by the students at the School of Tourism for analysis and interpretation.

Dr Reddy expressed his sincere thanks to those respondents and the others who offered immense support. For instance, Mr Ishikua of Miyagi Prefecture Government, Mr Mikami of Aomori Prefecture Government, Mr Kobori of Japan National Tourism Organisation in Tokyo, Ms Mizuho of Monterey Hotel in Sendai, UNITAR Hiroshima, Sendai Tourism and Convention Bureau, and researchers at the Kwansei Gakuin University in Hyogo and the Fukushima University.

Challenges of Leadership

Leadership is a word often bandied about with many people claiming, assuming or being allocated ‘leadership’ roles, but what does this actually mean when trying to bring about societal improvements? Last week as part of an NHS South of England project BU and Plymouth University hosted a 2 day workshop for strategic leaders in the NHS, Local Authorities and the voluntary sector responsible for strategic leadership in the world of dementia in Devon, Dorset and Somerset. The aim of this project is to promote improvements in the provision of dementia care at a time of fiscal challenge. Working across organisational and disciplinary boundaries, learning from others and acting rather than just talking about the policy directives and vision that contextualises dementia is key. We had several high profile speakers at the workshop, including the Chief Executive of the Alzheimer Society, Jeremy Hughes; the Clinical Lead for dementia for NHS England, Prof Alistair Burns; the immediate Past President of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS), Sarah Pickup; Angela Rippon a high profile ambassador for the Alzheimer Society as well as BU’s own director of the NCPQSW. Prof Keith Brown who does a lot of leadership training across the country. We also had a person living with dementia reminding us of why it is of utmost importance to ensure that people with dementia can live well with their dementia and really what the workshop was all about. Key messages I took from the 2 days that are perhaps transferable to anyone with a leadership role are first that it sometimes just important to get on and do what you need to do because it is the ‘right thing to do’ and this may be at odds with procedures, other colleagues perceptions and priorities but still worth doing! Good leaders sometimes need to buck the trend and with convention, and there were lots of dementia specific examples about how people have been innovative in challenging times. Another key leadership message related to working together and learning from others rather than reinventing the wheel. None of these are new messages but do highlight the ongoing challenges those with key strategic roles face as they work to address key societal concerns.

Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch – the Silicon Beach of the future?

Bournemouth University hosted a creative and digital economy summit at the EBC on Friday 7 June where leading businesses, entrepreneurs and MPs came together to back a bid to style Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch as a hub for the creative and digital industry. A manifesto, coordinated by BU with input from a range of local stakeholders, was launched at the event and a host of different businesses and organisations pledged to commit money or their expertise with the aim of growing the local creative and digital sector in the hope the area. The summit featured in the Daily Echo on June 12 which reported that “the area already has above average business start-up and survival rates and is one of the UK’s liveliest digital clusters and this exciting development is a great step forwards”. Read more here. BU will continue to play a central role in taking forward the work set out in the manifesto so watch this space for further developments. If you are interested in finding out more, contact Samantha Leahy-Harland on sleahyharland@bournemouth.ac.uk