STORRE Collection: Electronic copies of Faculty of Social Sciences conference papers and proceedings.Electronic copies of Faculty of Social Sciences conference papers and proceedings.http://hdl.handle.net/1893/34812024-03-23T01:37:04Z2024-03-23T01:37:04ZParticipant-centred planning Framework for effective gender balance activities in techTaylor-Smith, EllaBarnett, CamillaSmith, SallyBarr, MatthewShankland, Carronhttp://hdl.handle.net/1893/352692023-08-02T00:00:39Z2022-09-01T00:00:00ZTitle: Participant-centred planning Framework for effective gender balance activities in tech
Author(s): Taylor-Smith, Ella; Barnett, Camilla; Smith, Sally; Barr, Matthew; Shankland, Carron
Editor(s): Quille, Keith; Maguire, Joseph; Becker, Brett
Abstract: The gender imbalance in the tech industry [21], mirrored in computing education [13], is problematic in terms of providing appropriate products and services for the whole population. This lack of diversity and inclusion is also self-perpetuating through gendered stereotypes of computing and women's experience of male-dominated work and study environments [4; 7]. Activities to break this cycle aim to encourage women and girls to study computing and pursue careers in digital [18]. This paper presents a new tool: a framework to support teams to design successful activities. The research study aimed to identify factors for success, with a particular focus on using of role models. A typology survey was designed to capture structured descriptions of activities; an online survey asked female and non-binary computing students about their role models and motivations for choosing computing, including any activities to encourage them into computing/STEM; and organisers from successful initiatives were interviewed. The study revealed a wide range of activities, with many potential success factors, but a dearth of rigorous evaluation. The Participant-Centred Planning Framework was developed from the study's findings. Its aim is to support effective design of engaging activities, and collect evaluative evidence over time. This framework was successfully piloted with organisers of initiatives to encourage girls into computing/STEM. Pilot study participants appreciated the framework's structure, guidance, and participant-centred paradigm. The study indicated that the framework could also support activities targeting other currently underrepresented groups. This paper presents the initial study, the pilot, the framework, and plans to extend its use.2022-09-01T00:00:00Z'Don’t lose heart in dark times, we can’t keep going in the same direction forever': Culture and a Compound of Covid and Climate as Catalysts for Change in Responding to Extreme Weather in ScotlandConnon, Irenahttp://hdl.handle.net/1893/350012024-01-10T11:23:23Z2022-11-01T00:00:00ZTitle: 'Don’t lose heart in dark times, we can’t keep going in the same direction forever': Culture and a Compound of Covid and Climate as Catalysts for Change in Responding to Extreme Weather in Scotland
Author(s): Connon, Irena
Abstract: This paper focuses on the importance of culture in influencing local responses to a new type of crisis during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in rural Scotland, and explores how culture, together with the lessons learnt from experiencing Covid in a context characterised by increasing intensity of climate-induced extreme weather, subsequently helped shape new and more effective collective responses to compounded storm-related emergencies. By examining the findings from online ethnographic interviews focusing on experiences of extreme weather undertaken during the first Covid wave, and a combination of online and face-to-face interviews that took place in the aftermath of a second wave, I explore the importance of the role of memory, history and sense of place for making sense of and responding to the new Covid crisis, and how these same aspects of culture were drawn upon to generate new forms of self-organisation and collective action for responding to extreme weather during the second Covid wave. In particular, I highlight how long-standing, culturally-specific ideas underpinning conceptualisations of a ‘local identity’ that were also perceived to have previously been ‘hijacked’ and appropriated by policy-makers to promote official de-centralised responses to extreme weather emergencies were reconsidered in the aftermath of the first Covid wave to promote greater social interconnectedness which, in-turn, helped overcome long-standing storm-response difficulties as well as new challenges facing community members during subsequent storms. I argue that this not only reveals the importance of culture for devising new ways of responding to risk within contexts of uncertainty and compounded crises but presents important insights for improving risk communication and helps further illuminate problems associated with the hegemonic uses of the concepts of resilience and vulnerability which continues to dominate official UK policy concerning climate-change and civil emergencies, as well as much of the wider risk and disaster research.2022-11-01T00:00:00Z‘What I’d really like to do is to bring them here and give them a piece of my mind’: Rethinking Expectations of ‘Solutions’ in Applied-Action Disaster ResearchConnon, Irenahttp://hdl.handle.net/1893/349992024-01-10T11:23:43Z2022-11-09T00:00:00ZTitle: ‘What I’d really like to do is to bring them here and give them a piece of my mind’: Rethinking Expectations of ‘Solutions’ in Applied-Action Disaster Research
Author(s): Connon, Irena
Abstract: With its emphasis on working in partnership with multiple institutions and providing ‘solutions’ to problems, applied-action research is often framed in a language of ‘tangibility’ and ‘measurable outcomes’. However, within the context of disaster and humanitarian research, the emphasis on providing tangible solutions by working with multiple institutions is especially problematic. Drawing on experiences of over four years of anthropological ethnographic fieldwork examining responses to extreme weather in Scotland within a multiple agency applied-action research context, this paper presents a reflective exploration of how diverse expectations for possible solutions manifested in range of a practical and ethical dilemmas within the field. I reveal that although differing expectations and complex power-relations embedded within the research context initially restricted interactions with community members, the process of navigating perceived loyalties and managing diverse expectations revealed important insights about long-standing conflicts between community members and institutional powers and also resulted in creating new opportunities for interaction that contributed to a sense of justice amongst community members. From this, I argue the predominant focus on the ‘tangible ends and outcomes’ within applied-action research is especially problematic in the disaster and humanitarian context because, as this study shows, not only does this place an insurmountable burden on the researcher, but often the value of the research for those directly affected by disaster lies in allowing them to voice their concerns and to have their concerns listened to2022-11-09T00:00:00ZHonouring the code? Exploring the ambiguities and antagonisms of ethical identitiesMiranda, DianaSmolovic-Jones, OwainSchaefer, Anjahttp://hdl.handle.net/1893/342592022-05-05T00:04:37Z2016-09-06T00:00:00ZTitle: Honouring the code? Exploring the ambiguities and antagonisms of ethical identities
Author(s): Miranda, Diana; Smolovic-Jones, Owain; Schaefer, Anja
Abstract: This is a paper concerned with empirically exploring how employees make sense of their ethical and professional identities within a shifting order of discursive norms. We posit the code of ethics (CoE) as a valuable object of study that holds the potential to illuminate the relationship between employee identity, the ethical, the political and the organizational. We combine contemporary accounts of identity with a notion of an order-of-life in order to explore the ethical tensions and possibilities that occur when specific people are asked to travel between ethical worlds. We explore the relationship between CoEs and identity through an examination of how police officers and members of staff in the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) construct the meaning of the organization’s CoE against their own sense of ethical self, as well as against the background of political and organizational change and a history of contested professional and organizational legitimacy.2016-09-06T00:00:00Z