Rich stuff : review of Jeri Kroll and Graeme Harper (eds), Research methods in creative writing

A review of a cutting-edge collection of scholarly articles engaging with contemporary theories of creativity and a gamut of valid and often exhilarating research methods in contemporary creative writing practice.

Because it takes a village to fund the answers: Crowdfunding University Research

Whichever way you look at it, online crowdfunding is ramifying. From its foundations supporting creative industry initiatives, crowdfunding has branched into almost every aspect of public and private enterprise. Niche crowdfunding platforms and models are burgeoning across the globe faster than you can trill “kerching”. Early adopters have been quick to discover that in addition to money, they also get free market information and an opportunity to develop a relationship with their market base. Despite these evident benefits, universities have been cautious entrants in the crowdfunding space and more generally in the emerging ‘collaborative economy’ (Owyang, 2013). There are many cultural and institutional legacies that might explain this reluctance. For example, to date universities have achieved social (and economic) distinction through refining a set of exclusionary practices including, but not limited to, versions of gatekeeping, ranking and credentialing. These practices are reproduced in the expected behaviors of individual academics who garner social currency and status as experts, legislators and interpreters (Osborne, 20014: 435). Digitalization and the emergent knowledge and collaboration economies, have the potential to disrupt the academy’s traditional appeals to distinction and to re-engage universities and academics with their public stakeholders. This chapter will examine some of the challenges and benefits arising from public micro-funding of university-based research initiatives during a period of industrial transition in the university sector.Broadly then this chapter asks; what does scholarship mean in a digital ecosystem where sociality (rather than traditional systems for assessing academic merit) affords research opportunity and success? How might university research be rethought in a networked world where personal and professional identities are blurred? What happens when scholars adopt the same pathways as non-scholars for knowledge discovery, development and dissemination through use of emerging practices such as crowdfunding. These issues will be discussed through detailed exploration of a successful pilot project to crowdfund university research; Research My World. This project, a collaboration between Deakin University and the crowdfunding platform pozible.com, set out to secure new sources of funding for the ‘long-tail’ of academic research. More generally, it aimed to improve the digital capacity of the participating researchers and create new opportunities for public engagement for the researchers themselves as well as the university. We will examine how crowdfunding and social media platforms alter academic effort (the dis-intermediation or re-intermediation of research funding, reduction of the compliance burden, opportunities for market validation and so on), as well as the particular workflows of scholarly researchers themselves (improvements in “digital presence-building”, provision of cheap alternative funding, opportunities to crowdsource non-academic knowledge). In addressing these questions, this chapter will explore the influence that crowdfunding campaigns have for transforming contemporary academic practices across a range of disciplinary instances, providing the basis for a new form of engagement-led research. To support our analysis we will provide an overview of the initiative through quantitative analysis of a dataset generated by the first iteration of Research My World projects.

Woven

Woven was a visual exploration of 'Bloodlines' in the Australian landscape aligned with practice-led methodology exploring an intersection of landscape/archaeology and immersive performance.

Performance analysis for object-oriented software: a systematic mapping

Performance is a crucial attribute for most software, making performance analysis an important software engineering task. The difficulty is that modern applications are challenging to analyse for performance. Many profiling techniques used in real-world software development struggle to provide useful results when applied to large-scale object-oriented applications. There is a substantial body of research into software performance generally but currently there exists no survey of this research that would help identify approaches useful for object-oriented software. To provide such a review we performed a systematic mapping study of empirical performance analysis approaches that are applicable to object-oriented software. Using keyword searches against leading software engineering research databases and manual searches of relevant venues we identified over 5,000 related articles published since January 2000. From these we systematically selected 253 applicable articles and categorised them according to ten facets that capture the intent, implementation and evaluation of the approaches. Our mapping study results allow us to highlight the main contributions of the existing literature and identify areas where there are interesting opportunities. We also find that, despite the research including approaches specifically aimed at object-oriented software, there are significant challenges in providing actionable feedback on the performance of large-scale object-oriented applications.

Implementing guidelines to routinely prevent chronic vascular disease in primary care: the preventive evidence into practice cluster randomised controlled trial

Objective: To evaluate an intervention to improve implementation of guidelines for the prevention of chronic vascular disease. Setting: 32 urban general practices in 4 Australian states. Randomisation: Stratified randomisation of practices. Participants: 122 general practitioners (GPS) and practice nurses (PNs) were recruited at baseline and 97 continued to 12 months. 21 848 patient records were audited for those aged 40-69 years who attended the practice in the previous 12 months without heart disease, stroke, diabetes, chronic renal disease, cognitive impairment or severe mental illness. Intervention: The practice level intervention over 6 months included small group training of practice staff, feedback on audited performance, practice facilitation visits and provision of patient education and referral information. Outcome measures: Primary: 1. Change in proportion of patients aged 40-69 years with smoking status, alcohol intake, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), blood pressure (BP) recorded and for those aged 45-69 years with lipids, fasting blood glucose and cardiovascular risk in the medical record. 2. Change in the level of risk for each factor. Secondary: change in self-reported frequency and confidence of GPS and PNs in assessment. Results: Risk recording improved in the intervention but not the control group for WC (OR 2.52 (95% CI 1.30 to 4.91)), alcohol consumption (OR 2.19 (CI 1.04 to 4.64)), smoking status (OR 2.24 (1.17 to 4.29)) and cardiovascular risk (OR 1.50 (1.04 to 2.18)). There was no change in recording of BP, lipids, glucose or BMI and no significant change in the level of risk factors based on audit data. The confidence but not reported practices of GPS and PNs in the intervention group improved in the assessment of some risk factors. Conclusions: This intervention was associated with improved recording of some risk factors but no change in the level of risk at the follow-up audit. Trial registration number: Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Register (ANZCTR): ACTRN12612000578808, results.

Navigating the ethics of cross-cultural health promotion research

Health promotion researchers must consider the ethics of their research, and are usually required to abide by a set of ethical requirements stipulated by governing bodies (such as the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council) and human research ethics committees (HRECs). These requirements address both deontological (rule-based) and consequence-based issues. However, at times there can be a disconnect between the requirements of deontological issues and the cultural sensitivity required when research is set in cultural contexts and settings etic to the HREC. This poses a challenge for health promotion researchers who must negotiate between meeting both the requirements of the HREC and the needs of the community with whom the research is being conducted. Drawing on two case studies, this paper discusses examples from cross-cultural health promotion research in Australian and international settings where disconnect arose and negotiation was required to appropriately meet the needs of all parties. The examples relate to issues of participant recruitment and informed consent, participants under the Australian legal age of consent, participant withdrawal when this seemingly occurs in an ad hoc rather than a formal manner and reciprocity. Although these approaches are context specific, they highlight issues for consideration to advance more culturally appropriate practice in research ethics and suggest ways a stronger anthropological lens can be applied to research ethics to overcome these challenges.

Research productivity and academics’ conceptions of research

This paper asks the question: do people with different levels of research productivity and identification as a researcher think of research differently? It discusses a study that differentiated levels of research productivity among English and Australian academics working in research-intensive environments in three broad discipline areas: science, engineering and technology; social science and humanities; and medicine and health sciences. The paper explores the different conceptions of research held by these academics in terms of their levels of research productivity, their levels of research training, whether they considered themselves an active researcher and a member of a research team, and their disciplinary differences.

Case formulation in forensic practice: challenges and opportunities

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of current practice in forensic case formulation, describing different approaches and discussing some of the practical and ethical issues that routinely arise. The paper further identifies areas where future practice and research might be strengthened.

Design/methodology/approach – There is only a very small literature to draw upon in reviewing this topic. Therefore a narrative literature review was undertaken, synthesising findings from published, peer-reviewed studies, and papers that addressed case formulation in psychological practice.

Findings – Despite case formation being considered by many to be a core competency of evidence-based forensic practice, it is not currently possible to describe a typical forensic case formulation or advocate for a particular approach to practice.

Practical implications – A number of practical and ethical issues routinely arise in the process of conducting a forensic case formulation. Ultimately, the absence of a consistent approach can lead to lead to poor clinical decision-making and the delivery of inadequate or inappropriate intervention.

Originality/value – This is one of the few discussions of case formulation that have been prepared for forensic practitioners. It is likely to be of interest to readers of the journal given the importance of the formulation process in contemporary forensic practice.

Ghostly sisters: feminist collaborative performance in Australia

This article examines how feminist performance has been, and continues to be, a key vehicle for the collaborative exploration of sexual difference and female subjectivity in Australia. It focuses specifically on the Lean Sisters and Generic Ghosts, whose collaborative performances occurred during the seventies and eighties, and their impact on subsequent feminist collaborative performance groups. As the article demonstrates, this counter-cultural tradition of performance typically deploys tactics of intertextuality, cross-media experimentation, humour, and détournement to critique gender oppression and its recurrence, while staging new possibilities of an embodied feminist politics.

River + stones

This artwork was commissioned to activate the spaces within the Immigration Museum through live interactive artwork and performance. An intergenerational project the project engaged children and adults in the stories of their own movements and migrations, and led conscious exploration of human relationship to the river, to walking, to telling stories, and creating art.

Articulations of teaching practice: a case study of teachers and "general capabilities"

The research reported on in this paper is a qualitative case study of secondary school teachers’ interpretations of how they work with a component of the Australian national curriculum, the seven “general capabilities.” The case study of four secondary school teachers utilized teacher interviews eliciting via descriptive analysis how teachers understand and work with the “general capabilities.” The Australian curriculum listing explicit “general capabilities” alongside endorsed disciplines and cross-curriculum priorities requires teachers and their associated classroom practice(s) bond to practical dexterities. Policy expectations are such that the knowledge, skills, behaviors and dispositions of the “general capabilities,” along with curriculum content and cross-curriculum priority areas will support students to successfully live and work in the twenty-first century. While policy expectations appear well defined, including expectations that teachers navigate and implement relevant curriculum in creative ways, the study underpinning this paper finds that teachers assert their professional and pedagogic authority over the curriculum by enacting and translating it for the benefit of their students.

Gathering for God : George Brown in Oceania

Combining 'the gathering of artefacts with the gathering of souls', George Brown was a key figure in the Christian, and especially the Wesleyan Methodist, history of nineteenth-century Oceania. Using his life as a case study, Helen Bethea Gardner examines the role of Christian missionaries in the Pacific Islands. Brown's career (1860-1908) spanned one of the most tumultuous political periods in the South Pacific, as one by one islands were colonised by imperial nations. He was one of the most politically engaged of all missionaries, encouraging colonial rule in the Pacific by America, Britain, Germany and, eventually, Australia and New Zealand. Originally from the north of England, he worked as a missionary in Samoa from 1860, moving to the Bismarck Archipelago (now Papua New Guinea) in 1875. From the 1880s until his retirement in 1907, he worked in Sydney as the general secretary of the Australasian Methodist Overseas Mission. Gathering for God examines Brown's missionary letters, journals and journalism, exploring how he attracted Pacific Islanders to Christian teachings, analysing his leadership during an armed attack on New Britain villages accused of cannibalism, and looking at his work in the new discipline of anthropology. He was a major collector of artefacts (his collection is now in the Osaka Museum) and photographer of Pacific peoples (his collection is in the Australian Museum).

Building materials selection: greenhouse strategies for built facilities

This paper aims to consider the embodied energy of building materials in the context of greenhouse gas emission mitigation strategies. Previous practice and research are highlighted where they have the potential to influence design decisions. Latest embodied energy figures are indicated, and the implications of applying these figures to whole buildings are discussed. Several practical examples are given to aid building designers in the selection of building materials for reduced overall life cycle greenhouse gas emissions.

From local to national: aspects of mapping the welfare third sector in Australia

The paper charts the authors' research experiences in various types of sociological mapping ofc ommunity or third sector organisations. Specifically this was a search for a way of understanding how third sector organisations dealing with welfare issues were operating in Australia in the mid I990s.

The paper tells the story of how the researchers worked through the implications of being faced initially with a dearth of information about their subject and of how lessons were learnt about the disjunctions between what is formally given as textbook knowledge about research practice and what actually can and does happen: that is, the relationship between the theory and the practice of research.

In discussing the creation of a database of organisations, conducting focus groups and a national sample survey, the paper comments on some of the practical problems facing third sector researchers as well as looking at concept generation and typology building as analytical tools.

The effect of intellectual disability on children's recall of an event across different question types

This research examined the performance of 80 children aged 9–12 years with either a mild and moderate intellectual disability when recalling an innocuous event that was staged in their school. The children actively participated in a 30-min magic show, which included 21 specific target items. The first interview (held 3 days after the magic show) provided false and true biasing information about these 21 items. The second interview (held the following day) was designed to elicit the children's recall of the target details using the least number of specific prompts possible. The children's performance was compared with that of 2 control groups; a group of mainstream children matched for mental age and a group of mainstream children matched for chronological age. Overall, this study showed that children with either a mild or moderate intellectual disability can provide accurate and highly specific event-related information. However, their recall is less complete and less clear in response to free-narrative prompts and less accurate in response to specific questions when compared to both the mainstream age-matched groups. The implications of the findings for legal professionals and researchers are discussed.