Designing policy: collaborative policy development within the context of the European capital of culture bid process

ABSTRACT

How do ideas become policies? What route do they take from inception to implementation and what criteria are used to evaluate one set of proposals against another? This paper examines the development of the Creative Work Fellowship policy proposal in Limerick, tracing the origins of the idea, itself a contended and negotiated object, from discussions between academics and policy-makers through to scoping, pitching and scaling the policy to its eventual users. This policy idea was designed during the Intelligence Unit (IU) commissioned by Limerick2020 as part of the city’s bid to become European Capital of Culture in 2020. The IU took the form of a policy think-tank, tasked with generating insights, ideas and policy proposals into the place of culture within Limerick city and region. The IU structure created a set of actors and an epistemic community capable of both generating and using ideas effectively, chiefly through two mechanisms. The first involved a robust critique and rebuilding process that every element of the policy was exposed to; the second involved feedback from interested parties at specific stages in the process. This created a series of “policy entrepreneurs” capable of taking a fully costed and modelled policy suggestion to government. The findings presented in the paper include an analysis of the collaborative nature of this policy development process, Based on this framework, we also consider the role of the European City of Culture bid process as catalyst for policy development in a regional context, and present findings on this subject.     

A scale-based approach to interdisciplinary research and expertise in sports

After more than 20 years since the introduction of ecological and dynamical approaches in sports research, their promising opportunity for interdisciplinary research has not been fulfilled yet. The complexity of the research process and the theoretical and empirical difficulties associated with an integrated ecological-dynamical approach have been the major factors hindering the generalisation of interdisciplinary projects in sports sciences. To facilitate this generalisation, we integrate the major concepts from the ecological and dynamical approaches to study behaviour as a multi-scale process. Our integration gravitates around the distinction between functional (ecological) and execution (organic) scales, and their reciprocal intra- and inter-scale constraints. We propose an (epistemological) scale-based definition of constraints that accounts for the concept of synergies as emergent coordinative structures. To illustrate how we can operationalise the notion of multi-scale synergies we use an interdisciplinary model of locomotor pointing. To conclude, we show the value of this approach for interdisciplinary research in sport sciences, as we discuss two examples of task-specific dimensionality reduction techniques in the context of an ongoing project that aims to unveil the determinants of expertise in basketball free throw shooting. These techniques provide relevant empirical evidence to help bootstrap the challenging modelling efforts required in sport sciences.     

基于Rao-Stirling指数的学科交叉文献发现——以纳米科学与纳米技术为例

[目的/意义] 学科交叉文献发现是进行学科交叉研究的重要前提,从海量的文献中快速、精准地发现领域相关交叉文献有助于研究人员快速地把握领域学科交叉动态,识别领域学科交叉研究热点与前沿。提出基于Rao-Stirling指数的领域学科交叉文献发现方法,并以纳米科学与纳米技术领域为例,探讨该方法的可行性。[方法/过程] 在Web of Science数据库下载纳米科学与纳米技术领域文献,构建期刊缩写-全称-学科类别对照表,利用Python编程构建文献参考文献学科分布矩阵,利用R编程计算每篇文献的Rao-Stirling指数进行文献的学科交叉测度,根据测度结果将纳米科学与纳米技术领域文献按照学科交叉程度分为三个水平,以发现领域学科交叉文献。[结果/结论] 基于Rao-Stirling指数的领域学科交叉文献发现方法可以实现领域文献水平的学科交叉测度,并发现学科交叉文献,且该研究方法也同样可扩展到其他研究领域。     

iSchools专业整合现状调查与启示

[目的/意义] 获取分析iSchools专业整合的现状, 为我国图书情报专业人才培养提供参考建议。[方法/过程] 对iSchools的网站进行调研, 从跨学科专业设置、双学位两个方面对iSchools专业整合的现状与特点进行总结。[结果/结论] 专业整合是iSchools发展的显著特征, 能够促进教学科研活动的开展, 提升学科影响力, 增强学生职业竞争力, 拓展专业覆盖面。我国需要借鉴其经验, 通过专业整合促进人才培养, 在整合进程中注重整合学科的选择, 采用适合的专业整合方式, 同时保持学科的独立性与特色。     

体育人类学在体育学科体系中的定位*

分析了体育人类学学科发展及其特点,探讨了该学科的薄弱之处,通过学科在国际上发展的大趋势,针对我国情况具体问题具体分析,对体育人类学在体育学科体系中的定位进行思考。研究认为,体育人类学具有综合性、跨学科和反思性研究的学科特色,当前中国体育人类学应进一步明确学科发展的理论基础,理顺与体育人文社会学、民族传统体育学等相关学科的关系,构建学科方法体系,加强课程建设与改革,着眼于学以致用的应用趋向,为体育学在社会实践的融合应用中做出自己独特的贡献。     

跨专业硕士研究生专业适应性影响因素关系研究

随着招生规模日益扩大,跨专业读研的人数日益增多,跨专业硕士研究生的专业适应性问题日益成为学界关心的热点。本研究以北京某高校四所文理不同院系为样本,探求跨专业硕士研究生专业适应性与专业自我效能及专业学习行为的关系。得到如下结论：跨专业硕士研究生专业自我效能感的高低以及专业学习行为水平的高低对专业适应性具有一定的预测力。因此可以帮助学生提高专业自我效能感并建立良好的专业学习行为来提高跨专业研究生的专业适应性。     

基于创新性和学科交叉性的研究前沿探测模型——以智能材料领域研究前沿探测为例

快速发现并科学准确地把握研究前沿不仅是科学研究人员关注的焦点,更是高层管理者乃至各国政府战略决策的需要。为了从客观角度全面准确地探测特定领域的研究前沿,论文首先界定研究前沿的内涵并分析其特征,进而提出从创新性和学科交叉性探测研究前沿的模型,此模型由"三阶段"构成,即创新性特征识别阶段、学科交叉性特征识别阶段以及前沿主题提炼阶段,处理过程分别使用文献引文分析、共现分析和文本挖掘方法,最后以智能材料领域为例,说明模型(方法)的使用过程和效果。实验结果表明由此模型探测的前沿主题与智能材料领域专家的判断相符程度较高。     

“大工程领域”人才培养模式探索与实践--以扬州大学化学工程领域多学科交叉人才培养为例

为了解决全日制工程硕士培养过程中知识面过窄、适应面单一的问题,适应未来工程人才“宽口径”培养的发展趋势,扬州大学秉承多学科交叉的教育理念,在化学工程领域进行了“大工程领域”全日制工程硕士培养模式的改革,并从人才培养定位、课程体系构建、课程设置、师资配备等方面开展了一系列的改革实践,其基本经验或许能为其它高校的全日制工程硕士人才培养改革提供有益的借鉴。     

研究生选修课程“康复推拿学”教学设计探索

“康复推拿学”作为一门新兴的交叉学科,是现代康复医学与中医传统推拿疗法的结合应用。为推动“康复推拿学”纵深发展,教学团队在研究生课程体系中开设了“康复推拿学”选修课程。“康复推拿学”课程既有利于拓展研究生学习内容和思路,又利于培养研究生创新思维,是深化发展“康复推拿学”至关重要的环节。采用开放式、研讨式教学模式,探索设计研究生选修课“康复推拿学”的课程教学,有力地推动了“康复推拿学”课程迭代发展。     

从广西外语人才需求看地方高校英语专业复合型人才培养对策

随着中国-东盟自由贸易区的建立和发展,广西对于复合型外语人才的需求越来越大。本文从广西外语人才需求状况入手,探讨广西地方高校英语专业复合型人才培养的对策。