Research incubator: Expert discussion – Topics
With regard to the content and organizational design of interdisciplinary research programs, expert discussions with researchers were conducted at the Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS).
Six expert discussions were held with 26 people (w = 13) from different disciplines and career levels (doctoral students, postdocs, professors). Two expert discussions were held per career level. The discussion rounds were each composed of participants from the same career level. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the discussions took place online.
Topics of digitalization research were collected in two ways. On the one hand, the participants in the discussions were asked to document in writing on a digital whiteboard topics which, in their view, will be of importance in the next five to ten years. On the other hand, at the end of the discussion rounds, they were asked to name one or two particularly relevant topics and to explain which disciplines should be involved in researching these topics. In doing so, reference could be made to the notes made on the digital whiteboard.
You can find the visualization of the whole topic finding process in this video.
Literature
Schmitt, J.B., Begenat, M., Brenker, M. & Bieber, C. (2021). Interdisziplinarität in der Digitalisierungsforschung Notwendigkeit oder leeres Versprechen für progressives wissenschaftliches Arbeiten? die hochschule.
Woiwode, H. & Froese, A. (2020). Two hearts beating in a research centers’ chest: how scholars in interdisciplinary research settings cope with monodisciplinary deep structures, Studies in Higher Education, DOI: 10.1080/03075079.2020.1716321
Digital participation as a central topic of interdisciplinary research
Questions in the context of digital inequality, inclusion and participation were mentioned particularly frequently. In this context, the focus was on how different groups of people (can and want to) use digital offerings, but also on how digital technologies can promote inequalities (see algorithms/algorithmic decision-making processes). Furthermore, the discussants focused on the digitalization of work and work processes and how this can affect people’s well-being and productivity. Furthermore, the discussants identified issues in the context of human-technology interaction and a (people-friendly) design of digitization and technology as particularly central.
Different disciplinary perspectives should be involved
A combination of social science and technology-related disciplines is said to be particularly promising for researching such phenomena. However, legal expertise and experience from (predominantly educational) practice are also considered to be profitable.
Impulses for topic identification and research work at CAIS
In the medium and long term, the results will find their way into the organizational design of the CAIS research programs. In comparison with the results of the CAIS Real-Time Delphi study as well as the automated text analysis, the results with regard to relevant research topics are in turn productively integrated into the overall structure of topic identification for the CAIS research programs.
By the way, you can find the visualization of the entire topic identification process in this video.
“I think all disciplines are asked to think about how societal power structures work in terms of participation and empowerment.”