a) Problem, background, and objectives

Social issues caused by environmental deterioration present complex and multidimensional problems for science. To address such wicked problems, solution-oriented research has involved research experts from different domains (interdisciplinarity) [1] and also practitioners such as governments, funders, industries, non-profit organizations, and civil members (transdisciplinarity) [2,3]. However, such team science is often disrupted by asymmetric information [4], knowledge, wisdom [5], value, socio-economic status [6,7], and power among above-mentioned actors. This Core Project, also called the Open Team Science (hereafter OpenTS) Project, develops a methodology to reduce (rather than dissolve) such socio-psychological asymmetry for the sake of more efficient transdisciplinary (TD) collaboration.

 

b) Methodology, structure, and schedule

To develop the methodology, this project interlinks the concept of open science, as an open scientific knowledge production system, with a TD approach to boundary spanning [8,9] by transforming in-between spaces [10,11] into “our” epistemic living spaces. Technically, boundary spanning can be achieved by a combination of (1) considering ethical equity [12] with special attention to empowering marginalized (or “small voice”) actors; (2) building trust by securing transparency in the research process, (3) developing fair visualization of data based on the FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable) Principles [13] as well as information; (4) facilitating dialogue; and (5) discovering and sharing the goals that actors with different interests can tackle together (transcend) [14] where necessary. Civic Tech [15] can be applied as a holistic approach, in which civic engineers develop a solution to local issues by using disclosed data and information and communication technologies. This proposed methodology is cyclically assessed and improved through practical case studies [16], with special interest in developing a method to measure participants’ perceptual transformation through interventions.

This project lasts three years. During the first half of this period, we reviewed case studies to develop the methodology and measurements, which are being tested by practical case studies during the second half.

 

c) Expected results At the completion of the project, we expect to establish the OpenTS methodology by successfully interlinking open science and TD theories, with new knowledge about effective (and ineffective) combinations of visualization and dialogue tools, and with qualitative and quantitative methods to measure the effect of boundary spanning.

 

d) Project organization, membership, and collaboration with RIHN Research Projects The organization of this Core Project is loosely divided into the Theory Group and the Practice Group, although boundary between (sub-)groups is loosely set in order to promote synergistic collaboration. The project consists of one project leader, six core members, eighteen regular members, four advisory members, two advisors, and two supporting staff members. Another five associate members will eventually participate in meetings and online discussions.

The Research Group is developing the OpenTS theory through an interdisciplinary review of member’s case studies from the multifaceted viewpoints of philosophy, ethics, anthropology, social psychology, ecology, sustainability science, science and technology for society, open science theory, the science of team science (SciTS), and science communication, in an ad-hoc collaboration with the Historical Climate Adaptation (completed in 2019), Sanitation, and FEAST Projects. The Practice Group focuses on waterweed recycling in the catchment of Lake Biwa, Japan, in a regular collaboration with the Ecological Recycling (e-Rec) Project, and on community-based built heritage management in Oman.

 

e) Contribution to the Core Program The OpenTS Project contributes to the Core Program by developing the above-mentioned hypothesis-practice-assessment cycle as a common methodology of the Program, in collaboration with the Environmental Traceability Project. Moreover, the conceptual importance of openness, fairness, and equity in the TD process has been recognized through the methodological development.

 

f) Application of the theory and methodology after Core Project As an academic output, this Core Project will publish a mini book on OpenTS methodology and a self-checklist for applied projects, targeting early career researchers and practitioners, as well as international journal articles [A].

The project has two major interfaces of social outputs. The Research Group will make suggestions for national and international open science policies, while the Practice Group will contribute to community-based policymaking and social startups for the sustainable waterweed recycling in Lake Biwa and built heritage management in Oman.

At the RIHN, the OpenTS methodology developed by this Core Project will be inherited by upcoming research projects through the Post-Core Collaborative Research based at the RIHN Center, which will disseminate OpenTS as a new research paradigm for transformative social-issue-oriented research.

 

References

1. Allen F. Repko, Rick Szostak, 2017. Interdisciplinary Research: Process and Theory. 3rd ed. SAGE Publications.

2. Gertrude Hirsch Hadorn, Holger Hoffmann-Riem, Susette Biber-Klemm, Walter Grossenbacher-Mansuy, Dominique Joye, Christian Pohl, Urs Wiesmann, Elisabeth Zemp, 2007. Handbook of Transdisciplinary Research. Springer.

3. Wolfram Mauser, Gernot Klepper, Martin Rice, Bettina Susanne Schmalzbauer, Heide Hackmann, Rik Leemans, Howard Moore, 2013: Transdisciplinary global change research: the co-creation of knowledge for sustainability. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 5(3-4):420-431. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2013.07.001

4. George Akerlof, 1970. The market for lemons: quality uncertainty and the market mechanism. Quarterly Journal of Economics 84(3):488-500.

5. Gene Bellinger, Durval Castro, Anthony Mills, 2004. Data, information, knowledge, and wisdom. http://www.systems-thinking.org/dikw/dikw.htm (Accessed 28 December 2018)

6. Michael W. Kraus, Stéphane Côté, Dacher Keltner, 2010. Social class, contextualism, and empathic accuracy. Psychological Science 21:1716-1723. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610387613

7. Ken’ichiro Nakashima, S. Lee, 2016. Benefits and pitfalls of high economic status based on three findings in Japanese samples. In: Geoffrey Perkins (ed.) Socioeconomic Status: Influences, Disparities and Current Issues. New York: NOVA Science Publishers, pp. 109-145.

8. Lee Fleming, David M. Waguespack, 2007. Brokerage, Boundary spanning, and leadership in open innovation communities. Organization Science 18(2): 165-180. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1060.0242

9. Dan Wang, Alessandro Piazza, Sarah A. Soule, 2018. Boundary-spanning in social movements: Antecedents and outcomes. Annual Review of Sociology 44: 167-187. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-073117-041258

10. Homi K. Bhabha, 1994. The Location of Culture. Routledge.

11. Ulli Vilsmaier, Vera Brandner, Moritz Engbers, 2017. Research in-between: The constitutive role of Cultural differences in transdisciplinarity. Transdisciplinary Journal of Engineering & Science 8:169-179.

12. Fabien Medvecky, 2017. Fairness in knowing: Science communication and epistemic justice. Science and Engineering Ethics 24:1393-1408. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-017-9977-0

13. Mark D. Wilkinson, Michel Dumontier, Barend Mons et al., 2016: The FAIR guiding principles for scientific data management and stewardship. Scientific Data 3: 160018. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2016.18

14. Johan Galtung, 2004. Transcend and Transform: An Introduction to Conflict Work. Routledge.

15. Knight Foundation, 2013. The Emergence of Civic Tech: Investments in a Growing Field. https://www.knightfoundation.org/media/uploads/publication_pdfs/knight-civic-tech.pdf (Accessed 30 December 2019)

16. Sei'ichiro Watanabe, Takeshi Nakatsuka, Tomohiro Oh (eds.), 2014. Clinical Environmental Studies (臨床環境学). Nagoya University Press, in Japanese.

17. Rachel Kelly, Mary Mackay, Kirsty L. Nash et al., 2019. Ten tips for developing interdisciplinary socio‐ecological researchers. Socio-Ecological Practice Research 1: 149-161. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42532-019-00018-2

18. Ulrike Felt, Maximilian Fochler, 2012. Re-ordering epistemic living spaces: On the tacit governance effects of the public communication of science. In S. Rödde, M. Franzen, P. Weingart P. (eds.) The Sciences’ Media Connection –Public Communication and its Repercussions. Sociology of the Sciences Yearbook 28. Kluwer, pp.133-154. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2085-5_7  

1)Project Progress during the FR Period to Date

Test applicability of the OpenTS methodology to ongoing and upcoming TD projects

In the second general meeting of this project held in August 2019, the following cases were reviewed to test the applicability of the OpenTS methodology: (1) Waterweed overgrowth and community-based solution at the Lake Biwa catchment, Shiga prefecture [a,b]; (2) Invasive species removal and open data solution in Kokonoe Town, Oita prefecture [a,h]; (3) Community-based water supply in the Ishikari region, Hokkaido [a];  (4) Urban planning in Takashima, Shiga; (4) Digital archive of memories of nuclear refugees in Marshall Islands; and (5) community-based restoration of built heritage in southern Oman [i]. An intensive discussion concluded that inclusiveness should be more focused than openness/closedness, and the conceptual framework of OpenTS was revised as described in the Executive Summary (b).

 

Test applicability of the OpenTS methodology to interdisciplinary projects

Regarding the applicability to interdisciplinary (i.e., non-TD collaborative) projects,  semi-structured interviews with Takeshi Nakatsuka, PL of the Historical Climate Adaptation project, revealed an asymmetry in intellectual reciprocity between climatologists (i.e., natural scientists) and archaeologists and historians (i.e., humanities researchers). Based on this experience, dialogic questionnaire surveys to visualize the participants' understanding of key concepts such as culture, technology, and environment, and views for co-authorship in the JSPS KAKENHI PaleoAsia Project were designed and conducted with the participation of 60 project members at the biannual meeting in May 2019. The results indicated that (1) the understanding of concepts differs at the individual level and (2) cultural anthropologists prefer single authorship in comparison to archaeologists and natural scientists.

 

Develop a method to measure the psychological effects of graphic recording

To test the working hypothesis that graphic recording transforms the self-closed epistemic living spaces (shell mode) to intersecting those of others (reborder mode) [c], a socio-psychological experiment using questionnaire survey for participants of meetings with (and without) graphic recording was designed,  based on the modified grounded theory approach. The pilot study was conducted at the focus group discussion on "waterweed and ICT" in the 9th Mother Lake Forum Biwakomi-kaigi in August 2019 to improve the survey items.

 

Develop a sustainable enterprise in addressing waterweed overgrowth in Lake Biwa

FY2019 was the final year of the Mitsui & Co. Environmental Fund titled  "Developing a community to recycle waterweed resources in the catchment of Lake Biwa through a joint open science and social collaboration approach," a joint research conducted with the e-Rec Project. Practical activities were conducted in collaboration with "Suihouzan," a civic volunteer group addressing the waterweed issue in Otsu City, Shiga. Based on the results of four citizen participatory workshops in 2018, (1) "Biwa Point", a fintech-based point system with which coordinators, participants, and supporters acknowledge voluntary environmental activities in Lake Biwa to circulate good will and (2) a portal website to disseminate environmental information in the Lake Biwa area to strengthen the solidarity of highly-motivated people are being developed (Figure 1) [b]. To operate the point system and portal website as a sustainable enterprise, a non-profit organization was founded in January 2020. Nakahara conducted semi-structured interviews with local practitioners engaged in the production and use of waterweed compost.

Disseminate the output to the international community and follow-up

A conceptual paper on the OpenTS methodology was presented at the 10th Annual International Science of Team Science Conference [m] and published in a "Network and Networking" open issue of Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability [a]. It is noted that this paper was co-authored with members of e-REC, FEAST, and Sanitation projects. A brief introduction was posted on https://i2insights.org/, an international portal website on TD research. The project team also coordinated the "Synergy of civic collaboration and open science" session at the Japan Open Science Summit 2019, and disseminated the methodology through opinion papers [e,g,j,k] and webinar series.

 

2)Most Notable Outputs to Date

Note: This list includes selected publications since January 2019 (after the last report submitted). Project members are underlined. The project leader is marked by asterisk.

 

Publications

a. Yasuhisa Kondo*, Akihiro Miyata, Ui Ikeuchi, Satoe Nakahara, Ken'ichiro Nakashima, Hideyuki Ōnishi, Takeshi Osawa, Kazuhiko Ota, Kenichi Sato, Ken Ushijima, Bianca Vienni Baptista, Terukazu Kumazawa, Kazuhiro Hayashi, Yasuhiro Murayama, Noboru Okuda, Hisae Nakanishi, 2019.10. Interlinking open science and community-based participatory research for socio-environmental issues. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 39: 54-61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2019.07.001

b. Yasuhisa Kondo*, 2019.10. Waterweed in Lake Biwa: As a researcher accompanying local communities (琵琶湖の水草：研究者として地域に寄り添う). The Kyoto Shimbun (京都新聞連載「上賀茂発地球研フィールドノート」第7回), Evening, 9 October 2019, in Japanese.

c. Junko Shimizu, 2019.9. What is a Graphic Recorder? (グラレコって何だ!?) Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing (精神看護)　22(5): 447-465. (in Japanese)

d. Ui Ikeuchi, 2019.9. Reliability of open research data: Data selection methods and improving quality (研究データの信頼性：データの選択方法と質の向上). The Journal of Information Science and Technology Association (情報の科学と技術) 69(9): 435-437, in Japanese. https://doi.org/10.18919/jkg.69.9_435

e. Yasuhisa Kondo*, 2019.9. Ethical issues in open science and open governance (オープンサイエンスとオープンガバナンスの倫理的諸問題). Advances in Social Research (社会と調査) 23: 43-51, in Japanese.

f. Hideyuki Ōnishi, 2019.8. The historical site of the Ainu culture as a common resource: The case of narrative by residents in Shibetsu region　(共有資源としてのアイヌ⽂化史跡：北海道標津町における地域住⺠の語りを事例として). The Society for Ecological Anthropology Newsletter (生態人類学会ニュースレター) 25: 32-28. http://ecoanth.main.jp/nl/25.pdf (in Japanese)

g. Sayoko Shimoyama, 2019.7. The knowledge and case study to introduce data analysis into policy making process (⾏政プロセスにデータ分析を取り⼊れるために知っておきたい知識と事例). Evaluation Quarterly (評価クォータリー) 50: 18-39, in Japanese.

h. Takeshi Osawa, Satomi Kawano, 2019.5. Establishing a management plan for the invasive alien species Rudbeckia laciniata L. on multiple spatial scales: Large-scale map for strategy and small-scale map for specific action. Japanese Journal of Conservation Ecology 24(1): 125-134. https://doi.org/10.18960/hozen.24.1_125 (in Japanese with English abstract)

i. Kengo Hayashi, 2019.4. Inverted modernity: Conservation of traditional buildings in Oman (近代化のねじれ：オマーンの伝統的家屋の行方). Senken-soui-no-kai (先見創意の会), in Japanese. http://senkensoi.net/about/

j. Kazuhiro Hayashi, 2019.3. Progress of open science and transforming citizen science to co-creative research. Trends in the Sciences 23(11): 12-29, in Japanese with English abstract. https://doi.org/10.5363/tits.23.11_12 

k. Yasuhisa Kondo*, Kazuhiro Hayashi, 2019.3. Open science to social issue solution: Foresight from a multi-stakeholder workshop. STI Horizon 5(1): 35-40, in Japanese with English abstract. https://doi.org//10.15108/stih.00167

 

Conference Presentations

i. Yasuhisa Kondo*, Hideyuki Ōnishi, Ui Ikeuchi, Ken’ichiro Nakashima, 2019.12. Results of an on-site survey of the research mind-set of the PaleoAsia project and its interdisciplinarity. Poster presented at the 8th Conference on Cultural History of PaleoAsia,  held at the National Museum of Ethnology, Suita, on 14-15 December 2019, in Japanese with English abstract.

m. Yasuhisa Kondo*, Akihiro Miyata, Ui Ikeuchi, Satoe Nakahara, Ken’ichiro Nakashima, Hideyuki Onishi, Takeshi Osawa, Kazuhiko Ota, Kenichi Sato, Ken Ushijima, Bianca Vienni Baptista, Terukazu Kumazawa, Kazuhiro Hayashi, Yasuhiro Murayama, Noboru Okuda, Hisae Nakanishi, 2019.5. Interlinking open science to team-based action research for socio-environmental cases. Paper presented at the 10th Annual International Science of Team Science Conference (INSciTS), held at Lansing Center, Lansing, MI, USA, on 20-23 May 2019 https://www.inscits.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=227

 

Third Party Funding

n. Belmont Forum Collaborative Research Action (CRA) for Science-driven e-Infrastructures Innovation “Building New Tools for Data Sharing and Reuse through a Transnational Investigation of the Socioeconomic Impacts of Protected Areas (PARSEC)”, in collaboration with the World Data System (WDS), France’s Center for the Synthesis and Analysis of Biodiversity (CESAB), the American Geophysical Union (AGU), and other institutes in Brazil, Australia, and the United Kingdom. The Japan Team is coordinated by Yasuhiro Murayama (advisory member), January 2019 to December 2023.

o. Inter-University Research Institute Corporation (I-URIC) Feasibility Study “Transcending Structurization Gap in Humanities Big Data”, coordinated by Asanobu Kitamoto (advisory member), December 2018 to March 2019.

Psychological Study of Graphic Recording

Graphic recording (also called graphic facilitation) is a technique of visualization, with which a speech or conversation are converted into manga-like graphics with text in real time. Nakashima, Kano, J. Shimizu, H. Shimizu, and Kondo will conduct a psychological study of its effects through a semi-structured interview and questionnaire survey among graphic recorders and workshop participants. This study will contribute towards developing a method to measure the perceptual transformation of participants, including moderators, through visualization and dialogue of focused issues in a multi-actor workshop.

 

Outsider’s Look: Vienni Interviews on RIHN Research Projects

Vienni's stay at the RIHN as a Research Fellow was postponed to June and July 2020. She will conduct a series of interview with PLs and in-house members of the Research Projects, including FEAST and Sanitation to identify the similarities and differences in TD study between the RIHN (Japan) and relevant institutes in Europe (e.g., ETH Zürich, Switzerland). She will apply a qualitative strategy and will use the concepts of Epistemic Living Spaces and interculturality as cross-cutting axes of the study.

 

Follow-up of the Waterweed Recycling Community in the Catchment of Lake Biwa

Nakahara continues a participant observation of the waterweed recycling in the catchment of Lake Biwa to document the process of community development after the e-Rec Project and the Mitsui & Co. Environment Fund end.

 

Ainu Indigenous Heritage and Students’ Visit to Shibetsu, Hokkaido

Kondo continues a participant observation of Onishi’s students interviewing aged Ainu indigenous people on their memories of traditional life to analyze how the interviewers and interviewees changed in their understanding of the issues through the interviews.

 

Community-based Built Heritage Management in Salalah, Oman

Benkari, Hayashi, Koshihara, and Kondo continue developing a TD project to restore the House of Judge in the old city center of Salalah, capital of the Dhofar Governorate, southern Oman. In this case study, the difference in consensus building and transcend in the context of Arabic society will be examined in comparison with case studies in Japan.

 

Building an International Community of Open Data for Environmental Sustainability

Murayama, Kondo, Osawa, and Ikeuchi are participating in an international consortium of open research data for environmental sustainability and biodiversity in the Belmont Forum Collaborative Research Action (CRA) for Science-driven e-Infrastructures Innovation (see Section 8). Osawa continues his activities for promoting open data for biodiversity as Biodiversity Open Data Ambassador of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF; https://www.gbif.org/article/6dNF1d0tgcI4cmqeoS2sQ4/biodiversity-open-data-ambassadors).

 

OpenTS Webinar Series

A webinar (online seminar) is held once a month to share updates on the project with a wider audience. The main portion of the webinar is a short presentation of a guest speaker (usually one of the project members), presided over Nakahara. The archive is available online at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEALdBMv4MxuURE328Q4y3w/ (in Japanese), and will be used as primary drafts for publication. The lineup for the first half of FY2020 is Ushijima (April), T.B.D. (May), Kengo Hayashi (June), Vienni (July), Nakashima (August), and T.B.D (September).

 

Enrichment of Project Website and Social Media

In collaboration with Onishi's students, Suetsugu enriches the contents of the project’s website (https://openteamsciece.jp/en/) and social media, such as Twitter and Facebook.

 

Closing and Follow-up 

Project's major publications, including a mini book and self-checklist, are prepared to demonstrate the methodology and the case studies, as well as bequeathing the methodology to the RIHN Center and upcoming research projects through a Post-Core Collaborative Research.