Teses / dissertações sobre o tema "Expert citizen"

In previous research, researchers have looked into different gamified applications of citizen science such as fold.it, Zooniverse and Happy Moths. However, the users and participants of these studies are often on different skill levels, or beginners in the field. In this study, 10 expert users who submit their findings of species to Artdatabanken, an organisation that works in the field of biodiversity, were interviewed to find out their motivations for reporting their findings. This was done with the goal of finding what type of gamification that might suit these expert users to increase the quality of the data submitted through Artportalen, together with any obstacles that might hinder it. Through a latent thematic analysis and comparing the themes to Bartle’s Taxonomy of Players, the results show that these users were mainly of the types ‘achiever’ and ‘socialiser’. The answers were also compared to the theory of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, which showed that the users are mainly reporting because of extrinsic motivation. While this supports the implementation of gamification there were things that would rather be solved by increasing usability.

Knowledge transfer has been identified as a strategic process for bridging the persistent gap between theory and practice. In biodiversity management, experts generate different types of knowledge that is transferred to citizen communities for practice. On the other hand, citizens constantly interact with their biosphere and from time to time are requested to convey ground knowledge to the experts for scientific analysis and interpretation. The transfer of knowledge between experts and citizens is faced by different challenges key among them being the large volume of the knowledge, complexity of the knowledge, as well as variegated absorptive capacity among citizen communities. Knowledge transfer models adopted for expert-citizen engagement in the biodiversity management domain must therefore consider these characteristics of the domain. Advances in computing technologies present opportunities to create knowledge transfer models that can minimize these challenges. Current knowledge transfer models were created mainly for organizational knowledge transfer and without consideration of specific computing technologies as a mode of knowledge transfer. These challenges and opportunities highlighted a need to investigate how a technology-based knowledge transfer model for biodiversity management could be created. The focus of this study was to explore enhancement of knowledge transfer in the biodiversity management domain using two specific technologies; knowledge representation using ontologies and crowd computing. The research draws from existing knowledge transfer models and properties of the two technologies. This study assumed the pragmatist philosophical stance and adopted the design science research (DSR) approach which is characterised by two intertwined cycles of ‘build’ and ‘evaluate’. The research produced two main contributions from the two cycles. The build cycle led to creation of a technology-based model for knowledge transfer between experts and citizens in the biodiversity domain and was named the Biodiversity Management Knowledge Transfer (BiMaKT) model. Evaluation cycle resulted in development of a platform for transfer of biodiversity management knowledge between experts and citizens. The BiMaKT model reveals that two technologies; knowledge representation using ontologies and crowd computing, could be synergised to enable knowledge transfer between experts and citizens in biodiversity management. It is suggested that this model be utilised to guide development of biodiversity management applications where knowledge needs to be transferred between experts and citizens. The model also presents opportunity for exploration in other domains, especially where experts and citizens need to exchange knowledge. The knowledge transfer platform, reveals that the BiMaKT model could be used to guide development of biodiversity management knowledge transfer platforms. The study utilises a case of fruit fly control and management knowledge transfer between fruit fly experts and fruit farmers for evaluation of the contributions. An experiment using the case demonstrated that the challenges facing knowledge transfer in the domain could be reduced through ontological modelling of domain knowledge and harnessing of online crowds participation through crowd computing. The platform presents opportunity for more empirical studies on usage of the platform in knowledge transfer activities.
Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2017.
Informatics
PhD
Unrestricted

Democracy in Sweden is facing a plethora of serious challenges. The ability of political parties to engage and activate non-political citizens have been greatly reduced over the last 50 years, meanwhile the risk of increased polarization the coming years is prominent and alarming. This essay attempts to combine modern representative democracy with the ideal of deliberative democracy. The aim is to investigate if deliberation can contribute to the solution of these problems. This is accomplished through a study inspired by James Fishkin’s Deliberative Poll. Local politicians in Sweden have been invited to answer a questionnaire after which they participate in deliberation before answering a second questionnaire. The difference in results between the two questionnaires are then compared to show the effect of deliberation. There is a clear visual difference between the politician’s answers in the two questionnaires. Nevertheless, this difference is only statistically proven in one out of the 22 tests that were run. Therefore, this study cannot draw any conclusions regarding the true effect of deliberation. Nevertheless, deliberation among local politicians in Sweden seems to be successful based on a visual comparison of the results from the two questionnaires and further study is deemed desirable.

Natural resource managers are facing increasing challenges as environmental degradation accelerates and the need to integrate a broad spectrum of community experiences into management decisions is increasingly recognised. To help meet these novel challenges, this study explores how professional researchers and communities can combine their skills and learn to work in partnerships to achieve shared management goals. Community-based research involves people as citizen scientists, whereby citizens actively participate in research on local issues. The inclusive nature of community-based research has the ability to produce auxiliary benefits uncommon in conventional research. These include the development of social capital and social learning as the practice of citizen science empowers communities with new skills, knowledge and social networks, thus building capacity within communities to take an effective role in natural resource management. Community-based research also has the potential to enrich the range of management options available by increasing the breadth of accessible knowledge. However, despite much rhetoric about democratising science, little is known about the practice, value and problems of involving citizens as collaborators in natural resource management research projects. This thesis presents the findings from a comparative survey of the attitudes to community-based research held by 'citizen' scientists, on the one hand, and 'expert' scientists and natural resource managers, on the other. It also draws upon a multi-site case study, set in a diverse urban-rural catchment, where an integrated research program was established for different natural resource management agencies to work with each other and community groups to develop research protocols so that community groups could participate in assessing the health of catchment areas. This involved scientists, natural resource managers and community education/extension officers working with established community groups to develop and trial modified scientific methods for the environmental monitoring of catchment and estuarine areas. This inter-agency/community project was continued as a case study site into the second and third years of research and was augmented in the second and third years by focusing on two of the initial community groups as second and third case study sites in their own right. Synthesis of both survey and case study analysis reveals that, despite resource and attitudinal barriers, community-based research can ensure access to local knowledge and increased relevance of research. In addition, many participants most valued the increased feeling of connection towards their local environment and community. I argue that citizen/expert collaboration is key to successful community-based research and best achieved in an atmosphere of mutual respect where all participants are seen as co-researchers. However, participatory intentions are unlikely to be acted upon without sufficient opportunity. Thus, the process of research must be re-defined from that associated with positivist science to include a greater range of participants and activities in an adaptive manner. This more inclusive and reflective approach seems most likely to ensure the quality and utility of research data, the knowledge sharing and social learning, and the enjoyable atmosphere that underpin successful citizen/expert interactions. Certainly, the ability to draw upon and create social capital is vital. The integration of these findings enabled the development of guidelines for effective collaboration between citizens and experts when addressing catchment management issues and undertaking participatory research.

La presente tesis se basa en un caso de estudio dentro del área de los Estudios de Ciencia y Tecnología (STS sus siglas en inglés). El autor examinó etnográficamente el desarrollo de una experiencia participativa basada en el modelo de Conferencias de Consenso desarrollado en Dinamarca. Este mecanismo se caracteriza por la conformación de un panel de ciudadanos legos, la promoción de la interacción de los ciudadanos legos con expertos en la temática en discusión y la elaboración de un informe final. La conferencia de consenso analizada estaba interesada por la relación entre las nuevas tecnologías y la vida cotidiana de las personas mayores. Este modelo de conferencia presentó algunas modificaciones con el objetivo de adaptar el mecanismo a los participantes evitar que sean los miembros del panel quienes se adapten al mecanismo. Este trabajo de investigación presenta una descripción densa de la experiencia del autor como observador participante y al mismo tiempo desarrolla su análisis a partir de algunos conceptos teóricos del campo de los STS. Especialmente se hace uso de las nociones de Foros Híbridos y Procesos de Inscripción. El lector podrá adentrarse en la experiencia de la elaboración de un mecanismo con estas características, en compañía de las interpretaciones del autor y de comentarios de los propios participantes. Como finalidad última, este trabajo pretender contribuir a la devolución de resultados para aquellos que fueron parte del proceso participativo estudiado.
This thesis is based on a case study in the area of Science and Technology Studies (STS). The author was immersed in the development of a participatory experience based on the model of Consensus Conferences used in Denmark. This mechanism is characterized by a process of formation of a panel composed for lay people (a.k.a citizen panel), the fostering of citizens-expert interaction and the construction of a final report. The consensus conference under analysis was focused on the relationship between new technologies and older people’s daily life. This conference introduced some modifications in order to adapt the mechanism to the participants and to avoid the members of the panel to adapt themselves to the mechanism. This research presents a thick description of the author's experience as a participant observer and at the same time develops an analysis which is grounded in some theoretical concepts from the field of STS. Concretely, the notions of Hybrid Forums and Inscription Processes were employed. The reader can experience the development of a mechanism with these features along with the author's interpretations and comments from the participants. As ultimate goal, this work expects to contribute to “the return” for those who were part of the participatory process studied.

The 2008 financial crisis provoked a debate over how we as a democratic society ought to govern the modern market economy. Our prevailing response to this problem of economic governance has been to appeal either to free markets as self-regulating, self-optimizing systems, or to technocratic rule by neutral experts. Both these systems are appealing because of they claim to promote the public good free of the corruption, irrationality, conflict, and vagaries of democratic politics. This project aims to overcome this skepticism to sketch an account of a democratic approach to economic governance, inspired by the thought and reforms of the Progressive Era.
Government

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Antioch University, 2010.
Title from PDF t.p. (viewed July 22, 2010). Advisor: Richard Couto, Ph.D. "A dissertation submitted to the Ph.D. in Leadership and Change program of Antioch University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, March 2010."--from the title page. Includes bibliographical references (p. 155-165).

Moving beyond democratically grounded models of participation, the thesis argues for participation to be organised around experiential expertise by speaking epistemically of levels of expertise held by experts whatever their social position and location. The thesis is then concerned with determining and defending the types of knowledge and experience pertinent to policy formation and decision-making held by scientific and citizen communities. The empirical work begins by showing that politically and legally, GM was only a technical issue, and so the space for alternative framings and citizen participation was formally limited. An exploration of alternative framings is given through Q methodology and analysing transcripts from public GM debates. Then, following a close analysis and comparison of the knowledges and rationalities used by debate participants, it is argued that the extended claim to public participation into the technical aspects of a policy or decision-making process must be limited to those with genuine technical expertise. However, the reverse is then argued for the political aspects of a decision; the empirical rationality utilised by technical experts, particularly from scientific communities, is inadequate to cope with the complex demands of technoscience in public policy and that, therefore, the presumed 'natural' relationship between 'experts' and policy must be reconfigured accordingly. A model is proposed that, for the practical purposes of getting business done, separates technical and politico-ethical capacities and decision-making procedures, and experts and citizens respectively.

This study makes use of theoretical and empirical sources to examine the determinants of manufactured exports from secondary cities in South Africa. This study attempts to give policymakers a clearer understanding of the decisions made by manufacturers to locate in a specific region. Drawing on the reasons that countries or regions export, as given in the literature, a number of factors were identified as possible determinants of exports. These determinants include: location of economic activity, distance, transport cost, and transport infrastructure. These factors have been accepted as some of the determinants of exports, but to what extent do they influence the export of manufactured goods from secondary cities in South Africa? An analysis of the state of land freight transport and manufactured exports from South Africa gives an indication of how infrastructure development, distance, and location of economic activity influence manufactured exports. Since 1994, manufactured exports have become the largest export sector from South Africa and the majority of these exports are transported by road to the ports. Durban is the largest harbour for the export of manufactured goods from South Africa and receives the bulk of the manufactured exports from Gauteng. More than 80 per cent of manufactured exports from South Africa come from metropolitan areas. The relatively small percentage of manufactured exports from secondary cities indicates that there is a lack of support for firms to establish in those regions. Using a cross-section analysis of the 22 secondary cities chosen, a series of regressions are modelled to determine the factors that influence manufactured exports from these regions. The empirical evidence suggests that cities with higher education levels and higher gross value added (GVA) are more successful in exporting manufactured goods. An evaluation of location (distance) and transport cost found that distance and infrastructure affect the transport cost of manufactured exports from secondary cities.
Thesis (M.Com. (Economics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

Thesis (MPhil (Journalism))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010.
Bibliography
ENGLISH ABSTRACT:In a system of representative government, the media is assumed as an important institution to reflect public concerns and holding government accountable for the way in which it addresses these public concerns. Not only is this role imposed by a paradigm which views the media as one of the institutions that sustain and consolidate liberal democracy – the so-called fourth estate alongside the legislative, executive and judicial pillars – but the media itself has conceptualised its identity around the notion that journalists are a “vital part of political life” (Sparks, 1991:58). This study explores the validity of this authority. It suggests that the authority of the media to frame public concerns in a way that is useful for ordinary citizens to “bridge the gap between the private, domestic world and the concerns and activities of the wider society (McQuail, 2005:432)” has been eroded because citizens feel that their concerns and priorities have become secondary to the priorities of powerful state, economic and other “experts” who determine the news agenda. At the same time, there is a general sense that representative government or what is generally known as liberal democracy is losing its currency because citizens have developed a “habit of seeing the political system as indifferent and unresponsive” to their problems and their circumstances (Mathews, 1999:33). This study explores the potential of a more productive relationship between the media and citizens to rekindle and energise the role of citizens to contribute to the public work of solving common problems that face the wider society. This study proposes three theoretical frameworks – democratic professionalism, public journalism and deliberative democracy – with the potential to re-conceptualise the way journalists consider their professional role. This re-conceptualisation raises the possibility for reassessing the political work of journalists and the political work of citizens and build new habits of participation and discussion in the political process of communities.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In 'n stelsel van verteenwoordigende regering, word die media veronderstel as 'n belangrike instelling om publieke kwessies te weërspieël en die regering verantwoordelik te hou vir die wyse waarop dit hierdie publieke kwessies aanspreek. Hierdie rol word veronderstel in 'n denkraamwerk wat die media beskou as een van die instellings wat liberale demokrasie konsolideer as die sogenaamde “vierde pilaar” neffens die wetgewende, uitvoerende en geregtelike gesag. Die role word verder deur die media self gekonseptualiseer as ‘n identiteit rondom die idee dat joernaliste 'n "belangrike deel is van die politieke lewe" (Sparks, 1991:58). Hierdie studie ondersoek die geldigheid van hierdie gesag. Die studie dui daarop dat die media gesag het wat die moontlikheid bied om publieke kwessies aan te spreek op 'n manier wat van nut kan wees vir gewone burgers om die kloof tussen die private, huishoudelike wêreld en die sorg en die aktiwiteite van die breër gemeenskap te oorbrug (McQuail, 2005:432). Die gesag word ondermyn omdat gewone burgers voel hulle belange en prioriteite word sekondêr geag aan die magsbelang van die staat en ander "kenners" wat die nuus agenda bepaal. Terselfdertyd is daar 'n algemene persepsie dat verteenwoordigende die regering, of wat algemeen bekend staan as liberale demokrasie, geldigheid verloor omdat burgers voel dat die politieke stelsel onverskillig reageer op die probleme wat hulle ervaar. Hierdie studie ondersoek die potensiaal van 'n meer werkbare verhouding tussen die media en die burgery om die energie wat burgers in die openbare sfeer kan bydra te ontgin. Hierdie studie stel drie teoretiese raamwerke voor – demokratiese professionaliteit, openbare joernalistiek en beraadslagende demokrasie – wat moontlikhede bied om opnuut oor die professionele rol van joernaliste te besin. Hierdie “besinning” bied weer nuwe moontlikhede vir die politieke werk van joernaliste en die politieke werk van die burgery. Dit veronderstel nuwe gewoontes van deelname en gesprek in openbare politieke proses.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
The thesis investigates the motivations behind, the methods used in, and the results of the overseas students’ collective action contesting the measures, which the Australian government introduced from 1983 to 1996. As a group of temporary residents located outside the boundaries of domestic political systems, yet within the core of Australia’s revenue earnings, overseas students independently mobilised in an attempt to influence the Australian Government policy on education from a position of limited political, social and legal rights. As temporary residents on short-term permits fully regulated under prescribed immigration rules, overseas students employed conventional repertoires of contention— they established formal structures, adopted action tools, framed their claims, internationalised their protest, formed alliances — in an attempt to mobilise resources and access existing avenues to influence government’s export of education services policy. Their mobilisation response and campaign strategy achieved modest success in securing some policy concessions, particularly during the early stages of education aid reform. Their strategy, however had to evolve as the fledgling export of education services expanded and eventually they shifted their position to fully embrace and reinterpret the government’s own ‘language of liberalisation’, which they used to greater effectiveness in making subsequent claims. Overseas students ability to procure concessions is derived not from their political or universal rights to education, but from their ability to influence policy changes based on their importance and strategic location in the Australian economy. In other words, government, universities and industry stakeholders have increasingly become dependent on substantial revenue earnings derived from overseas students and have become susceptible to potential chaos that may be precipitated if current students withdrew from the economy, or potential students choosing alternative education service destinations.

Societal opportunities and challenges, whether they are personal, socio-political or cultural, are information-dependent in one way or another. Minimising the challenges and maximising the opportunities depend on the quality of information accessed and received; how people are enabled to think critically and independently about this information; what people choose to believe and why; and the process by which people choose to believe or reject and act upon certain information for problem solving. The purpose of this research is to explore how to improve the diffusion of media and information literacy (MIL) competencies for all citizens and to inform purpose-driven development of national MIL policies and strategies. Through a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, the research investigated youth responses to personal, social, economic, political and cultural challenges and opportunities online and offline before and after having acquired MIL related competencies. The research also examined how MIL experts/practitioners perceive MIL competencies and relevant policy framework factors for MIL applications in different societal contexts. The youth component of this dissertation employed a quasi-experimental research methodology adopted from other researchers. It involved a sample of 1735 youths between the ages 14 and 30 years who reflected on their knowledge of MIL and their attitude towards social and democratic issues such as freedom of expression, freedom of information, intercultural dialogue and interreligious dialogue. They then engaged in a three-month intervention (a Media and Information Literacy Massively Open Online Course) with the social and democratic issues embedded. The youth reflected on their attitudes once more through survey, journaling and online discussion forum. The MIL experts’/practitioners’ component of the research used survey techniques to engage a sample of 502 experts/practitioners. They reflected on the levels and types of involvement in MIL; rated and ranked broad MIL competencies as well as related policy context factors based on their expert/personal perspectives, as well as their more experiential and ‘objective’ perspectives of the actualities of MIL implemented in the countries they work. The findings indicate that the youths have genuine interest in social and democratic discourse issues and have acquired prior knowledge of MIL through either erstwhile studies or experience. They demonstrate diverse attitudes towards freedom of expression and freedom of information in various societal contexts and show some uncertainty about what are the best responses to these issues in some situations. The youths have a generally positive attitude to intercultural dialogue and interreligious dialogue and think that governments and the media can do more to promote peace by facilitating more open discourses on religious and intercultural tolerance. The youths surveyed reported varying degrees of change in their attitudes and actions concerning the social and democratic issues investigated. MIL experts/practitioners have convergent views on MIL competencies but also with some divergence. Less divergence exists in their assessment of MIL policy context factors at country levels. Greater involvement of MIL experts/practitioners in community level activities and advocacy has the potential to improve a broader framework of MIL.

The subject of this diploma thesis is the involvement of users of psychiatric care in the process of planning and realization of psychiatric care reform at the macro level of policy making. The aim of the research is to describe and understand this involvement. In the research are describer possibilities of participation in the phases of involvement, its form, purpose, formal regulation of opportunities, expectations of respondents, perceived power and barriers in involvement. The data was collected during interviews with key actors and studies of relevant documents. The results relate to the theoretical concepts of coproduction, patient-oriented care, strategic and human rights documents (the Convention on the Human Rights of People with Disabilities). The element of power is described through the typology of Sherry Arnstein's participation ladder. Evidence of interviews indicates elements of tokenism and disadvantages. There is a low (one-person) representation of users in reform bodies, lack of time for discussion in consultative bodies, lack of information and lack of capacity (people, time, resources) for greater development of patient organizations. Respondents have identified barriers as the socio-economic situation, lack of capacity for macro-level involvement, mental health constraints or...

In 1992, Augusto Boal, founder of the globally influential repertoire of performance techniques known as Theatre of the Oppressed, was elected as a vereador, essentially the equivalent of city councilor in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Boal and his office staff used theatre as their primary method for collecting citizen input about legislation. His term lasted from 1993 to 1997, and his office shepherded thirteen bills to their successful passage as law. This dissertation examines three twenty-first century Legislative Theatre projects, all drawing on techniques from Boal’s initial Legislative Theatre project but staged in North America. The case studies include Practicing Democracy, a 2004 production by Headlines Theatre in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, a project that directly engaged the Vancouver City Council; a Legislative Theatre workshop facilitated by Augusto Boal and his son Julian Boal as part of the pre-conference of the annual Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Conference in Omaha, Nebraska, in May 2008, an event that culminated with a performance in the Omaha City Council Chambers; and The Eye & Tooth Project: Forum Theatre on the Death Penalty, a 2009 workshop and performance in Austin, TX, exploring how participants could practice lobbying skills through theatre. With these three theatre processes as examples, I explain how using Forum Theatre as the primary method for Legislative Theatre constructs citizenship as a process of collective knowledge-building. These projects stage citizenship as a collaborative act through which citizens gather to teach each other about their experiences with policy. Each production differently constructs performance as a “think tank” epistemology—an embodied way of building and transferring knowledge about legislation. I describe how Legislative Theatre think tanks dismantle traditional discourses of “detached” expertise by constructing citizens themselves as experts. In the process of making these larger arguments, this dissertation also addresses a variety of practical questions useful for future practitioners of Legislative Theatre: How was each project designed? What were its goals? How did the creators apply performance toward those goals? How and why did they forge connections (or not) with lawmaking bodies? For what communities might the projects have been more or less accessible?
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As a social worker practising in long-term residential care for people living with dementia, I am alarmed by discourses in the media and health policy that construct persons living with dementia and their health care needs as a threatening “rising tide” or crisis. I am particularly concerned about the material effects such dominant discourses, and the values they uphold, might have on the collective provision of care and support for our elderly citizens in the present neoliberal economic and political context of health care. To better understand how dominant discourses about dementia work at this time when Canada’s population is aging and the number of persons living with dementia is anticipated to increase, I have rooted my thesis in poststructural methodology. My research method is a discourse analysis, which draws on Foucault’s archaeological and genealogical concepts, to examine two contemporary health policy documents related to dementia care – one national and one provincial. I also incorporate some poetic representation – or found poetry – to write up my findings. While deconstructing and disrupting taken for granted dominant crisis discourses on dementia in health policy, my research also makes space for alternative constructions to support discursive and health policy possibilities in solidarity with persons living with dementia so that they may thrive.
Graduate
0452
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macsuz@shaw.ca