Research

Researchers at the Open University who have made major contributions to a discipline called systems thinking have just celebrated 40 years of achievement and marked the occasion with a conference at the London School of Economics (LSE) (June 2012).

The LSE event was hosted by Professor Ray Ison, Professor of Systems at the Open University and Professor Eileen Munro CBE, Professor of Social Policy at the LSE. The question that the event posed was how systems thinking and practice can be better “harnessed” for public policy purposes. There was general agreement among those at the conference that those who use systems thinking and practice in public sector settings know, through experience, and evidence in the public record, that systemic approaches deliver benefits. Despite this evidence, much public policy is framed and designed without systematic sensibility.

Helen Wilding one of the Open University’s first Systems Thinking in Practice (STiP) alumnus, gave an inspiring talk on using systems approaches for the double-stranded process of helping groups to work together to understand and seek to improve wellbeing and health and then to extend this to wider partnership working.

Commenting on the LSE event, Helen said:

“Yesterday, I got to meet a number of systems thinkers in the flesh. It was at a joint event arranged by Professor Eileen Munro of the LSE and Professor Ray Ison at the OU…partly to mark 40 years of systems teaching at the OU.

“There were about 30/35 people there – mostly handpicked through systems and public sector networks. Eileen and Ray had designed it as a systemic inquiry using conversational mapping in small table groups. It is easy to get enthused in a room like that – the energy levels were amazing – and the mark of any good meeting is that people didn’t quickly dash off at the end.”

Find out more: 

• Read Ray Ison's blog
• Study for a qualification in Systems thinking and practice
• Listen to the OU podcast on iTunes: Rio+20 - United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development
   

Postgraduate research projects which analyse the hairs on fruit fly wings to learn about human ageing, predict the length of volcano eruptions and investigate the influence of imported tractors on reducing poverty in Africa, were among the winners at the Open University Postgraduate Research Poster Competition held in June.

Councillor Catriona Morris, Mayor of Milton Keynes, presented the winners of the competition with their prizes. Seven of the prize winners will represent the University at the Vitae Midlands Hub competition. The Mayor was very impressed with the diversity of research topics and the standard of the presentations. She was particularly interested in Alex Rowbotham’s work investigating local communities’ involvement in the design of the proposed waterway that will link Milton Keynes and Bedford.

The winners going on to compete in the Midlands Hub final on Thursday 12 July at the Herbert Art Gallery in Coventry are:

Arts
Alice Smalley, who used GIS to determine where crimes reported in the C19th illustrated Police News actually took place.

Engineering/Mathematics & Statistics/Computing
Andrew Agyei-Holmes, who is exploring the value of importing western and eastern tractors in his project, Capital Goods in the Agricultural Sector and Poverty Reduction in Tanzania

Science
Anthony Davenport, who is paving the way for smaller, faster computers through the use of graphene in his project, Enhancing the Gap

Pratima Chennuri, who used Fruit Flies to investigate the Role of DNA Damage in Ageing

Marcus Lohr, who presented research into Variable Stars and Stellar Mergers

Leanne Gunn, who developed a new system for forecasting model eruption durations in her project, The Duration of Icelandic Volcanic Eruptions.

Social Sciences
Clare Mumford, who presented on finding a voice in business in her project, Voice and silence in collaborative project work

Other category winners were:
Arts
Alice Smalley, who used GIS to determine where crimes reported in the C19th illustrated Police News actually took place.

Engineering/Mathematics & Statistics/Computing
Andrew Agyei-Holmes, who is exploring the value of importing western and eastern tractors in his project, Capital Goods in the Agricultural Sector and Poverty Reduction in Tanzania

Social Sciences
Clare Mumford, who presented on finding a voice in business in her project, Voice and silence in collaborative project work.

Science
Anthony Davenport, who is paving the way for smaller, faster computers through the use of graphene in his project, Enhancing the Gap.

Other winners were:
Natalie Canning in Social Sciences won the Open University Students Association prize for her research into What factors contribute to children’s empowerment in child initiated social play?

Loes Koorenhof in Life Science for her research Characterising the Neuro-Physiology of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Now in its seventh year the Postgraduate Poster Competition is going from strength to strength, with over 51 students showcasing their research.

As Head Judge, Dr Verina Waights, explained ‘this competition prepares students to share their research ideas with the general public – a must for researchers in the 21st century”.

Find out more:

• Winning posters and all of the posters entered for the competition
   
• Postgraduate research at the OU

 

Donna Smith puts the media coverage of gay politicians under the microscope in a new book based on research for her OU PhD. 

Donna is a senior manager in the Faculty of Social Sciences as well as a tutor on DD131 and DD306. She’s just completed  her PhD and poured her research findings into a book entitled Sex, Lies and Politics: Gay Politicians in the Press which offers analysis of the changing representation of gay politicians in the UK press from the 1950s onwards.

Here she talks to video camera about gay politicians, media coverage, public opinion and spin doctors…

 

 

Donna has also blogged for Society Matters on Platform about ‘gay marriage and what really matters’.

 

Find out more:

• More about Donna's book
• Donna's book on Amazon page
• Follow Donna Smith on Twitter