PRISM is a network of postgraduate and early career researchers based in universities across the UK and overseas, who are engaged with the conceptualisation as well as the applied practice of sustainability-related research.
The network emerged through a group of researchers at the University of Gloucestershire and is supported by the European Commission through the Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship Programme. PRISM hosts regular interactive and topical research seminars at the University of Gloucestershire and communicates through a JISCmail group.
It is widely acknowledged that the complexities of sustainability require forms of research activity that challenge boundaries at several interfaces, not least between academic disciplines, across professional roles and in relation to personal values. The new conceptual and practical spaces that are being uncovered by innovative sustainability research provide a landscape rich with potential for academic practice and to advance human understanding of the sustainability challenges we face.
In recent years sustainability has become an increasingly fashionable research topic, the focus of new inter-disciplinary research funding streams and a powerful attractor for the next generation of researchers. However, despite this acceleration of interest and the growth in numbers of doctoral and post-doctoral studies focusing their studies in the area, there are still very limited opportunities for postgraduate and early career researchers, as well as their mentors and peers, to share discussions and insights on critical agendas and research issues.
PRISM Events
PRISM Conference - “The Interdisciplinary Researcher: Paradigms, Practices and Possibilities for Sustainability” University of Gloucestershire 19 - 20 May 2011
Please click on image for PRISM Conference Programme.
The conference is founded on the impulse to support the professional and academic development of the next cadre of innovative inter-disciplinary sustainability researchers. Its core aims are:
- To gain an overview of international developments and trends in interdisciplinary research in sustainability.
- To explore conceptual debates on research paradigms for an interdisciplinary approach to sustainability.
- To share practice on and opportunities for interdisciplinary research in sustainability.
The conference, invited keynote and expert sessions who addressed these themes and provide targeted discussion space, so that participants could discuss the conceptual, methodological and socio-political dimensions of the widest range of inter-disciplinary research inquiries on sustainability questions. Opportunities provided participants at all levels and from all backgrounds to contribute through interactive presentations and posters.
PRISM Conference Reports:
PRISM Conference Report.
This report is published in the Journal Natures Sciences Sociétés, Issue 2 of 2012
ENSI PRISM Report.
PRISM Seminars
Reports from PRISM seminars, which explored the challenges of interdisciplinary research in the area of sustainability are listed below.
- Exploring Intercultural and Interdisciplinary Research in Sustainability Education
Professor Martin Haigh, Oxford Brookes University
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- “Managing Life, Managing Country; Research methods which connect Aboriginal and Western Scientific knowledge for a sustainable future”
Dr. Margot Ford, School of Education, University of Newcastle, Australia
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- “Critical Realism and Interdisciplinary Research
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- “Interdisciplinary Research and Sustainability”
Dr Jenneth Parker, University of Bristol
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- “Making a World of Difference: Rethinking Sustainability Research”
Prof. Daniella Tilbury, University of Gloucestershire
If you would like to join the PRISM network either go to www.jiscmail.ac.uk and join the PRISM list or email either PRISM@jiscmail.ac.uk or Prof Daniella Tilbury at dtilbury@glos.ac.uk.