tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/ted-16170/articlesTED – The Conversation2017-05-11T14:46:24Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/765972017-05-11T14:46:24Z2017-05-11T14:46:24ZWhen I grow up, I want to be a researcher…<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168978/original/file-20170511-32618-121i8zo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In the molecular-chemistry laboratory of the Ecole Polytechnique at the Université Paris-Saclay.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/117994717@N06/16276695722/in/photolist-qNjjyS-RJf5zq-SydeGo-SKK7PN-SydeMU-kdfJux-pghoEs-SydeJs-qhnsqh-kdgcRK-qi4GAe-S7aSMt-qpiVVY-q4hbzf-RRxdv7-RRxdJJ-RRxdNb-r43uzP-rmdhWN-kdgvpc-v2FyEj-kdiBGh-m19BYT-RRxdrj-q4dAL6-kdjpUN-r3SNj2-saTpbX-TkGfyT-TkGfo2-moun8B-rRBt2D-pQYXn2-q4hDxm-rdWrjw-kdhMKp-t7M5qf-kdhMBP-kXDGXt-q4cWB2-qkvStn-rgNhHq-r8CMvT-qdNA1m-kdfLnv-puzvgM-kdhPP5-qKjy9g-kdhTSA-kdhTqo">Ecole polytechnique, Université Paris-Saclay/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>“So what’s your PhD topic again?"…</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Nowadays, this is the question most commonly asked to early-career researchers, and the answer is becoming more and more complex. While an interdisciplinary approach is favoured in English-speaking world, the French academic system often keeps doctoral students within methodological limits.</p>
<p>So why maintain such an inflexible, discipline-focused system? How can young researchers make their fields and the scientific foundation on which the build their work their own?</p>
<h2>Breaking down boundaries: the end of labels</h2>
<p>A basic trend: The longstanding boundaries between classic disciplines are breaking down or, at least, being blurred, and many academics feel disoriented. One explanation for this radical shift is probably the development of new media. While "traditionalists” try to hold on to their “specialties”, open-minded researchers use new technologies to break down the walls between disciplines. Indeed, since the 1980s, the English-speaking research world has witnessed the birth of new fields of multidisciplinary research. A model from which France and other countries have begun to draw inspiration in the last decade.</p>
<p>For 21st-century PhD students – the first generation of “digital natives” – the web has been a simple fact for their entire lives. They tend to refuse labels, and unlike their predecessors, early career researchers do not want to choose between specialties, methodologies, schools of thought or countries. They want to embrace them all.</p>
<p>And why would they have to choose, anyway? Thanks to the Internet they have access to almost unlimited knowledge, through MOOCs, TED talks, online publications… In a nutshell, open sources. Many doctoral candidates have graduated with two or three masters and followed several transdisciplinary pathways already. They are thus entitled to diversify their experience, and they wish to keep this privilege, and even cultivate it, when writing their thesis.</p>
<h2>“Y generation” researchers</h2>
<p>The training of the current generation of researchers – strewn with pitfalls and migrations – is not so “unusual” anymore. In a sense, their professional lives will be that way as well. For “Y generation” researchers, a certain volatility becomes necessary, if not essential, to fully comprehend new nomadic objects of research. Why not dissect a Latin text in the same way we examine DNA? Could a philosopher learn something from an examination of African tax systems?</p>
<p>For the 2016 <a href="http://jijc2016.event.univ-lorraine.fr/jijc_accueil.php">Early Career Researchers conference</a> at the University of Lorraine, PhD students discussed their take on interdisciplinarity and its potential benefits. The 2017 edition takes place on June 16 this year returns with a new theme: <a href="https://jijc2017.event.univ-lorraine.fr/?forward-action=index&forward-controller=index&lang=e">“Which questions for what research? The Humanities at the crossroads of disciplines”</a>.</p>
<h2>Asking the right questions</h2>
<p>In 2017 we need to discover what kinds of questions are being asked in research. What are the purposes of research? Which questions best correspond to which types of research? What is our take on fundamental research? What is the split between social-science research, applied research, or interventionist research? With the multiplication of ground-breaking concepts, should research fields be restructured?</p>
<p>How particular disciplines are mastered is clearly defined by French institutions, such as the National Counsel of Universities or the competitive exams for secondary-school teaching in the French national education system. Therefore, we should question the legitimisation of new fields of research within a given academic institutional system. As such, cultural studies have often been strongly criticised in France, whereas their popularity within the English-speaking world is easily understandable considering their interdisciplinary nature.</p>
<p>Certain disciplines taught at universities also have their equivalent in the secondary-school system, and many research departments limit their recruitment of lecturers to candidates who have passed the secondary-school exam. Notwithstanding the many differences between teaching in secondary school and conducting research at university, should academics in France continue this historical mode of recruitment? Can research fields be as easily delimited as the disciplinary knowledge one needs to teach in secondary schools? This issue is all the more pressing as new technologies bolster the constant evolution of research questions. Can they enable the Y generation of researchers to free themselves from the ancient methods of “mastering” disciplines and go beyond the more “traditional” fields of research?</p>
<h2>Towards enhanced research</h2>
<p>While fields of research are increasingly changing, should they all intersect and perfectly match taught disciplines, or could they be much more enriched and flexible? A good example is gender studies, which combines history, psychology, sociology and even medicine. Similarly, shouldn’t we consider research fields within the context and needs of society? It is only logical to question the axiological positioning of the researcher with regard to political militancy or societal debates, especially when their research deals with current affairs.</p>
<p>Moreover, an increasing number of companies and other organisations are now proposing collaborations and partnerships with researchers. Industrial agreements for training through research (for example, the French <a href="http://www.anrt.asso.fr/fr/espace_cifre/accueil.jsp">CIFRE program</a>) establish a partnership between a partner – most often a firm – a research department, and a PhD student. What methodologies can be applied in such collaborations? How do we reconcile the researcher’s methods and the partners’ expectations? We also need to question the uses and the limits such cooperative efforts. Concisely put: how do we distinguish between disciplines? Should we talk about a disciplinary area or should we replace it with the definition of a research domain? Is the creation of inter- and/or trans-disciplinary research teams always necessary? Are they really beneficial?</p>
<p>Facing the multiplication of such questions, early-career researchers need to develop innovative research practices and find ways to address the position of today’s researchers.</p>
<h2>Novel practices, new questions</h2>
<p>For its 2017 edition, the organisers of the Early Career Researchers conference invite PhD students of all <strong>disciplinary backgrounds</strong> to reflect on the following axes:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>What epistemological and deontological approaches should researchers adopt today?</p></li>
<li><p>What are the implications of the human factors behind research?</p></li>
<li><p>Which methodolog(y/ies) for what research: where are the boundaries between disciplines?</p></li>
<li><p>Inter/transdisciplinarity and the contributions of research and new technologies to society: how can different perspectives be reconciled?</p></li>
<li><p>How does research interact with its foundations?</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Far from being an isolated initiative, those considerations are beginning to be tackled at international congresses. These include the 2017 PhD colloquium of the <a href="http://congres2017.saesfrance.org/texte-de-cadrage-en/">French Society for the Study of English (SAES)</a>, to be held June 1-3 in Reims, and <a href="https://studies.hypotheses.org/">“Designations of Disciplines and Their Content: The Paradigm of Studies”</a>, which took place at Paris 13–USPC in January 2017.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>It is with this in mind that the early-career researcher conference will be held June 16, 2017, in Metz, France. For more information, visit the <a href="https://jijc2017.event.univ-lorraine.fr/?forward-action=index&forward-controller=index&lang=en">conference website</a>.</em></p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jérémy Filet is a member of the steering comitee of the Early Career Researchers International Conference 2017 (JIJC2017). He has been awarded a Doctoral contract to write his PhD thesis in the Research Lab "Interdisciplinarity in English Studies" (IDEA), and he teaches English at the University of Lorraine (France).
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lisa Jeanson est membre du comité de pilotage de la Journée Internationale des Jeunes Chercheurs 2017 (JIJC2017). Elle effectue une thèse en Cifre chez le Groupe PSA au sein du laboratoire PErSEUs de l'Université de Lorraine spécialisé dans l'expérience utilisateur. </span></em></p>How do we and should we work with the first generation “digital native” doctoral researchers?Jérémy Filet, Doctorant en civilisation Britannique du XVIIIème siècle, Université de LorraineLisa Jeanson, Doctorante en Ergonomie Cognitive, Université de LorraineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/593732016-06-13T20:07:23Z2016-06-13T20:07:23ZHow citizen scientists discovered a giant cluster of galaxies<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123496/original/image-20160523-9565-nfgf8r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C261%2C1053%2C642&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The new discovery: The C-shaped “wide angle tail galaxy” (pink) surrounded by the galaxies of the Matorny-Terentev cluster (white).</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Julie Banfield</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It used to be that you had to have years of training before you could participate in cutting-edge science.</p>
<p>But that has changed, with the power of the internet enabling thousands of ordinary people to contribute to one of humanity’s most exciting endeavours from the comfort of their homes.</p>
<p><a href="http://mnras.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/05/05/mnras.stw1067">It was announced</a> in May that a cluster of galaxies millions of light years away was discovered by a team of citizen scientists clicking on images on their computers at home.</p>
<h2>Citizen science</h2>
<p>Citizen Science first became prominent in 2006 with the launch of <a href="http://stardustathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/">Stardust@home</a> by the University of California-Berkeley, quickly followed in 2007 by <a href="https://www.galaxyzoo.org/">Galaxy Zoo</a>, which aimed to classify galaxies from optical images.</p>
<p>Now, many such citizen science projects span all fields of science from astronomy to biology. </p>
<p>The idea is simple: the average human brain is far superior to our most powerful computers when it comes to problems like image recognition.</p>
<p>So citizen science projects combine the brainpower of thousands of ordinary people to solve some of science’s most challenging problems. </p>
<p>What do the citizen scientists get out of it? In most cases, the knowledge that they are helping to expand the frontiers of human knowledge. And perhaps the chance of making a truly great discovery.</p>
<h2>The EMU project</h2>
<p>The Evolutionary Map of the Universe (<a href="http://www.atnf.csiro.au/people/Ray.Norris/emu/index.html">EMU</a>) project will survey the radio sky using CSIRO’s new A$165-million <a href="http://www.atnf.csiro.au/projects/askap">ASKAP</a> telescope being built in Western Australia, to understand how galaxies form and evolve.</p>
<p>We expect EMU to discover about 70-million galaxies from their radio emission, compared to the 2.5-million so far known. </p>
<p>But we have a problem: to get the best science, we need to cross-match these radio sources with galaxies spotted by infrared and optical telescopes, and no research team has enough members to match 70-million objects by eye.</p>
<p>About half of EMU’s radio sources are galaxies like our own Milky Way, with radio emission resulting from the debris of star formation, so that the radio source is easily matched to the optical galaxy. </p>
<p>The other half are caused by jets of electrons squirting out from a massive black hole at the centre of the galaxy, producing two giant blobs of radio emission either side of the galaxy.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123306/original/image-20160520-4481-1rv64ju.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123306/original/image-20160520-4481-1rv64ju.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123306/original/image-20160520-4481-1rv64ju.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123306/original/image-20160520-4481-1rv64ju.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123306/original/image-20160520-4481-1rv64ju.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123306/original/image-20160520-4481-1rv64ju.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123306/original/image-20160520-4481-1rv64ju.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123306/original/image-20160520-4481-1rv64ju.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A radio galaxy (Hercules A) powered by a black hole, based on image from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, showing the radio emission (red) superimposed on the optical emission (white).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Credits for original image: NASA, ESA, S. Baum and C O'Dea (RIT), R Perley and W Cotton (NRAO/AUI/NS), and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>EMU will see them as three blobs of emission in a line. But how can you distinguish one of these triple monsters from a line of three single galaxies like the Milky Way? It’s hard. </p>
<p>Clever automated algorithms, such as neural networks, are still in their infancy, and not yet up to the task. But the human brain is really good at this. </p>
<p>In 2010 I visited Chris Lintott at the University of Oxford. Chris was one of the founders of Galaxy Zoo, and I wanted to know if we could build something like Galaxy Zoo to solve EMU’s problem.</p>
<h2>The Radio Galaxy Zoo</h2>
<p>And thus Radio Galaxy Zoo (<a href="https://radio.galaxyzoo.org/">RGZ</a>) was born, with two young scientists, Julie Banfield from ANU, and Ivy Wong from the University of Western Australia, taking over responsibility for leading it.</p>
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A screenshot from RGZ.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Radio Galaxy Zoo</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After two years of designing the interface, and trying out prototypes, RGZ was launched in December 2013. Since then, RGZ has been enormously successful, with about 10,000 people matching up the sources, resulting in some 1.6 million cross-matches.</p>
<p>Mainstream science moves forward on two different paths. Perhaps the better known is the painstaking analysis needed to test a hypothesis or understand how something works, like searching for the <a href="http://home.cern/topics/higgs-boson">Higgs boson</a> with the Large Hadron Collider.</p>
<p>This way solves the “known unknowns” of science. The other path is when scientists unexpectedly stumble across something they weren’t looking for and weren’t expecting – an “unknown unknown”, such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-mysterious-dark-energy-that-speeds-the-universes-rate-of-expansion-40224">Dark Energy</a>.</p>
<p>Citizen Science is the same. Radio Galaxy Zoo asks people to match up images taken with radio telescopes with those taken with infrared telescopes. It’s hard work, but very important if we are to make sense of our universe. </p>
<p>Occasionally, they stumble across major discoveries.</p>
<h2>Galaxy cluster</h2>
<p>Two Russian citizen scientists, <a href="https://blog.galaxyzoo.org/2016/04/18/exclusive-interview-with-our-recent-citizen-science-co-authors/">Ivan Terentev and Tim Matorny</a>, were cross-matching the radio and infrared sources in RGZ, when they noticed something odd about one of the radio sources.</p>
<p>“They found something that none of us had even thought would be possible,” Dr Banfield said.</p>
<p>What the Russians had found was just one of a line of radio blobs that delineate a C-shaped “wide angle tail galaxy”.</p>
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A C-shaped ‘wide angle tail galaxy’, showing the jets blown back as the galaxy flies through the intergalactic gas. Diagram by the author, based on image from National Radio Astronomy Observatory.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Associated Universities, Inc</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>These rare objects are caused by electron jets ejected from a massive black hole, but in this case they are blown sideways by their flight through the intergalactic gas, making them bend into a C shape.</p>
<p>The characteristic bent tails are a sure sign that there is intergalactic gas, signifying a cluster of galaxies, the largest known objects in the universe. </p>
<p>The wide-angle tail galaxy discovered by Terentev and Matorny is one of the largest known, and its host cluster is now known as the Matorny-Terentev cluster. </p>
<p>This cluster, more than a billion light years away, contains at least 40 galaxies, marking an intersection of the sheets and filaments of the cosmic web that make up our universe. </p>
<p>Despite their cosmic importance, clusters are notoriously hard to find, and wide angle tail galaxies may turn out to be one of the best ways of finding them. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, finding the wide angle tails themselves amongst the millions of radio sources is like finding a needle in a haystack.</p>
<p>The discovery was detailed in a <a href="http://mnras.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/05/05/mnras.stw1067">paper published</a> this month in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.</p>
<p>Clusters are poorly understood, but are key to understanding how our universe is put together. This discovery takes us a step closer to figuring it out.</p>
<p>So what’s next? Obviously, RGZ will continue, and who knows what other discoveries may emerge. But not even RGZ is fast enough to classify all of EMU’s 70-million galaxies, and our <a href="https://theconversation.com/machine-learning-and-big-data-know-it-wasnt-you-who-just-swiped-your-credit-card-48561">machine learning</a> algorithms are too dumb to do it well. </p>
<p>So, instead, we will harness the power of RGZ to train our machine-learning algorithms. Future RGZ citizen scientists will not just be classifying galaxies, they will be teaching the next-generation algorithms how to do it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59373/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ray Norris does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The find by citizen scientists of at least 40 galaxies in a cluster more than a billion light years away is the astronomical equivalent of finding a needle in a haystack.Ray Norris, Professor, School of Computing, Engineering, & Maths, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/487872015-10-14T03:55:53Z2015-10-14T03:55:53ZWorld’s largest radio telescope must tap into Africa’s fascination with night skies<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98084/original/image-20151012-17811-1y59wwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People throughout Africa can play a part in the work of the Square Kilometre Array even if they are not scientists.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Mike Hutchings</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The world’s largest and most powerful <a href="http://www.ska.ac.za/qa/">radio telescope</a>, which is to be constructed in South Africa from 2017, has the potential to stimulate interest in astronomy across Africa by tapping into the continent’s traditions of watching the night skies. </p>
<p>The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will be used by scientists to understand how the universe evolved as well as how stars and galaxies form and change. </p>
<p>Traditionally, <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=TMZMAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA280&lpg=PA280&dq=tradition+of+night+sky+watching+in+africa">astronomy</a> on the continent is associated with a history of watching the night sky without the help of telescopes. Such indigenous or cultural astronomy relates to how local cultures interact with celestial bodies. </p>
<p>Africa has a continuing tradition of artistic representations of celestial bodies in identifiable forms, including stars, constellations, the moon, the sun and eclipses. </p>
<p>As no borders exist in the sky it is a shared resource. The night sky is a source of inspiration and fascination used for navigation, time keeping, calendaring and monitoring <a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/menses">menses</a> and fertility cycles. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/538461e8-3586-11df-963f-00144feabdc0.html">Tuareg</a> in the Sahara, East Africa’s <a href="http://www.omniglot.com/writing/swahili.htm">Swahili</a> and <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=TMZMAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA280&lpg=PA280&dq=tradition+of+night+sky+watching+in+africa&source=bl&ots=ghVYBkoPMn&sig=Ct-xRNlzoVtuNnyoWFpBYLFKd88&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=tradition%20of%20night%20sky%20watching%20in%20afri&f=false">people</a> afar as Eritrea and Djibouti are renowned for their dexterity with navigation.</p>
<h2>Stimulating astronomy</h2>
<p>When the decision to co-host the SKA in South Africa and Australia was reached in 2012, it opened the door for collaboration on the African continent. </p>
<p>The arid regions of South Africa are ideal for the high and medium frequency arrays which are vital for the <a href="https://www.skatelescope.org/africa/">SKA</a>. The groundbreaking, continent-wide telescope has a central computer with a capacity of the processing power of about 100 million personal computers. </p>
<p>But South Africa is not the sole host for the components of the SKA in Africa. Eight other African countries will provide sites for radio telescopes that feed the network supplying scientists with the world’s most advanced radio astronomy array. These are Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia and Zambia. The sheer distribution of the countries provides an opportunity to stimulate interest in astronomy through citizen science on the continent.</p>
<h2>Peoples’ science</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.birds.cornell.edu/citscitoolkit/about/definition">Citizen science</a> is the practice of public participation and collaboration in scientific research to increase scientific knowledge. It is referred to as the the involvement of volunteers in science through active participation without pay. People share and contribute to data monitoring and collection programs.</p>
<p>Often, the natural phenomena that scientists hope to assess have vast geographical distributions that make it cumbersome to study with conventional research methods. </p>
<p>The participation of volunteers enables an enormous geographical reach and gives the public an insight into the scientific process and closer connection to nature. </p>
<h2>How volunteers help</h2>
<p>The Citizen Science blog <a href="http://cosmoquest.org/x/about/">CosmoQuest</a> suggests that, just as it takes a whole village to raise a child, it takes a global community to raise the understanding of science. </p>
<p>Volunteers assist in a variety of ways. These include taking pictures of night skies to give insights on light pollution. They also report on the seasonal changes in plants to understand the impact of climate change. In some cases they take rainfall measurements to assist weather reporting and research, as well as viewing the night skies for space exploration. </p>
<p>Scientific knowledge has consequently been made more easily accessible through the media such as science blogs, social media, <a href="https://www.ted.com/about/our-organization">TED Talks</a> and the <a href="https://www.khanacademy.org/">Khan Academy</a>. Similarly, the experimental side of science is coming to the doorstep of the layman by the kind courtesy of citizen science programs.</p>
<h2>Examples</h2>
<p>There are several examples of thriving citizen science programmes around the world. <a href="https://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/Sustainability/Pages/MelbourneBioBlitz.aspx">BioBlitz</a> is the city of Melbourne’s initial citizen science programme. It has used the public to conduct a survey of animals and plants in the city. Volunteers have since become involved in Melbourne’s ecology strategy.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.globeatnight.org/">Globe at Night</a> is a global citizen-science drive to increase public awareness on the effects of light pollution. Citizen scientists are invited to assess the brightness of their night sky and send their observations to a website from a computer or smartphone.</p>
<p>Because of a history of the earth being hit by asteroids – huge rocks in space that can result in significant damage upon collision – the <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/asteroids/news/asteroid_initiative.html#.VhthH_mqqko">NASA</a> Asteroid Initiative was launched two years ago. It gives citizens a voice in the decision-making of space exploration to protect the earth from potentially hazardous impacts.</p>
<h2>Opportunities for Africa</h2>
<p>Many countries on the continent have space clubs, astronomy societies, and planetariums associated with educational institutions suitable for teaching and public viewing.</p>
<p>Lay people and volunteers can join space related activities such as recording and identifying changes and features in many solar system bodies. They identify and track solar storms, observe and create light curves of variable stars, take and upload astrophotographs to a database of outer planet images and search images for tracks left by interplanetary dust grains. </p>
<p>Counting stars in certain constellations sometime during a four-day period to determine light pollution is not beyond the ambit of the lay person. </p>
<p>This is potentially an exciting time and opportunity for astronomy and citizen science in Africa.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/48787/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Felix Donkor does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Citizen science will ensure that the skies have no limit when it comes to research, as ordinary people are encouraged to take part in simple acts of exploration.Felix Donkor, Doctoral Researcher, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/468942015-08-31T17:40:26Z2015-08-31T17:40:26ZRe-Designing the Conference<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93444/original/image-20150831-25774-1316qrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93444/original/image-20150831-25774-1316qrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93444/original/image-20150831-25774-1316qrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93444/original/image-20150831-25774-1316qrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93444/original/image-20150831-25774-1316qrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93444/original/image-20150831-25774-1316qrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93444/original/image-20150831-25774-1316qrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93444/original/image-20150831-25774-1316qrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">View from the 2015 Cultures-Based Innovation Symposium at the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Elizabeth Tunstall</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I recently concluded the Americas <a href="http://cbinnovation.net/">Cultures-Based Innovation</a> (CBI) Symposium, co-hosted by the <a href="http://www.banffcentre.ca/">Banff Centre</a> in Calgary, Canada. Being the third time that I have co-organised a CBI Symposium, I now know that the design of its structure effectively achieves its intention, namely, to build deep relationships among its 15-20 participants.</p>
<p>The undisputed fact of the love I feel for the last Symposium’s fifteen participants, all within five days, prompts me to ask the question:
</p><blockquote>Why are so many conferences based on the value of sharing ideas instead of deepening relationships among the participants?</blockquote><p></p>
<p><strong>TED and the ultimate sharing of ideas</strong><br>
Richard Saul Wurman’s <a href="https://www.ted.com/">TED Conference</a> has become one of the most successful contemporary conference forms. There is the <a href="http://nymag.com/news/features/ted-conferences-2012-3/">expensive elite</a> TED conference, in which established and emerging individuals in the fields of technology, entertainment, and design present his or her ideas.</p>
<p>Under Chris Anderson’s leadership in 2001 and as a result of the viral popularity of the TED Talks videos, the more democratic TEDx was formed to extend TED’s reach as a conference brand. </p>
<p>Yet, TED explicitly states that it is about “spreading ideas that matter.” Presenters become rock stars on the conference circuit, but one does not build relationships with them.</p>
<p>In spite of its presentational and digital sexiness, TED still maintains the old form of a conference, which includes expert speakers sharing ideas on a stage, passive audience members, and curated agenda within a closed space. Another model for the conference is the UnConference.</p>
<p><strong>UnConference model</strong> <br>
The UnConference is based on the <a href="http://elementaleducation.com/wp-content/uploads/temp/OpenSpaceTechnology--UsersGuide.pdf">Open Space Technology</a> concept developed by Harrison Owen. In an UnConference, the agenda and presenters are co-constructed by all the participants within the first hour. </p>
<p>Then from a period of time ranging from a day to five days, the participants implement their own conference sessions and reporting mechanism. Kaliya Hamlin from <a href="http://www.unconference.net/unconferencing-how-to-prepare-to-attend-an-unconference/">UncConference.net</a> provides a good description:</p>
<blockquote>The term “unconference” arose as people in the technology industry started making conferences that stepped out of the traditional models, which had involved presentations selected months beforehand, panels of speakers, industry sponsors talking about their products, and “trade show” exhibits.</blockquote>
<p>The Open Space Technology that under-girds the UnConference is focused on sharing ideas, but also has a deep commitment to building relationships. This derives from Owen’s inspiration from Indigenous knowledge systems of initiation ritual in Liberia and even the Talking Stick Ceremonies of Native Americans.</p>
<p>UnConferences seek to attain the objectives that <a href="http://elementaleducation.com/wp-content/uploads/temp/OpenSpaceTechnology--UsersGuide.pdf">Owen</a> lays out in his system:</p>
<blockquote>[To have the] time and space for participants to meet in whatever configuration seems appropriate in order to pursue the business at hand.</blockquote>
<p>The “business at hand” in an UnConference often stems for the sharing of ideas that will help an organisation or company meet specific goals. In a relational conference, the business at hand is relationships.</p>
<p><strong>Designs on a relational conference</strong><br>
The Cultures-Based Innovation Symposiums are designed as relational conferences, where the ultimate goal is the building of deep relationship among the participants. Thus, all the activities of the conference are structured to break down the barriers that keep people from presenting their authentic selves to others and to build up group solidarity.</p>
<p>For the Cultures-Based Innovation Symposiums, there are three design features that emphasise the relational over the transactional:</p>
<p></p><li>Extended introductions,</li><p></p>
<p></p><li>Emergent ideation, and</li><p></p>
<p></p><li>Performative ceremony as outcome.</li><br><p></p>
<p><strong>Extended introductions</strong><br></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93445/original/image-20150831-25714-1q12f9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93445/original/image-20150831-25714-1q12f9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93445/original/image-20150831-25714-1q12f9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93445/original/image-20150831-25714-1q12f9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93445/original/image-20150831-25714-1q12f9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93445/original/image-20150831-25714-1q12f9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93445/original/image-20150831-25714-1q12f9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93445/original/image-20150831-25714-1q12f9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">2015 CBI participants listening to extended introductions in a circle.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Elizabeth Tunstall</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The extended introduction is the main design feature that emphasises a relational focus. Normally when one introduces oneself in a conference, one gives a name, job title, place of residence or country of origin, and maybe a short description of the reason for attending the event. The introduction might last one to three minutes. The main information that is communicated is the person’s potential status in the group.</p>
<p>The extended introduction lasts from 30 minutes to one hour. With 15-20 participants, the process takes up the first two days of a five-day symposium. The joy of the process is for a person to realise that the space is completely open to express him or herself because no one will interrupt the narrative. A typical scenario goes like this:</p>
<blockquote>A woman shyly starts with the typical three-minute introduction of name, job, residence, and reason for attending, and pauses. Since she holds the metaphorical and sometimes real talking stick, no one says anything. To fill the silence, she begins to explain the origin of her name and its relationship to her grandmother with whom she was extreme close.<br><br>
She spends the next fifteen minutes describing her relationship to her various family members and all the places she has lived, growing more relaxed each passing minute. She segues into a description of what she does for a living, her training or education that brought her there, and how her family still does not understand what she does. The laughter of the others encourages her.<br><br>
Someone might now ask a question about where is the bliss in her life. She recounts the experiences that have most inflamed her passions, jumping across time and space, to interweave a narrative of what has the most meaning for her in her projects, travels, or daily interactions with people. Forty-five minutes or an hour in total duration, she closes her narrative by almost whispering, “I have never told anyone all of this before.”</blockquote>
<p>The intention of the extended introduction is to locate the importance of the holistic person within the context of family, community, and the journey of life. By allowing a person to fill the space, the speaker feels truly heard, which then establishes a sense of trust and intimacy with the other participants that is not based on status, but his or her authentic self.</p>
<p>In the last two <a href="http://cbinnovation.net/">CBI Symposiums</a>, my co-hosts and I have allowed people to do formal PowerPoint or multimedia presentations in order to show visual work. Yet, I believe the most effective design is the unscripted story told outdoors in a circle or over a meal.</p>
<p>The intensity of the sharing in the first two days of the relational conference requires time on the third day to reground the participants in nature. It is then on the fourth day when the group synthesises the themes of people lives into three common areas of reflection, interest, and potential action.</p>
<p><strong>Emergent ideation</strong><br></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93446/original/image-20150831-25742-b45erh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93446/original/image-20150831-25742-b45erh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93446/original/image-20150831-25742-b45erh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93446/original/image-20150831-25742-b45erh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93446/original/image-20150831-25742-b45erh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93446/original/image-20150831-25742-b45erh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93446/original/image-20150831-25742-b45erh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93446/original/image-20150831-25742-b45erh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Community wall of resonate statements that form the themes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Elizabeth Tunstall</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The emergent ideation of a relational conference shares many of the same techniques of the UnConference and the <a href="http://www.theworldcafe.com">World Café</a> models. Public visualisation is important with the creation of a community wall. Clustered content, often written on Post-It Notes, forms the themes of the conference, around which people are organised.</p>
<p>The difference between those models and that of the relational conference is that the content derives directly from the narrative of participants’ lives. The speakers’ personal and professional journeys become the resonate points that the other participants capture and share as the themes of the conference.</p>
<p>The intentions of this design feature is to bond the participants and reduce the sense of isolation in his or her journey. Individually, the participant experiences how the collective group shares his or her passionate concerns.</p>
<p><strong>Performative ceremony</strong><br></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93447/original/image-20150831-25742-1yo3et8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93447/original/image-20150831-25742-1yo3et8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93447/original/image-20150831-25742-1yo3et8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93447/original/image-20150831-25742-1yo3et8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93447/original/image-20150831-25742-1yo3et8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93447/original/image-20150831-25742-1yo3et8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93447/original/image-20150831-25742-1yo3et8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93447/original/image-20150831-25742-1yo3et8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Team members Darrell Brown, Carol Anne Hinton, Brian Calliou, and Maria Rogal performing their final outcomes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Elizabeth Tunstall</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The final outcomes of the relational conference are performances of future scenarios. This takes place on the fifth and final day. </p>
<p>In the first CBI Symposium, the participants performed skits and ceremonial orations. In the second CBI Symposium, the participants created songs to reflect the Maori beliefs that you sing the world into being in Whakatane, NZ. This third symposium focused performed skits as ceremony based on the Medicine Wheel, drawing upon the knowledge of the First Nation participants in the Symposium.</p>
<p>Creative performances assist in the engaging audience members as empathic participants in the sharing of potential actions of collective concern. Ceremony emphasises the sacredness of the individuals and the relationships established during conference.</p>
<p>Each individual leaves feeling highly valued and worthy of respect, not because of their accomplishments, but for their journey through life and the other participants’ recognition of that journey.</p>
<p><strong>How to scale</strong><br>
So now you might be thinking how nice this is with just 15-20 people. What about a conference of 100s or 1000s of people? Like the UnConference, the relational conference is also nodal, which allows it to scale. Five groups of twenty people or 50 groups of twenty people each represent their own node of potential deep relationships.</p>
<p>This is powerful because in the clichéd but true words of anthropologist Margaret Mead:</p>
<blockquote>Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.</blockquote>
<p>Relational conferences, like those of the Cultures-Based Innovation Symposiums, design the conditions for those small groups to emerge.
<br><br>
<i>Thank you to CBI 2015: Manuela Aguirre, Mahlikah Aweri, Darrell Brown, Brian Calliou, Amber Dion, Carol Anne Hinton, Renata Marques Leitao, Matt Munoz, Garry Oker, Sonia Ospina, Maria Rogal, Graciela Tiscareno-Sato, Cora Voyageur, Zinzi Samuels, and Cowboy Smithx.</i></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/46894/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
I recently concluded the Americas Cultures-Based Innovation (CBI) Symposium, co-hosted by the Banff Centre in Calgary, Canada. Being the third time that I have co-organised a CBI Symposium, I now know…Elizabeth Dori Tunstall, Associate Professor, Design Anthropology, Swinburne University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/401262015-04-17T12:17:38Z2015-04-17T12:17:38ZDavid’s futile fight against the goliath of bureaucracy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78240/original/image-20150416-5663-1h5hjz9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=273%2C26%2C972%2C584&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Faceless, but essential?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/boscdanjou/15871981605/in/photolist-qby4ag-88XxLU-6T2nEa-CuX2p-5kHjwb-5fVSyR-3Zx5Tq-8CgiUs-mRmDr-5uoE3M-6Mqjb7-qKGLGC-NHYjx-5eCncQ-ig7c5m-KFjAp-cXryQs-bt6pCk-bt6puc-bt6pjT-5b3SFi-qZg8v7-7Tj5DK-rd259R-rSfmQj-ouFabr-4wMqGv-9wu8iR-aBCcHC-bt6pc4-bt6p3c-bt6oUX-bt6oKZ-bt6oBz-bt6okx-bt6otD-8zrSm-argLEt-9oQgoE-4Mz56q-4D2Lg9-5RtJ5e-3cwCA-4Q58A-bET6Ju-7QCg54-5i8fSL-4gENe3-9iqcoF-dCk2b4">Bosc d'Anjou</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Five years ago a fresh-faced leader of the opposition stood on the stage at a TED conference in London speaking to a gathering of technologists and entrepreneurs. His promise was to deliver the <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/david_cameron">next age of government</a>. David Cameron’s talk did not feature the words “austerity”, “immigration”, or “long-term economic plan”, but instead an optimistic vision of family, community, and smarter digital governance built on a technological revolution. Three months later Cameron was prime minister.</p>
<p>The speech was a key part of the Conservative party’s 2010 pre-election strategy to define a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/may/25/david-cameron-a-new-politics3">new form of politics</a> for a post-bureaucratic age. This was a <a href="https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=post-bureaucratic+organization&year_start=1950&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cpost%20-%20bureaucratic%20organization%3B%2Cc0">fashionable management concept</a> in US business schools in the 1990s during an aggressive period of merger and acquisition activity and a de-layering of private sector middle management. But the two decades of academic research which followed gave underwhelming conclusions that bureaucracy and direct managerial supervision had not, in fact, disappeared in firms or public sector agencies beyond anything other than <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-8551.00222/full">bureaucracy-lite</a>.</p>
<h2>Post-bureaucracy?</h2>
<p>Since at least the 1960s, bureaucracy has been an infamous idea in business and politics. In the political narrative, it has become an economic disease. The pathogen is the faceless “bureaucrat”; the pen pusher, jobsworth and pedant. A bean counter either drafting petty rules and regulations in a desperate attempt to hold power, or idling in committee meetings eating biscuits and drinking tea. </p>
<p>But in a service economy, where few people work in agriculture or heavy industry, discerning the difference between diseased-ridden bureaucracy and healthy bureaucracy is a significant challenge. The vast majority of the British public work within bureaucratic organisations.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3ELnyoso6vI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Cameron’s TED talk from 2010.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In his 2010 TED talk, Cameron suggested we were now able to live in that post-bureaucratic age thanks to an information revolution which had wrestled power away from central government and placed it in the hands of local people. But as soon as he became prime minister his message hardened into something more aggressive. In the 2011 <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2011/mar/06/david-cameron-civil-service-enemies">Conservative spring forum</a>, the first post-election opportunity to set out a concrete political philosophy, Cameron announced:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We are going to be taking on the enemies of enterprise, the bureaucrats in government departments who concoct those ridiculous rules and regulations that make life impossible.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Adversarial politics</h2>
<p>The “enemies of enterprise” speech, which some described as an <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/mar/13/david-mitchell-david-cameron-bureaucrats">evidence-averse Thatcherite ideological crusade</a>, has been the consistent message. The optimistic idea of the post-bureaucratic age has disappeared completely and the ambiguous bureaucratic enemy has resurfaced. In the recent leader debates on April 2, Cameron gave a vigorous response to probing about a wasteful top-down reorganisation of the NHS:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Let me tell Ed Miliband what we did. We took 20,000 bureaucrats out of the NHS and put 9,000 doctors and 7,000 nurses in. Now he opposes those reforms, presumably he would like to rehire the bureaucrats, I want doctors with stethoscopes not bureaucrats with clipboards.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ttaXxjIdrQA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">NHS tackled during the April 2 Leaders Debate.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Recent <a href="https://theconversation.com/fact-check-are-there-more-nhs-doctors-and-nurses-than-before-the-coalition-39607">NHS Workforce statistics</a> do suggest that the abolishing of primary care trusts and related restructuring after 2010 led to a reduction of staff classified as “managers” or “senior managers” by around 20,000 across NHS England by 2014. However, this amounted to less than 2% of the NHS workforce.</p>
<p>The NHS is an extremely complex professional bureaucracy attempting to deliver some of the most challenging services in society. By some estimates the NHS is the seventh <a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/09/employment?fsrc=scn/tw/te/dc/defending">largest employer in the world</a>, with a workforce of 1.3m structured around a division of labour of 350 different occupational roles. Less than 3% of the workforce is classified as managers.</p>
<h2>Little fat to trim</h2>
<p>Attempts to remove non-professional (non-clinical) employees, including managers, administrators and support staff, is <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/2015/apr/09/nhs-managers-are-more-than-just-bureaucrats-with-clipboards">not very easy, or necessarily desirable</a> in professional bureaucracies like the NHS. More careful examination of recent <a href="http://www.hscic.gov.uk/workforce">NHS workforce data</a> suggests that the Conservative reforms attempted to remove non-clinical “bureaucrats” from other areas, such as clerical and administrators work, but after cuts were made in 2010 these had already sprung back by 2014. The pattern is very similar for other management roles, such as nurse managers. Research suggests that an increasing level of administration is being pushed on <a href="http://www.netscc.ac.uk/hsdr/files/project/SDO_FR_08-1808-246_V01.pdf">practitioner-managers</a>, largely nurses and doctors, who have strain from higher roles and less time for clinical care.</p>
<p>Moreover, the number of non-clinical managers is also creeping back up, with a full-time equivalent measure of management and senior management growing at a faster rate between 2013-14 than either doctors or nurses. As I write, there are more “manager” jobs available on <a href="http://www.jobs.nhs.uk">the NHS Jobs website</a> (based on a simple keyword search) than “doctor” clinical roles, suggesting that management bureaucrats will continue to rise. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77926/original/image-20150414-24648-f0dw95.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77926/original/image-20150414-24648-f0dw95.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77926/original/image-20150414-24648-f0dw95.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77926/original/image-20150414-24648-f0dw95.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77926/original/image-20150414-24648-f0dw95.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77926/original/image-20150414-24648-f0dw95.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77926/original/image-20150414-24648-f0dw95.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77926/original/image-20150414-24648-f0dw95.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Administrative staff numbers in NHS, 2009-2014. Are we layering or de-layering?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Wrestling with the NHS</h2>
<p>With the NHS being considered by the public to be the <a href="https://www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/3508/NHS-leads-economy-and-immigration-as-top-votedeciding-issue.aspx#gallery%5Bm%5D/1/">most important issue facing Britain</a> going into the 2015 election campaign it is important that voters question the rhetoric about the management of public services. Both Labour and Conservative governments have attempted to reorganise vital public services, through mechanisms such as <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/5524693/NHS-chief-tells-trusts-to-make-20bn-savings.html">restructuring pay scales</a> or experimenting with <a href="https://theconversation.com/first-privately-run-nhs-hospital-fails-the-marvellous-medicine-wasnt-so-great-after-all-36077">privately-run units</a>. The only proven remedy for meeting growing service pressures, as pointed out by Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg at the recent leader debate, is “hard cash”. Recently, the Conservatives have finally stopped talking about attacking the bureaucrats and have promised an extra £8 billion for the NHS by 2020. But in order to do this, and carry out their long-term economic plan of austerity, the attack on bureaucrats will need to move to other parts of the public sector.</p>
<p>There is little convincing evidence that we are moving to a post-bureaucratic age. The knowledge, rules, processes and relationships embedded within bureaucracies enable firms and public agencies to deliver reliable and consistent services; and this often leads to <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14719037.2014.895028#abstract">unavoidable inertia</a> in organisational structures. Still, most people would prefer a health service that privileges safety and reliability over enterprise and profit. The memory of <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/supportservices/10070425/Timeline-how-G4Ss-bungled-Olympics-security-contract-unfolded.html">G4S’ attempts to manage security during the London Olympics</a> will be fresh in people’s minds. And when Ian Duncan Smith announced the plan for “pension freedom day” recently he was quick to reassure the public that a substantial bureaucracy of pension advisers would be there to offer support to the public.</p>
<p>Cameron’s attack on the bureaucratic disease has a strange irony during an election campaign which is centred more on the “visible hand” of cautious economic management than an “invisible hand” of exuberant market forces. The political ideology of the right might not like the idea of faceless bureaucrats, but like them or not, the bureaucrats are here to stay.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40126/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Gatenby in the past has received funding from National Institute for Health Research SDO programme.</span></em></p>The backroom staff of our biggest bureaucracies are an easy political target, but making good on promises for cuts is harder than it looks.Mark Gatenby, Lecturer in Organisation Studies, University of SouthamptonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.