Comments on: Are funding decisions based on “societal impact” ethical?

By: Johanna

Johanna — Fri, 10 Jul 2020 07:17:23 +0000

In reply to Taina Saarinen. Thanks for clarifying this. I couldn’t agree more. We absolutely have to think about the bandwagons we (don’t) hop on. In my area for instance, it is disturbing how some racialized and refugee-background populations are basically bugged nonstop by researchers (implicating myself) who document their every move (and are automatically considered socially impactful!) and majority groups are left unbothered (although so much social impact could be made there!). Of course the reverse is also true and much of SLA work still excludes data from marginalized groups. It’s tricky. And tying such sensitive decisions to funding is absolutely not helpful. Thanks so much for your piece!

By: Taina Saarinen

Taina Saarinen — Fri, 10 Jul 2020 06:15:02 +0000

In reply to Johanna. Hei Johanna, thanks for your comment - you’re absolutely right, and I’m sorry if the piece came out as ”anti-social-impact”. What I intended to convey was the problem of linking funding to short-term political impact goals that often are very (economically) instrumental in nature. However, I also think that social responsibility does not automatically follow from doing research that is (on the surface) societally impactful or important. Research topics have their fads and fashions too, and they often relate to something that is bubbling on top of the societal cauldron at the moment. And we as researchers also want to hop on different kinds of research bandwagons, not just because it is societally relevant or important, but also because it gets us attention and citations. How do we allow for space for things that do not immediately look societally relevant or exciting? There’s certainly work to do there, you’re right about that. I think to stop talking about “applied” and “basic” is already a step in the right direction. I would also like to see incentives for societally impactful work such as entering in dialogue with professionals in the field, participating in development of any area of work, or even writing to popular audiences. Already done, I know, but not necessarily politically encouraged.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 13:49:15 +0000

I have a potentially unpopular opinion. I’m quite OK with the push for “social impact”. Maybe might view of academia is just too grim but I don’t see teaching or research as automatically serving the public. I would even argue that much of it serves mostly the institution and person driving it. Especially in Finland there’s so much established discourse around universities “creating knowledge” (rather than implementing it) as if that was a sociopolitically innocent endeavor. You point to the problematic distinction between applied and basic research (thank you!) but what would you say to those high up in the ivory tower who love your post because they (mis)read it as releasing them from all social responsibility? “Only time will tell if my research does any good” is not enough imo. I agree with Einstein, Ingrid, Laura, and you about the problem “what counts/is countable” but to me there’s a world between “we have to accept some level of uncertainty” and “we excuse ourselves from a social impact requirement”. How do we get everyone to work towards social impact, uncertainty implicated?

By: Ingrid Piller

Ingrid Piller — Wed, 01 Jul 2020 00:58:34 +0000

In reply to Taina Saarinen.

“Not everything that can be counted counts and not everything that counts can be counted.” – always good to keep Einstein’s dictum in mind …

By: Taina Saarinen

Taina Saarinen — Tue, 30 Jun 2020 07:08:30 +0000

In reply to Laura.

Thanks Laura for this comment and for illustrating issues from a different context than the Finnish one I’m primarily looking at! The whole question of societal impact easily gets tangled in weeds – we know it is fundamentally our task (the role of higher ed should, I think, be basically about service to society) but the whens and hows of that are not always tangible. The paradox is that the things that are easiest to measure should perhaps not be the ones we measure…

By: Laura

Laura — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 04:49:19 +0000

Thanks, Taina, for this reflection some of the challenges of designing and conducting impactful research.
In Australia, ‘engagement and impact’ are the current buzzwords. In the Law Faculty where I work, our discussions about impact identify similar difficulties. Many of my colleagues are doing quite theoretical ‘basic’ research and they are struggling to articulate or demonstrate the concrete social impact of such work, outside academic circles. Even for those of us who do quite applied research, and are actively working on our ‘engagement’, or feeding our research findings to maximize their social benefit, there are some serious questions about how we can possibly measure such benefit or prove that positive changes were caused by our work. Thanks for articulating these struggles!