Vision:

The production of useful and interdisciplinary knowledge, applied directly in communities, leading to transdisciplinary knowledge in later stages of the research. Part of the applied research strategy will be the institutionalization of new e-research/community network relations, useable as a reliable source of benefits (Portes 1998).

Strategic Objectives

• To explore the complexities of sustainable community development by engaging communities in deliberative dialogue around the meaning of place, scale, limits and diversity within the context of specific issues of interest to those communities.

• To explicate the necessary conditions for s-sharing strategies and diverse network formations as applied to wider electronic networks for community engagement.

• To create through action research, experiential learning situations allowing participants to explore, discover, invent, question.

• To build upon existing ongoing research projects, looking at key community issues based on an extensive literature review, public policy documents, as well as meetings with decision-makers.

• To experiment with the application of existing research concepts and tools directly in communities. These may include socio-ecological community mapping; ecological footprint analysis; the Onyx and Bullen social capital scale; scenario development; QUEST (Robinson 1996); soft stakeholder analysis; e-dialogues; e-public forums.

• To develop new tools for transdisciplinary civic engagement, in particular, e-clustering and e-research/collaboration techniques and the use of ‘thick’ narrative databases for lifelong learning

• To translate key information from the community (meso) level to policy decision-makers (macro) level.

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