Blog 2: Getting to the heart of designing research using systems thinking

Stories/Lived Experience

Authors: Bob Williams, Systems Thinking Practitioner, Trainer and Evaluator – Consultant. Joan O’Donnell, Systems Thinking Trainer and PhD Researcher at Maynooth University’s Assisting Living and Learning Institute, Research Funded through the Science Foundation of Ireland (SFI) Centre for Research Training in Advanced Networks for Sustainable Societies (ADVANCE CRT)

Joan O Donnell Profile Picture and Bob Williams pictured with Monkeys on his head
Joan O Donnell & Bob Williams

In this blog, we will discuss topics covered during ADVANCE CRT’s Summer School on Systems Thinking at Maynooth University in June 2022. See here for the first blog. It can be read as a discourse around designing research, and you are invited to consider how the questions posed offer an inflection point for your research.

Nobody would deny that research is a complex business. One of the most complex decisions is deciding the focus of your research among the vast range of possibilities that lie within its scope. This blog explores how understanding and addressing three different kinds of complexity can help with that tricky decision. Ontological complexity helps you address the reality you are dealing with; cognitive complexity helps you understand how different people make sense of that reality and praxis complexity helps you decide which parts of ontological and cognitive complexities ought to be inside and outside of your focus.

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Lessons in Assistive Technology Policy from Australia: Dr Natasha Layton visits the ALL Institute

Social Lives

Author: Emma Smith, Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute Member and Post-Doctoral Researcher; recipient of the prestigious Marie Sklowdowska Curie Actions Individual Fellowship

Emma Smith Profile Picture
Emma Smith

On Wednesday, October 12th, the ALL Institute was pleased to welcome Dr. Natasha Layton to our first ALL Brown Bag Lunch. Dr. Layton is a Senior Research Fellow at Monash University’s Rehabilitation, Ageing, and Independent Living (RAIL) Research Centre in Australia. Dr. Layton drew from her experiences as an assistive technology provider, researcher, and consultant to key global organizations to share ‘what works’ in assistive technology provision on both a global and national scale.

While Dr. Layton spoke broadly about her experiences in assistive technology policy both nationally and internationally, I would like to highlight three key ideas which Dr. Layton talked about, which stood out as requiring further consideration and thought for us in Ireland, but also for those of us working globally.

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Blog 1: A feast of new ideas: Systems Thinking in research

Stories/Lived Experiences

Authors: Joan O’Donnell, Systems Thinking Trainer and PhD Researcher at Maynooth University’s Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute, research funded through the Science Foundation of Ireland (SFI) Centre for Research Training in Advanced Networks for Sustainable Societies (ADVANCE CRT) and Bob Williams, Systems Thinking Practitioner, Trainer and Evaluator – Consultant

A picture of Joan O'Donnell, wearing green, smiling, in the brightly lit conference room with a closed bar counter in the background with shutters down, at the Glenroyal Hotel Maynooth.
Joan O Donnell

This blog is the first of a series of blogpost contributions outlining basic Systems Thinking concepts presented at the ADVANCE CRT Summer School that we helped to design in June 2022, held in Maynooth.

‘The Systems Thinking summer school opened up little doors in my mind to paths that had been unexplored previously. It’s like an added tool to my repertoire and if I get back into old ways of thinking and get stuck, I remind myself of that door. It makes exploring topics more exciting also because it’s more of an adventure with this way of thinking’. Ashley Sheil, PhD Scholar, Maynooth University.

The ADVANCE CRT Summer School focusing on Systems Thinking marked the largest and most ambitious event of the Science Foundation of Ireland PhD programme to date. It brought over 60 students and supervisors together for four days in a memorable event that was as much a celebration of being together in physical space as an opportunity to delve deeply into the richness that Systems Thinking offers research.

This introductory blog gives an overview of Systems Thinking and a sense of its importance for transdisciplinary research. It also outlines some of the topics that students experienced during that week.

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World Mental Health Day: Reflections on Access to Nature and Mental Health

Social Lives

Author: Ellen Staeglin Tucker, 3rd year BSc psychology intern of Dr Tadhg MacIntyre at Maynooth University

Autumn School on Our Future in Forestry Sustainable Management, Biodiversity and benefits for health nordic irish collaborations and pathways to policy 10-12 October Maynooth University Glenroyal Hotel
Autumn School on Our Future in Forestry

World Mental Health Day takes place on the 10th of October every year and has been running since 1992. The month of October is also World Mental Health Month. Every year a theme is highlighted around the topic of mental health today, as well as a general aim to spread awareness and gain support. The theme for 2022 is “Make mental health & well-being for all a global priority”. There are two important factors being highlighted this year; 1. the need for everyone, regardless of their circumstances, to have easy access to mental health services, and 2. the prioritisation of mental health and mental health services. For some, professional healthcare is vital to find ways of improvement and recovery, for a lot of people mental health services could go a long way in improving mental health. This is where a lot of the disparity in access lies. However, there are daily activities that nearly everyone can do at home to help improve their mental health.

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The Disability Employment Package: A concrete step forward in realising the right to work of persons with disabilities?

Social Structures

Authors: Hannah Casey, Léa Urzel, Matthew McKenna, Ideas In ALL Blog Editors

(L to R) Hannah Casey, Léa Urzel and Matthew McKenna

The European Commission (EC) has now unveiled its Disability Employment Package (DEP). This Package forms part of the Commission’s seven step Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2021-2030. The DEP aims to support Member States in their efforts to ensure people with disabilities have fair and equal access to employment. Currently, just 50% of people with disabilities of working age in the EU are employed, though this number has been rising slowly over recent years

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Disability in Older Age – Do Definitions Matter?

Social Lives

Author: Ann Leahy, Post-doctoral Researcher, ERC Project DANCING, Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute, School of Law and Criminology, Maynooth University. Author of, ‘Disability and Ageing: Towards a Critical Perspective’, with Policy Press.

Disability and Ageing: Towards a Critical Perspective. Ageing in a Global Context. Autor: Ann Leahy. White Font. Book Cover image, Top blue background with white text. Bottom half colourful pastel esc brush strokes.
Disability and Ageing: Towards a Critical Perspective

The celebration of the United Nations (UN) International Day of Older Persons on 1 October 2022, may make some reflections on issues relating to disability and ageing appropriate. I suggest that looking at ageing and disability together is valuable, despite the fact that the fields of ageing and of disability usually tend to remain quite separate. At a most fundamental level, understandings of what ‘disability’ is may differ depending on when disability is first experienced across the lifespan. Older people experiencing impairments are not always considered ‘disabled’ and there are a range of consequences that flow from this. Specifically, ‘disability’ is approached separately from ageing within public policies, scholarship and activism, depending on whether it is first experienced early or late in life. Despite the ageing of our populations and how some 46% of older people worldwide have an impairment, it tends to be under-recognised that older people represent the majority of the overall population of persons with disabilities. Furthermore, the strict separation between ‘ageing’ and ‘disability’ is paradoxical, given that people with disabilities age and that most people will experience disability if they live long enough.

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September 7th, the Publication of the ‘European Care Strategy’: A Brief Appraisal of the European Commission’s Strategic Policy Document

Social Structures

Author: Matthew McKenna, PhD Researcher at Maynooth University’s Assisting Living and Learning Institute (ALL), Research Funded through the Science Foundation of Ireland (SFI) Centre for Research Training in Advanced Networks for Sustainable Societies (ADVANCE CRT)

Matthew McKenna Profile Picture
Matthew McKenna

The highly anticipated publication of the European Commission’s (EC) ‘European Care Strategy’ (ECS/strategy) on the 7th of September 2022 has been met with cautious optimism and circumspection. Certainly, there is a unanimous agreement that the arrival of this strategy is a welcome policy development. However, last week’s unveiling of the ECS also underlined how long overdue this development has been, and it represents an initial and elemental step in addressing the long-term systemic deficiencies in the European Union’s (EU) approach to the care of its citizens. If one is to view this radical collective change as a physical journey, then the ECS is arguably representative of a social and legal point of embarkation from a policy sense, and it is certainly not a final destination.

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What we talk about when we talk about Open Cultural data?

Social Structures

Author: Marta Arisi, is part of the University of Trento team working for the reCreating Europe Project focusing on GLAM.

Marta Arisi Profile Picture
Marta Arisi

Open cultural data can be considered an umbrella term referring to anytime data from Cultural Heritage Institutions (“CHIs”) is made available without restrictions, e.g., thanks to open licensing (as the Creative Commons). It often refers to online resources that contain descriptions, metadata, images, etc. Thus, open cultural data is also relevant to the field of digitization of cultural heritage.

“Open” stands for the possibility to access the content freely, and- to re-use it.  While there is not an accepted definition, useful examples may come from the Open Data Charter or the definition of openness proposed by the Open Knowledge Foundation. Some projects even address the context of CHIs, such as OpenGLAM. 

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GoGreenRoutes: Malta Summer School’s European Vision

Social Lives

Author: Jack Hilliard, undergraduate, B.A. Psychology student at Maynooth University, working as an Intern under Dr Tadhg MacIntyre and Ph.D. researcher Cassandra Murphy as part of the SPUR (Summer Undergraduate Experimental Research) Programme.

Team Phoenix posing in the Lower Barrakka Gardens in Valletta, Malta.
Team Phoenix posing in the Lower Barrakka Gardens in Valletta, Malta.

The Go Green Routes Summer School Malta was an exciting three-day showcase of the consortium’s recent successes, which further integrated the transdisciplinary researchers from across Europe towards the common goal of nature connectedness through 360-health. This broadly aligns with the Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute’s goals of developing appropriate technologies, person-centred systems and evidence-based policies which will empower people towards a greener future. Situated in the historic capital, it was hoped the setting would act as a microcosm for future nature-based solutions (NBS) across the Mediterranean as referred to by the Irish President, Michael D. Higgins.

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A Moratorium on the Capacity Act: Delaying Disability Rights

Social Structures

Author: Hannah Casey, ALL Blog Editor and PhD Candidate in the Department of Psychology

Hannah Casey Profile Picture
Hannah Casey

In 2015, the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act (the Act) was signed into Irish law. This Act aims to ensure that Ireland is legally compliant with Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD/the Convention). Article 12 states that a person with disabilities has the right to legal capacity on an equal basis with others, and that they are entitled to government assistance to exercise that capacity. Ireland ratified the UNCRPD in 2018, in the belief that the Capacity Act ensured full legal compliance with the Convention. However, as of now, the Capacity Act, while signed into law, has not been fully commenced by the Irish government. This is despite the promise that it would be fully commenced by the end of June 2022.  

This delay has been attributed to several factors by the government. Primarily, there have been a number of amendments made to the Act, collectively known as the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill, 2022. These amendments have been introduced in an effort to clarify aspects of the Capacity Act, and address more controversial aspects of it, such as the regulation of the use of restraint, and public hearings. This delay, and indeed the continued delay in commencement over the past seven years, has been cited as necessary to ensure the proper resources are in place, and the legislation correctly laid out. An admirable sentiment, but one which is proving costly to those whom the law will primarily affect. 

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