On the Move

My new blog can be found here - http://paulcairney.wordpress.com/

Social Change and Our Part in It

Ooh, the suspense ... it has moved to here http://paulcairney.wordpress.com/2013/08/10/social-change-and-our-part-in-it/

A Guide to the use of ‘Nationalism’ and ‘Scottish nationalism’ on Twitter

The guide has moved here http://paulcairney.wordpress.com/2013/08/09/a-guide-to-the-use-of-nationalism-and-scottish-nationalism-on-twitter/

 

Would an Independent Scotland Become a Consensus Democracy?

http://paulcairney.wordpress.com/2013/08/06/would-an-independent-scotland-become-a-consensus-democracy/

Policy and Policymaking in the UK - chapter 1 draft 1

http://paulcairney.wordpress.com/2013/08/04/policy-and-policymaking-in-the-uk-chapter-1-draft-1/

How do people consume your research? A short video, on tobacco and alcohol policy, requiring attention and feedback

This is a first draft of a simple video I am doing with Tereza Procházková @ZasCreativeBag to accompany a blog post I did on the differences between tobacco and alcohol policies in the UK. I wouldn't mind some feedback (here or to @cairneypaul) on it before I ask to have it tweaked then embedded in the proper post (although, realistically, it's feedback for the next one, if there is a next one). From looking at it myself, I know that I try to pack a lot of information into 3 minutes (perhaps a bit like an inexperienced lecturer trying to tell students everything) and so the pictures and audio come thick and fast. Next time, I will speak more slowly. But maybe it still works because it is accompanied by a blog post with all of the information. Maybe you listen to the 3 minutes then decide if you want to fill in the blanks by reading the full post (and then maybe the full paper). My partner tells me that I take a while to get to the point and that there need to be more punchy bullet point moments (I didn't get too offended). Would you agree? There is also a bit of a skip in the audio towards the end (a big problem?), and I trail off at the very end (to press the stop button on the ipad). Note that I am not Glaswegian - the Irvine/ Ayrshire accent is a wee bit different. Polite comments on my voice/ pronunciation also welcome.

The post can be found here: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/archives/34735. If the video doesn't play, you can get it here on youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fujeajKKa-E or here:

UPDATE: here is the more polished version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6pkPTPohas

For more discussion of the 'impact' side of the work, see: http://paulcairney.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/how-do-people-read-your-research.html
and http://paulcairney.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/a-picture-of-pathways-to-impact.html

How Do People Read Your Research?

People may nod at you and say 'yes, hmm, very interesting', but do they understand what you are saying (in a satisfying way)? I would like to know if someone could read something of mine, write down the key points and then explain them back to me in a way that I recognised. It needn't be a regurgitation (which is not what I do when I read the work of others) but I'd like to think that they took the key points I tried to convey, with no major misinterpretations. That's one sensible interpretation of 'impact', isn't it? So, for me, these drawings by @ZasCreativeBag are excellent. A drawing also condenses an argument - and puts all the points together in one page - in a way that might take me 1000-2000 words. They may not convey the same points entirely, but they do a decent job of reinforcing the argument (I hope).

Here (with a longer explanation) are some earlier examples (I did not get the grant!) and the most recent example is below (for the blogpost, see here)