Learning for Change: Piqued interest of an outsider

The sheer amount of exhilarating insight gained in TRANSIT is extraordinary, or so we tend to think when diving into the data and discussing with each other. One of my biggest interests in coming to the conference was to see how interesting outsiders find our project, what specifically they find interesting, and further deepening my insights. This blog will focus specifically on Science Shops and Living Knowledge, as I conducted that case study and presented it at a session.

Mr. Science Shop ready for his session

The questions in the session on Science Shops circled around impact, experiences and practical advice. Impact on societal transformation is a notoriously hard question that we can only allude at. I am very satisfied with the types of local empowerment that a Science Shop can have that we analysed though.

Many however mostly sought experience and inspiration for their own work, both policy makers and academics, and a single NGO. What are the different operational models, which resources do they need etc., which was a nice confirmation of the focus we have had. The amount of questions, discussion, and general agreement with our diagrams also showed both relevance and confirmed the “truth” of our findings. The frame of a session though, did not really allow to coach specifically on how to translate science between groups, only general illustrations, explanation of practices, and the most crucial challenges.

And then afterwards, it is hard to know if our sessions will help, will result in new activities and innovations. Did we in the end focus on the most relevant parts? While having confirmed the relevance of the output on science shops we presented, we could have talked for one hour just on best practice in translating scientific knowledge for communities, and how to give such knowledge an impact. Instead we focused on operational models and how to embed in the university. My hope is then that someone in the future will return and tell, was it relevant.