Metaphors help people “understand the unfamiliar” and “make someone realise they’ve only been looking at one side of a thing.” Metaphors assist in closing “the gap in people’s ability to grasp something, or speed up what they’re already on track to see.” Designing metaphors involves generating multiple possible comparisons to find those that work well. […]

Demonstrates an effective method for quantifying consequences and likelihoods of risks, as well as for combining these assessments. Different kinds of risks are examined: death, injury and illness; economic; social; environmental; symbolic; external; and reputational. The authors show how these can be rated and combined, allowing for a rich appraisal of a wide range of […]

Purpose: To define who stakeholders are and what engagement with them is likely to contribute to a particular research project. Description: Discusses who stakeholders in research are, as well as reasons for engaging stakeholders. The benefits of stakeholder engagement are then further examined according to the type of engagement.  Defining ‘stakeholders’ The handbook (Durham et […]

Purpose: To provide a range of methods useful for stakeholder engagement. Description: Lists are provided, sometimes with brief descriptions, of various methods for stakeholder engagement, grouped into methods for opening out, exploring and deciding, as well as techniques that promote direct or pro-active interactions, involve stakeholders in the research process, increase awareness of the project […]

Purpose: To provide insights into the kinds of conflicts that can occur in stakeholder engagement and their causes, as well as how to analyse and manage conflicts. Description: Conflict is common in stakeholder engagement and can occur among individuals, groups or organisations. Managing conflict requires particular skills. A well-managed conflict can be functional, leading to […]

Purpose: To provide guidance on the contributions that stakeholders can make before, during and after the research. Description: Stakeholders have different contributions to make before, during and after the research. Most stakeholders will be involved at particular times for particular tasks, rather than throughout the whole research process. It can be helpful to specifically consider […]

Purpose: To provide a comprehensive overview of the systems and cybernetics fields, by defining concepts and bringing together key, but currently scattered, references about them. Description: The International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics is both a hard copy book (the second edition was published by De Gruyter Saur in 2004) and a searchable online database. […]

Purpose: To distinguish among three primary categories of unknowns. Description: One useful way of thinking about different kinds of unknowns is illustrated in the matrix below, which highlights three kinds of unknowns: known unknowns, unknown knowns and unknown unknowns. The most familiar is what we know we do not know ie ‘known unknowns’ or conscious […]