As RezNet folks already know, @martinjoined our ranks a while back. His retirement has now come through, so he is willing and able to put more time into Edgeryders work. This is where we close ranks to work better with him. He and I met up earlier this week and agreed on the following collaboration modes. Three are latent, one needs active coordination.
(Latent) Martin uses Edgeryders as an affiliation for his scholarly work.
(Latent) He has 30 years experience in European research management, which he puts at our (and the community’s disposal.
(Latent) He is conditionally available to step out of his comfort zone and work on stuff we need done. He mentioned the #research-network:economic-sci-fi seminar; which is handy, as I am out of a team right now, but might have a client.
(Needs active coordination) I have decided to take the RezNet to peek into his scholarly territory. Specifically, I am interested in the intersection between social sciences and geosciences. I see a window where we would do a digital ethnography of “sustainability”, looking at its ethical implications and how much of capitalism, nation states and other pillars of our present civilization people think need to go if humanity is to survive in reasonable ecological balance. @sander’s parent organization might also be interested in partnering up with us, if we find the right call.
Active coordination, immediately, means this:
1. June meeting
@marina please organize a meeting with Martin. This needs to be done soon, before he relocates to Germany. In the meeting, you are to discuss the next batch of calls (November and March), looking for a fit where Martin could conceivably take point. Remember: this also means he has to go out and pitch prestigious unis, starting by those who already were funded under the relevant calls etc. etc. I will attend if I can, but Martin and I have already met, so it is more important that Marina is there.
@nadia maybe you want to be there too, to pick Martin’s brain on strategic matters.
Marina, please make sure you come out of that meeting with a to-do list and a timeline to do things by
Martin: please bring your laptop and phone. Marina, please help Martin get on the Matrix, so we get rid of email. @matthias should already have created credentials for him.
2. July skunkworks
I have invited Martin to the digital ethnography skunkworks. It’s a fast way to onboard him to our methodology. Martin: for an explanation and the origins of the term “skunkworks” see here.
A few notes after our very useful meeting today with @martin. We discussed expectations, from both Edgeryders’ side and Martin’s side:
Martin’s objective and desire is to reach new, different communities through Edgeryders and get new intellectual inputs. He is open to explore different topics and get out of his comfort zone if he estimates that he can really contribute.
We in turn, would appreciate help in articulating and defining new research projects (aligned with political realities) in which our methodology can create meaningful results. Martin’s expertise and advice around elaborating and shaping proposals to fit in the upcoming calls will in that sense be very useful.
Next steps?
I am going to map the upcoming calls, make first selection of those that seem the most relevant by looking into the H2020 workpackages but also by attending events and presentations in Brussels (Martin will recommend which according to him seem most relevant to look into)
at the same time, @nadia and @alberto will start thinking about questions that we might set and direct towards the community in order to use the conversations around them to identify potential topics. From there we start elaborating first concept notes and finding the right fit in the open calls.
Martin will join these efforts and advise us based on this, helping with matching on one side our communities and potential topics with the right partners on the other. He is involved in interesting networks and we already recognized quite potential in some.
This would be the timeline: mapping calls and thinking about potential questions for the community this month. Discussing this with Martin in July and proceed from there. @alberto we are open for further suggestions from your side.
IMHO there is an obvious research project here: an ethnography of environmentalism in Europe, especially the new generation’s (#riseupforclimate, Extinction Rebellion etc.). @martin’s expertise can strengthen the company’s credibility in the matter.
Thank you @marina and @nadia for meeting you. The fruitful ‘taking contact’ got well summarized and meeting mutual expectations could evolve. This included (and includes) for me taking edgeryders as a matter of exploration since I met @alberto 15 months ago “to exchange about the shock of the new” - [1][2][3]. Still I am a bit puzzled with the question what I could bring to edgeryders, beyond my professional experience grown over several decades, when considering my interests in ‘Exploring Societal Frameworks of the Earth Sciences’ [a][b][c][d][e]. Discovering ‘this’ possibly is part of an endeavour to start now ‘en concreto’. Possibly a starting point may be seen through my piece " A hybrid Earth - Art, Culture & Engineers" that I wrote gearing up for the seminar where I met Alberto.
To follow up on this topic, beginning of July the Commission revised all the Work Programmes, so I had to do the same. I updated now the table with all the upcoming calls that seem interesting. Alberto and I will talk about this more in detail next week and I’ll create the new post on the strategy for the upcoming months.
