Interdisciplinarity is heralded as a relatively new educational and research paradigm that can ef... more Interdisciplinarity is heralded as a relatively new educational and research paradigm that can effectively address complex problems at disciplinary boundaries. Yet little is known about the extent to which interdisciplinarity has penetrated higher education, nor about how students and program administrators view its usefulness. Through a case study of one field, urban planning, we assessed the extent to which graduate students and program administrators understand and support interdisciplinarity in the departments. We also assessed the extent to which specific factors might affect levels of support. Our survey results suggest differing attitudes between students and administrators and diverse opinions as to whether interdisciplinarity provides a practicable approach to addressing societal challenges. We offer a model for fostering interdisciplinarity and developing empirical evaluations of programs. Keywords Interdisciplinarity. pedagogy. urban planning. graduate program Scholars herald interdisciplinarity as a relatively new educational and research paradigm that can effectively address complex problems at disciplinary boundaries (Klein 1996; Moran 2002). Proponents of interdisciplinary efforts proclaim that it creates new kinds of researchers and educators by promoting new forms of communication and collaboration among disciplines
Folks who do systems analysis have a great belief in 'leverage points.' These are places within a... more Folks who do systems analysis have a great belief in 'leverage points.' These are places within a complex system (a corporation, an economy, a living body, a city, an ecosystem) where a small shift in one thing can produce big changes in everything.... ...I don't think there are cheap tickets to system change. You have to work at it, whether that means rigorously analyzing a system or rigorously casting off paradigms. In the end, it seems that leverage has less to do with pushing levers than it does with disciplined thinking combined with strategically, profoundly, madly letting go. -Donella Meadows, lead author, Limits to Growth (1972). From "Places to Intervene in a System," Whole Earth, Winter 1997. Systems theory has been put to practical use in the business world for decades, helping organize global production processes and streamline multinational decision-making networks. More recently, systems thinking concepts have been incorporated into a number of strategic planning methods for local governments. a These and other tools can help municipalities better understand the complex systems that are within them, and of which they are parts. Systems thinking will also help municipalities to understand the role of key inputs like oil and natural gas and to identify how municipalities are vulnerable to changes in the availability and price of those inputs.
This study proposes a framework for measuring and explaining partnership formation and resilience... more This study proposes a framework for measuring and explaining partnership formation and resilience. The motivation for this study is that we currently do not understand the precise mechanism by which partnerships form or how they stay together in the face of change. The framework draws on a design view of systems to argue that partnerships manage change through boundary spanning practices that operate on multiple levels of social reality. The literature suggests that there are many different types of boundary spanning practices. Some types foster socialtechnical innovations called "boundary objects" while others facilitate the progressive standardization of those practices through the comparison and selection of boundary objects by social actors who are themselves transformed by their adoption of these objects. The framework proposes a way to measure partnership capacity and social learning that corresponds to the orders of boundary spanning practices. It furthermore proposes three hypotheses, one concerned with partnership formation and two concerned with resilience. The first hypothesis states that partnerships form through a convergence of boundary spanning practices and a community of practice. Convergence depends on a host of factors, including the capacity of innovators and early adopters to leverage their early successes to build additional capital to further promote and eventually institutionalize their boundary spanning practices. The second hypothesis predicts that partnerships that demonstrate a pattern of alignment practices integrating operational and strategic concerns will tend to oscillate within a defined range of C O P Y ii partnership functions or "states" (restricted resilience). The third hypothesis predicts that partnerships that inculcate a learning culture of institutional design practices will tend to persist under a theoretically limitless range of environmental demands (general resilience). To assess the framework, four case studies of water resource management partnerships in the Columbia River Basin were carried out. Data collection centered on interviews with boundary spanners, field trips, and secondary data. The results partially confirmed the first hypothesis, while evaluations of the resilience hypotheses were inconclusive. However, boundary spanning practices were catalogued according to the various types of partnership processes to demonstrate how the methodology can be used for cross-case comparisons and theory-building. C O P Y iii Dedication For my father Edward Lee Brown, who instilled in me the sense of adventure that comes with learning, and for my mother Asbjørg Solvik Brown, who never gave up on me C O P Y iv Acknowledgments This dissertation marks the culmination of a personal and intellectual journey. As with most journeys, I was helped along the way, sometimes at critical moments, by steadying hands, helpful perspectives, and encouraging words. I wish to thank the following individuals and organizations for their support with this project. First, I am grateful to Portland State University's Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning for its support during my graduate education. My gratitude extends to the Miller Foundation for funding the data collection phase of this project. To my advisor, Vivek Shandas, I say "thank you," knowing that words can never really express my gratitude for your unflinching support of my intellectual, professional, and personal development. Your passion for collaborative teaching and learning created an ideal environment where I began to find my voice and my community. Every student should be so lucky to have a mentor like you. To my first advisor Connie Ozawa: I will always be grateful for your steadfast support and faith in me. You patiently guided me as I searched for that voice within the field of urban studies, alternately challenging me and getting out of the way. My gratitude to Charles Heying, especially for the intellectual joy of our many discussions. Although I was not usually aware of it at the time, some of my deepest learning occurred when our conversations strayed the most from their topics. Thank you, Wayne Wakeland, for the passion you brought to your classrooms and to our discussions, C O P Y v and for your appreciation, combined with healthy skepticism, for the "softer" side of systems thinking. Thank you, Craig Shinn, for your steadfast support of my project and for the many thought-provoking discussions of institutional analysis and development. Of course, this project would not have occurred without the support of key individuals -Bobby Cochran, Kevin Scribner, Ryan Houston, and Lorna Stickelwho believed enough in its merits to put me in touch with the partnerships that served as my case studies. Each of them has given me invaluable time and attention, and this project would not have been the same without their support. My deepest gratitude goes out to the boundary spanners who agreed to be interviewed by me. They are in my mind unsung heroes for the often thankless partnership work they do. I only hope that this project has helped them in some small way to tell more of their story. In the same spirit, I am deeply grateful to the Counting on the Environment Working Group, the Upper Deschutes River Partnership, the Regional Water Providers Consortium, and the Walla Walla Watershed Alliance for graciously granting me the opportunity to hear those stories. There are simply too many individuals to thank for the space allowed. I have, over the course of the past few years benefitted from many wonderful discussions with colleagues and friends, all of whom have shaped me in some way, including, in
Proceedings of the 52nd Annual Meeting of the Isss 2008 Madison Wisconsin, Apr 7, 2008
Theories of environmental planning acknowledge that social-interactional dynamics contribute sign... more Theories of environmental planning acknowledge that social-interactional dynamics contribute significantly to the complexity of environmental problems. Especially, the collaborative capacity to coordinate activities among diverse interests is crucial for successful plan implementation. However, environmental planning typically takes successful implementation as a given rather than as a problematic outcome. Consequently, we understand very little about how to measure the institutional capacities of communities to carry out plans. On a more practical level, if successful implementation depends on the coordination of multiple stakeholders, then we need an effective tool for learning how to join different institutional purposes. And if, as this proposal contends, common purpose is embedded in (rather than separate from) collective action, the implementation-planning tool will conform to a participatory action research methodology. Drawing on Rodriguez-Ulluoa and Paucar-Caceres' (2005) Soft System Dynamics Methodology, and informed by the cognitive model of institutions, I am proposing a Soft System Dynamics Method (SSDM) that combines the richness of Soft Systems Methodology storytelling and the rigor of System Dynamics (SD) modelling into a social learning tool for action planning. A central premise of SSDM is that socio-cultural values underlie patterns of social interaction. In watershed planning and management, the "environment" represents social goods but also contexts of social interaction where often tacit norms about roles and responsibilities are enacted and negotiated. In this sense, watershed communities are sociotechnical systems, or "communities of practice." My dissertation research is a methodological exploration of SSDM as a social learning tool for watershed implementation planning. Three contemporary cases of watershed implementation planning processes will be selected to receive the SSDM intervention. The primary objective of the study is to explore whether and how SSDM promotes group learning about the institutional context and associated leverage points of watershed plan implementation. The study will also demonstrate SSDM both as a tool for developing middle-range theories of collaborative capacity and as an implementation planning tool for problem structuring and institutional design. This paper outlines the proposed SSDM and study design, arguing that a design view of systems can and should contribute to a participatory action research methodology for measuring and realizing group learning. Ultimately, it is hoped that SSDM represents a step closer to realizing C.W. Churchman's vision of the "Singerian Inquiring System" where social learning is characterized by the synergistic integration of theory and practice, facts and values.
This study proposes a framework for measuring and explaining partnership formation and resilience... more This study proposes a framework for measuring and explaining partnership formation and resilience. The motivation for this study is that we currently do not understand the precise mechanism by which partnerships form or how they stay together in the face of change. The framework draws on a design view of systems to argue that partnerships manage change through boundary spanning practices that operate on multiple levels of social reality. The literature suggests that there are many different types of boundary spanning practices. Some types foster socialtechnical innovations called "boundary objects" while others facilitate the progressive standardization of those practices through the comparison and selection of boundary objects by social actors who are themselves transformed by their adoption of these objects. The framework proposes a way to measure partnership capacity and social learning that corresponds to the orders of boundary spanning practices. It furthermore proposes three hypotheses, one concerned with partnership formation and two concerned with resilience. The first hypothesis states that partnerships form through a convergence of boundary spanning practices and a community of practice. Convergence depends on a host of factors, including the capacity of innovators and early adopters to leverage their early successes to build additional capital to further promote and eventually institutionalize their boundary spanning practices. The second hypothesis predicts that partnerships that demonstrate a pattern of alignment practices integrating operational and strategic concerns will tend to oscillate within a defined range of C O P Y ii partnership functions or "states" (restricted resilience). The third hypothesis predicts that partnerships that inculcate a learning culture of institutional design practices will tend to persist under a theoretically limitless range of environmental demands (general resilience). To assess the framework, four case studies of water resource management partnerships in the Columbia River Basin were carried out.
Alcoholism-clinical and Experimental Research, 2005
Background: Empirically based estimates of the mean alcohol content of beer, wine and spirits dri... more Background: Empirically based estimates of the mean alcohol content of beer, wine and spirits drinks from a national sample of US drinkers are not currently available.
Alcoholism-clinical and Experimental Research, 2004
The average ethanol content of the beer sold in the US is a key factor in determining the per cap... more The average ethanol content of the beer sold in the US is a key factor in determining the per capita consumption of ethanol, the standard measure of alcohol use in aggregate-level research. To address the lack of empirically based estimates of beer ethanol content, we have calculated national estimates for the years 1988 to 2001 and state-specific estimates for 1993 to 2001.
Alcoholism-clinical and Experimental Research, 2006
Background: To estimate the mean percentage alcohol content by volume (%ABV) for wine sold in the... more Background: To estimate the mean percentage alcohol content by volume (%ABV) for wine sold in the US and in each state for the years 1962 to 2002, and to apply these to per capita wine sales for the years 1970 to 2002.Method: Estimates of wine-type mean %ABV are calculated using brand-level sales and %ABV from one state and are extrapolated to other states and to the US using wine-type sales.Results: The mean %ABV is found to vary substantially over time and across states, with US means ranging from 16.2% in 1962 to a low of 10.5% in 1991. By 2002, the US mean %ABV had risen to nearly 11.5%. Application of %ABV estimates to the per capita consumption of wine indicated significant differences from previous estimates with lower alcohol intake from wine found for all years after 1980 and 6 year-to-year changes in opposite directions.Conclusions: Empirically based estimates of the alcohol content of wine sold in the US show changes over time and differences between states that have significance for epidemiologic monitoring and modeling of the determinants and consequences of alcohol use and for improving comparisons with per capita beer and spirits consumption series.
Interdisciplinarity is heralded as a relatively new educational and research paradigm that can ef... more Interdisciplinarity is heralded as a relatively new educational and research paradigm that can effectively address complex problems at disciplinary boundaries. Yet little is known about the extent to which interdisciplinarity has penetrated higher education, nor about how students and program administrators view its usefulness. Through a case study of one field, urban planning, we assessed the extent to which graduate students and program administrators understand and support interdisciplinarity in the departments. We also assessed the extent to which specific factors might affect levels of support. Our survey results suggest differing attitudes between students and administrators and diverse opinions as to whether interdisciplinarity provides a practicable approach to addressing societal challenges. We offer a model for fostering interdisciplinarity and developing empirical evaluations of programs. Keywords Interdisciplinarity. pedagogy. urban planning. graduate program Scholars herald interdisciplinarity as a relatively new educational and research paradigm that can effectively address complex problems at disciplinary boundaries (Klein 1996; Moran 2002). Proponents of interdisciplinary efforts proclaim that it creates new kinds of researchers and educators by promoting new forms of communication and collaboration among disciplines
Folks who do systems analysis have a great belief in 'leverage points.' These are places within a... more Folks who do systems analysis have a great belief in 'leverage points.' These are places within a complex system (a corporation, an economy, a living body, a city, an ecosystem) where a small shift in one thing can produce big changes in everything.... ...I don't think there are cheap tickets to system change. You have to work at it, whether that means rigorously analyzing a system or rigorously casting off paradigms. In the end, it seems that leverage has less to do with pushing levers than it does with disciplined thinking combined with strategically, profoundly, madly letting go. -Donella Meadows, lead author, Limits to Growth (1972). From "Places to Intervene in a System," Whole Earth, Winter 1997. Systems theory has been put to practical use in the business world for decades, helping organize global production processes and streamline multinational decision-making networks. More recently, systems thinking concepts have been incorporated into a number of strategic planning methods for local governments. a These and other tools can help municipalities better understand the complex systems that are within them, and of which they are parts. Systems thinking will also help municipalities to understand the role of key inputs like oil and natural gas and to identify how municipalities are vulnerable to changes in the availability and price of those inputs.
This study proposes a framework for measuring and explaining partnership formation and resilience... more This study proposes a framework for measuring and explaining partnership formation and resilience. The motivation for this study is that we currently do not understand the precise mechanism by which partnerships form or how they stay together in the face of change. The framework draws on a design view of systems to argue that partnerships manage change through boundary spanning practices that operate on multiple levels of social reality. The literature suggests that there are many different types of boundary spanning practices. Some types foster socialtechnical innovations called "boundary objects" while others facilitate the progressive standardization of those practices through the comparison and selection of boundary objects by social actors who are themselves transformed by their adoption of these objects. The framework proposes a way to measure partnership capacity and social learning that corresponds to the orders of boundary spanning practices. It furthermore proposes three hypotheses, one concerned with partnership formation and two concerned with resilience. The first hypothesis states that partnerships form through a convergence of boundary spanning practices and a community of practice. Convergence depends on a host of factors, including the capacity of innovators and early adopters to leverage their early successes to build additional capital to further promote and eventually institutionalize their boundary spanning practices. The second hypothesis predicts that partnerships that demonstrate a pattern of alignment practices integrating operational and strategic concerns will tend to oscillate within a defined range of C O P Y ii partnership functions or "states" (restricted resilience). The third hypothesis predicts that partnerships that inculcate a learning culture of institutional design practices will tend to persist under a theoretically limitless range of environmental demands (general resilience). To assess the framework, four case studies of water resource management partnerships in the Columbia River Basin were carried out. Data collection centered on interviews with boundary spanners, field trips, and secondary data. The results partially confirmed the first hypothesis, while evaluations of the resilience hypotheses were inconclusive. However, boundary spanning practices were catalogued according to the various types of partnership processes to demonstrate how the methodology can be used for cross-case comparisons and theory-building. C O P Y iii Dedication For my father Edward Lee Brown, who instilled in me the sense of adventure that comes with learning, and for my mother Asbjørg Solvik Brown, who never gave up on me C O P Y iv Acknowledgments This dissertation marks the culmination of a personal and intellectual journey. As with most journeys, I was helped along the way, sometimes at critical moments, by steadying hands, helpful perspectives, and encouraging words. I wish to thank the following individuals and organizations for their support with this project. First, I am grateful to Portland State University's Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning for its support during my graduate education. My gratitude extends to the Miller Foundation for funding the data collection phase of this project. To my advisor, Vivek Shandas, I say "thank you," knowing that words can never really express my gratitude for your unflinching support of my intellectual, professional, and personal development. Your passion for collaborative teaching and learning created an ideal environment where I began to find my voice and my community. Every student should be so lucky to have a mentor like you. To my first advisor Connie Ozawa: I will always be grateful for your steadfast support and faith in me. You patiently guided me as I searched for that voice within the field of urban studies, alternately challenging me and getting out of the way. My gratitude to Charles Heying, especially for the intellectual joy of our many discussions. Although I was not usually aware of it at the time, some of my deepest learning occurred when our conversations strayed the most from their topics. Thank you, Wayne Wakeland, for the passion you brought to your classrooms and to our discussions, C O P Y v and for your appreciation, combined with healthy skepticism, for the "softer" side of systems thinking. Thank you, Craig Shinn, for your steadfast support of my project and for the many thought-provoking discussions of institutional analysis and development. Of course, this project would not have occurred without the support of key individuals -Bobby Cochran, Kevin Scribner, Ryan Houston, and Lorna Stickelwho believed enough in its merits to put me in touch with the partnerships that served as my case studies. Each of them has given me invaluable time and attention, and this project would not have been the same without their support. My deepest gratitude goes out to the boundary spanners who agreed to be interviewed by me. They are in my mind unsung heroes for the often thankless partnership work they do. I only hope that this project has helped them in some small way to tell more of their story. In the same spirit, I am deeply grateful to the Counting on the Environment Working Group, the Upper Deschutes River Partnership, the Regional Water Providers Consortium, and the Walla Walla Watershed Alliance for graciously granting me the opportunity to hear those stories. There are simply too many individuals to thank for the space allowed. I have, over the course of the past few years benefitted from many wonderful discussions with colleagues and friends, all of whom have shaped me in some way, including, in
Proceedings of the 52nd Annual Meeting of the Isss 2008 Madison Wisconsin, Apr 7, 2008
Theories of environmental planning acknowledge that social-interactional dynamics contribute sign... more Theories of environmental planning acknowledge that social-interactional dynamics contribute significantly to the complexity of environmental problems. Especially, the collaborative capacity to coordinate activities among diverse interests is crucial for successful plan implementation. However, environmental planning typically takes successful implementation as a given rather than as a problematic outcome. Consequently, we understand very little about how to measure the institutional capacities of communities to carry out plans. On a more practical level, if successful implementation depends on the coordination of multiple stakeholders, then we need an effective tool for learning how to join different institutional purposes. And if, as this proposal contends, common purpose is embedded in (rather than separate from) collective action, the implementation-planning tool will conform to a participatory action research methodology. Drawing on Rodriguez-Ulluoa and Paucar-Caceres' (2005) Soft System Dynamics Methodology, and informed by the cognitive model of institutions, I am proposing a Soft System Dynamics Method (SSDM) that combines the richness of Soft Systems Methodology storytelling and the rigor of System Dynamics (SD) modelling into a social learning tool for action planning. A central premise of SSDM is that socio-cultural values underlie patterns of social interaction. In watershed planning and management, the "environment" represents social goods but also contexts of social interaction where often tacit norms about roles and responsibilities are enacted and negotiated. In this sense, watershed communities are sociotechnical systems, or "communities of practice." My dissertation research is a methodological exploration of SSDM as a social learning tool for watershed implementation planning. Three contemporary cases of watershed implementation planning processes will be selected to receive the SSDM intervention. The primary objective of the study is to explore whether and how SSDM promotes group learning about the institutional context and associated leverage points of watershed plan implementation. The study will also demonstrate SSDM both as a tool for developing middle-range theories of collaborative capacity and as an implementation planning tool for problem structuring and institutional design. This paper outlines the proposed SSDM and study design, arguing that a design view of systems can and should contribute to a participatory action research methodology for measuring and realizing group learning. Ultimately, it is hoped that SSDM represents a step closer to realizing C.W. Churchman's vision of the "Singerian Inquiring System" where social learning is characterized by the synergistic integration of theory and practice, facts and values.
This study proposes a framework for measuring and explaining partnership formation and resilience... more This study proposes a framework for measuring and explaining partnership formation and resilience. The motivation for this study is that we currently do not understand the precise mechanism by which partnerships form or how they stay together in the face of change. The framework draws on a design view of systems to argue that partnerships manage change through boundary spanning practices that operate on multiple levels of social reality. The literature suggests that there are many different types of boundary spanning practices. Some types foster socialtechnical innovations called "boundary objects" while others facilitate the progressive standardization of those practices through the comparison and selection of boundary objects by social actors who are themselves transformed by their adoption of these objects. The framework proposes a way to measure partnership capacity and social learning that corresponds to the orders of boundary spanning practices. It furthermore proposes three hypotheses, one concerned with partnership formation and two concerned with resilience. The first hypothesis states that partnerships form through a convergence of boundary spanning practices and a community of practice. Convergence depends on a host of factors, including the capacity of innovators and early adopters to leverage their early successes to build additional capital to further promote and eventually institutionalize their boundary spanning practices. The second hypothesis predicts that partnerships that demonstrate a pattern of alignment practices integrating operational and strategic concerns will tend to oscillate within a defined range of C O P Y ii partnership functions or "states" (restricted resilience). The third hypothesis predicts that partnerships that inculcate a learning culture of institutional design practices will tend to persist under a theoretically limitless range of environmental demands (general resilience). To assess the framework, four case studies of water resource management partnerships in the Columbia River Basin were carried out.
Alcoholism-clinical and Experimental Research, 2005
Background: Empirically based estimates of the mean alcohol content of beer, wine and spirits dri... more Background: Empirically based estimates of the mean alcohol content of beer, wine and spirits drinks from a national sample of US drinkers are not currently available.
Alcoholism-clinical and Experimental Research, 2004
The average ethanol content of the beer sold in the US is a key factor in determining the per cap... more The average ethanol content of the beer sold in the US is a key factor in determining the per capita consumption of ethanol, the standard measure of alcohol use in aggregate-level research. To address the lack of empirically based estimates of beer ethanol content, we have calculated national estimates for the years 1988 to 2001 and state-specific estimates for 1993 to 2001.
Alcoholism-clinical and Experimental Research, 2006
Background: To estimate the mean percentage alcohol content by volume (%ABV) for wine sold in the... more Background: To estimate the mean percentage alcohol content by volume (%ABV) for wine sold in the US and in each state for the years 1962 to 2002, and to apply these to per capita wine sales for the years 1970 to 2002.Method: Estimates of wine-type mean %ABV are calculated using brand-level sales and %ABV from one state and are extrapolated to other states and to the US using wine-type sales.Results: The mean %ABV is found to vary substantially over time and across states, with US means ranging from 16.2% in 1962 to a low of 10.5% in 1991. By 2002, the US mean %ABV had risen to nearly 11.5%. Application of %ABV estimates to the per capita consumption of wine indicated significant differences from previous estimates with lower alcohol intake from wine found for all years after 1980 and 6 year-to-year changes in opposite directions.Conclusions: Empirically based estimates of the alcohol content of wine sold in the US show changes over time and differences between states that have significance for epidemiologic monitoring and modeling of the determinants and consequences of alcohol use and for improving comparisons with per capita beer and spirits consumption series.
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Papers by Stephan Brown