EERA Porto1

Research Objective

• Analysis of the integrity of the association from its communicative aspect
• Patterns of discursive and interpretative culture of EERA

Theoretical Background

• academic communities (Bauman, 2001; Bertotti et al., 2012; Delanty, 2003; Knorr Cetina 2010)
• communitarian commitment to cultural transformation
• academic networks (Appadurai, 1990, 2012; Castells, 1996; Keiner, 2002; Latour, 2005; Lawn, 2007; Sirota et al., 2002; White, 2008)
• communities in association
• professionally managable relationships
• collective capacity for reflection
• infrastructure for articulating and supporting flows of knowledge and expertise

Method

26 semi-structured interviews, and four group interviews

Sample

Geografical differences in contribution to the interview process

• EERA activity (22% multiple position, 31% link convenor, 16% convenor, 31% participant)
• Gender (56% female, 44% male)
• Age (48% 60+, 38% middle aged, 14% early carrier researchers
• Academic title (53% eminent researcher, 31% senior researcher, 16% emerging researcher

'Engaging people and Ideas' Memories, Meaning making and the European Research Association

Analysis

Conclusion

Meaning construction

How it works?

Code System

The importance of new meanings

EERA network norms and culture

Critical culture: evoking, maintaining and guiding dialogues

Categories

Guiding dilemmas

"We had a very nice workshop I think we all chaired it but C.. was the lead. I think the people who have been involved the longest are the glue. In other words we hold the network together. There is always someone who is engaged with the speakers. There is a kind of constancy that is very important for the stability of the network. Everyone can speak that is true but at the same time we just try to hold it. To study that culture is very important in terms of the future that the new convenors are the new generation. We have to make sure that this is the right kind of future We have to make sure that the stories we wanted to have still get heard." (established researcher/network founder/council member)

Evoking dilemmas

Collective recontextualization of power

"What I appreciate a lot is the exchange of dilemmas. My experience with EERA is not an attempt to agree on everything and show just positive things. We try to build issues. Here you are expected to present also dilemmas and uncertainties. … Sharing makes discussion possible…"(emerging researcher/convenor)

Guiding dilemmas

"In EERA your academic reputation does not really matter. What matters is activity and a certain kind of behavior." (Council member/link convenor)

"There is a nice leveling of power here. EERA is not about power but shared interest and ability to develop."(Council member/link convenor)

"Probably informality in some way grew up within the networks because they are not controlled by hierarchy. They were controlled by interest and volunteers." (Network founder/Council member)

"I have got completely obsessed with the way they were working, looking at material things and asking questions you could not find the answer to. But nevertheless they ask the questions." ( established researcher/link convenor)

"They shared responsibility. They relied on questions and there were no answers. They continued questioning and did not bother with solutions." (established researcher/network founder/council member)

Evoking dilemmas

Collective recontextualization of power

Overlapping categories

Collective reflection

"Metaphorically I would say EERA and ECERs can be seen as a big marshmallow. It is sweet, open and tasty. It is disappearing when you have it in your mouth, but it becomes part of you supplying you with energy. It is not a dreamland. It is an exciting experience tank or an inspiring think tank which forces you to understand different meanings and different contexts. It relativizes, interrupts and even limits your own way of thinking and national ‘ego centrism’. It makes you both proud and humble. In addition, it is a place and a space where you can reload your nationally emptied batteries. You are in between, shifting and switching social, institutional, human, epistemological, theoretical, methodological, communicative, and many other perspectives. It is up to you what you regard as relevant for you. It is a pool. I would say it is a recharger to which paradoxically it is very valuable to invest time, esprit and energy." (established researcher/network founder/council member).

Collective reflection

New meanings

• challenges and shapes institutional, administrative, academic boundaries

Engagement

• shared responsibility and social commitment

Boundaries

"The network also welcoming other kinds of histories because we want to build a big field and want to make a big presence of a network which is not just working on the edges but also incorporates the traditional center. I see it as a sort of working on the creative edge of the discipline that pushes the boundaries for quite a few of us." (established researcher/network founder)

“Conferences come and go but if you take something back with you to your university it means that you reflected and took a distance to everyday rituals, and eager to develop ideas. It is worth trying to influence and create a culture that can be possibly more open and creative." (established researcher/participant)

Participation

“ECER is education in a sense that you always widen your own perspectives and you always participate ...You participate in creating culture wherever you are. You have this kind of responsibility when you enter a dialogue. You cannot enter and think that you are there alone, you are a member of a bigger unit and you have to take that responsibility. It is a social commitment to enter a session since it would be dull otherwise. Negotiating on meaning is fascinating. If you would not negotiate on meaning you would not create and re-create... It has much to do with imagination, experiences of human life, critical examination and exploring the unpredictable.” (established researcher/regular participant)

Identification

"When I first went to ECER I was working with ethnography. My doctoral study was an ethnography. The early discussions with people in network 19 enabled me to see that I am deeply involved in that discipline and to develop in a clearer sense of what my own research identity is. Having once got a clearer sense of what my identity was I felt able to put more back to ethnography and into the network. Consequently it worked both ways. I got a clearer understanding of what I was doing and then, on the basis of that, developed a clearer understanding of what I was able to feed back into the network to enable other people to get a clearer understanding of what they were doing, too." (established researcher/convenor)

Communication

Identity

Code Segments

Newcomers

Stability

"When I presented a paper I was enthusiastic about my research and they reacted so kindly that I have never left them again.” (emerging researcher/link convenor)

"There was a difference between simply attending presentations and participating in a network which offered much more of an opportunity for engaging in dialogue. I would certainly,…, want to understand more about the networks and also be able to make a choice which network I wish to attend and value.” (newcomer)

Intellectual Home

'Elderly statesman'

Challenging the unpredictable

"We are happy to explore the unexpected." (convenor)

“ECER is future oriented and ambitious. It is like a millennium development. All People go to a certain place to meet and to read one of their stories.” (established researcher/network founder)

"If you have opportunities and a certain vision..., you can turn your dream into reality....It is very satisfactory and as long as you have not too many frustrations your are encouraged to continue." (network founder)

Capacity for cultural transformation

• interactions among organizational standards and cultural norms
• navigation among discourses
• professionally manageable relationships
• collective capacity for reflection
• infrastructure for articulating and supporting flows of contextual variety

Thank you for your kind attention

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gyongyverpataki.hu