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Culture Project Ideas for High School

by Gordana S | Nov 18, 2020 | School Innovation | 0 comments

Table of Contents

Culture Project Ideas for High School and How To Execute Them

You could be teaching a multicultural class, or maybe your students share the same cultural identity. Either way, you need to raise their awareness of the many different cultures on our planet. They have to know that cultures shape the behaviors and mentalities of the people who belong in them. Only then can your students be prepared to go out into the world and interact with it both in their personal and professional lives.

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What Is Culture Teaching in High Schools?

Traditionally, teaching students about culture was reserved for certain chunks of foreign language classes. Even then, high schoolers would not get far beyond learning what constitutes only the target language’s visible culture, i.e., what people of that nation eat, how they dress, or what films and music they make. Today, the need to incorporate cultural studies into the schools’ curriculum is stronger than ever.

The biggest reason for it is that the students of a particular class belong to various cultures. It’s not only important to acknowledge that diversity between yourself as a teacher and the young people you teach, but also among the students themselves.

The way you can teach culture to your students varies. Before you get into it and start thinking of classroom activities and high school culture project ideas, you need to be the one who is culturally competent so that your students can learn from the example you set.

Before a High School Culture Project…

Credit: Martin Balle

When scholars attempt to describe or define culture, they usually employ a metaphor of an iceberg. Only a small part of an iceberg is what peeks above water, just like the dress, cuisine, or language are only outward symbols of a person’s culture. The essence of their cultural identity is—much like the bulk of an iceberg—hidden beneath the surface.

You need to understand how cultures shape people if you want to build on diversity in your classroom.

To this end, you might want to examine the following notions:

• What the extent to which one culture shapes an individual is
• Whether you possess social and emotional intelligence skills to recognize it in your students
• Cultural stereotypes you might not be aware you’re harboring

…Get To Know Your Students’ Cultures

Before you can teach your students how to differentiate among many cultures and how they impact people, you need to see those impacts in your students. This particularly holds true if you’re teaching a multicultural class—which in our day and age, you most likely do.

You can start by exploring how the culture of every one of your students determines their values, study motivation, and learning styles.

For example, if some of your students come from a culture that values unobtrusiveness and respect for authority, they might be less willing to raise their hands in your class or ask questions about the topics you’re teaching. It doesn’t mean that they are inapt learners or don’t approach the subject material with a critical mindset . It may be challenging for them to accommodate their behavior according to your cultural practices.

…Hone Your Social and Emotional Intelligence Skills

To recognize specific behaviors in your students and their potential effects, you should work on developing your social and emotional intelligence skills . They are essential tools for any professional to have but are particularly critical for educators.

Since social intelligence and emotional intelligence have many similar characteristics, they are often confused one for another. Here’s a table that shows differences between the two concepts:

Working on improving your social and emotional intelligence skills can be connected to having better cultural competence in your classroom.

… Recognize the Stereotypes Associated With Different Cultures

When you master social and emotional intelligence skills, you can reinforce interpersonal relationships among your students. This means you can also recognize whether you’re harboring any cultural stereotypes deep within your subconscious—something you need to get rid of for both your and your students’ sake.

Stereotypes are tricky because you aren’t always aware you’re perpetuating them. A research article— You’re Asian, how could you fail math? —points out how easy it is even for teachers to look at their students through culturally stereotypical lenses. In this particular case, just because it is believed Asian Americans are naturally gifted learners, the study affirms that that is not always the case. Teachers shouldn’t assume otherwise if they want to look at their students as individuals who might represent the culture they come from but aren’t defined by it.

To be a more culturally responsive teacher, you can test yourself for any undetected biases you might be holding onto. Only then can you teach your students about the complexities of different cultures.

Strategies for Being a More Culturally Competent Teacher

When you assess your knowledge and understanding of cultural diversity and its effects on interpersonal relationships, you can nurture that diversity in your school or classroom.

There are many starting-point ideas you should put into practice, such as:

• Developing trust between you and your students
• Getting to know your students’ cultural backgrounds
• Making different languages visible in your classroom

Student-Teacher Rapport

Establishing close rapport between you and your students is the first task you have as a teacher—and you should never cease working on it. Especially in a culturally diverse class, your students need to rely on and look up to you. This will do much in terms of their sense of belonging. If you learn about your students’ personal lives—their family, their friends, their hobbies—that will win you extra points as a teacher.

Another way to develop trust and boost your students’ study motivation is to include them in the curriculum. Pass some authority to them to decide what they want to do in the next class or practice peer-assessment activities.

Cultural Identities in Your Class 

Developing a strong rapport with your students involves encouraging them to share stories of the places they come from. You can set an essay homework assignment so that each student can give an overview of their culture, their experience within it, and their feelings about some of the most common stereotypes about it. This type of first-hand rapport will not only deconstruct prevalent biases, but it will also make your students use and express their voice and practice their writing skills .

Multilingual Classroom

An unavoidable aspect of having a culturally responsive school is including multiple languages in it. Not only should you have multilingual welcome and good-day signs hung on the walls of your classroom, but you can also inspire your multicultural students to look up the subject material you’re teaching written in their native languages.

The Benefits of a Culturally Diverse Curriculum

The last point to consider before you delve into the planning and executing of your culture project ideas is the reason why it’s so important for your students to develop cultural competence.

A culturally diverse curriculum has positive effects on your students because it:

• Helps their personal growth and satisfaction
• Prepares them for the future of work
• Expands their interests

Teaching Culture Stimulates Students’ Personal Growth 

When you make sure that all your students are seen and heard, you create an environment where they feel safe . They can participate, make mistakes, explore their interests, and challenge their own viewpoints and those of other people —all critical aspects for their personal growth and satisfaction. Building on that satisfaction makes your students more open to the world in general, which is a trait necessary in any individual who wishes to succeed in today’s world.

Even if you teach people of one culture, opening their minds to how people of different backgrounds think and behave will, in turn, make them more competent to interact with the world.

Teaching Cultures Prepares Your Students for Professional Lives

Cultural diversity in the workspace has never been more present than it is today. Teaching students that their individual stories and the cultures they come from matter also prepares them for their professional growth. 

In a work culture that is constantly changing, your students will surely struggle to choose a career in the first place. By building on a culturally diverse curriculum, you do not only foster student leadership in your classroom, but you also help your students grow into adults who make decisions easily and can relate to and communicate with their future co-workers, regardless of the language gap or ethnic differences.

Teaching Cultures Expands Your Students’ Worldviews

Traveling the world is the fastest way a young individual can broaden their horizons—this can also be true with bringing the world and all its varied cultures into your classroom.

When your students have the opportunity to find out and explore how different parts of the world function, their worldview is bound to expand. Learning about cultural diversity will result in students who are more competent, open-minded, and compassionate individuals. After they leave high school to carve the paths to their futures, they need to be ready to express themselves and bring about positive changes to the world.

Culture Projects for High School Students—Putting It All Into Action

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The practical steps you can take to incorporate cultural diversity into your classes are numerous. Here are some ideas:

• Create a multicultural calendar
• Have your students write personal essays or journal entries
• Print out and examine the pictures of world banknotes
• Teach cultural diversity through fairy tales
• Explore cultural awareness in the media

Set a Date for Holidays

Holidays are an unavoidable part of teaching cultures. Besides merely focusing on the most popular holidays around the world, you can take your class a step further. Have a project in which you and your students mark a calendar for when these holidays are celebrated.

You can start by letting your multicultural students tag the holidays from their nations, but if you see that the calendar looks too empty, give them homework to research on the national holidays of other cultures around the world and include them in the next class.

Here are some fun holidays celebrated all over the world:

A Day in My Life

A great way you can introduce your students to the world’s cultures is by having them write an essay on their own or the cultures of the people around them. To make it more interesting and engaging, you can have them write a made-up journal entry as someone belonging to a particular culture.  

This will make your students practice a writing strategy they might not be using in their homework often. At the same time, it will make them research how people of different cultures spend their ordinary days and put themselves into their shoes—at least figuratively.

Who’s on Your Banknote?

If you think printing out pictures of different banknotes around the world isn’t cost-effective or environmentally conscious, you can make a presentation of these banknote images. Besides having your students learn about world currencies, they can explore the following:

• The life and work of the person on the banknote
• Their greatest achievements
• The importance the person on the banknote has for their respective culture

You can turn this activity into homework for which the students will have to research the people in the banknotes or prepare presentations themselves. The latter option is especially effective if you have a multicultural class, so your students can talk about the figures in their national banknotes and share their culture with other classmates.

Not Too Old for Fairytales  

If you think your high school students have grown out of fairy tales, think again. Folk tales carry the history, language, tradition, and values of the cultures they originate from.

Fairy tales often come in numerous variants because they have been told and retold in different parts of the world throughout history. This is excellent for teaching cultural diversity since it’s an undeniable testament to how varied our planet is in terms of cultures. Plus, your students will have fun getting a new perspective on the story they’ve known since their infancy.

What Does That Article Say Again?

In her article— Multicultural Education —Deborah Menkart suggests an innovative approach to teaching about cultures and social prejudices. You can have your students read or find articles in newspapers or magazines, whether the printed or online versions, and proof them for any ingrained cultural biases.

If you want to execute Menkart’s idea to the fullest, have your students write an appeal to the boards of these media organizations to remedy the cultural errors or misconceptions in the articles they’ve read. What a way to employ an interdisciplinary project into your culture teaching! 

Do You Have Your Own Culture Project Ideas To Share?

Reshaping school culture so that it is inclusive and diverse is necessary. Teaching also has to be focused on equity and real-world learning. If you agree and have ideas for culture projects that educators can employ in their classroom, why not write to us?

Let’s work together to bring the much-needed innovations in schools so that our students can have the tools to succeed in the world that has changed to the point that traditional education cannot prepare them for.

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Using the Cultures Framework for Research

• Open Access
• First Online: 23 March 2023

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• Janet Stephenson 2  

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This chapter is designed to guide academics and students who wish to undertake research using the cultures framework. It offers a structured approach to cultural research that can be used by researchers from diverse disciplinary backgrounds. The variables and dynamics depicted by the framework are able to be discovered, described and analysed using a wide variety of qualitative and quantitative methodologies. The framework can also be used as a meta-theoretical framing. It invites interdisciplinary endeavours and multi-method research approaches, and operates well as an integrating framework. Further research on culture and sustainability is needed to build up a better understanding of, amongst other things, universal cultural processes, transforming unsustainable meta-cultures, and the multiple roles that culture can play in sustainability transitions. The chapter concludes with suggesting further potential contributions to sustainability research  from each of the nine perspectives of culture described in Chapter 2 .

You have full access to this open access chapter,  Download chapter PDF

• Sustainability
• Qualitative methodology
• Quantitative methodology
• Multi-method
• Meta-theoretical
• Interdisciplinary
• Integrative
• Cultural theory

Introduction

I cannot think of a single research topic relating to the human/sustainability nexus that does not have a cultural component. From globally influential paradigms and the practices of fossil fuel majors to the operations of small businesses and the daily lives of households, culture is involved. Yet as a research topic, culture is often remaindered—applied as a loose label for a collection of features of social existence that sit unexamined alongside other deeply analysed phenomena. Apart from the fraction of researchers trained in forms of cultural analysis, the slippery, qualitative features of culture can seem too hard to investigate by researchers interested in sustainability issues. The cultures framework addresses this difficulty by offering a structured way to approach cultural research that can be used by researchers from almost any disciplinary background. As described in earlier chapters, the framework has been sufficiently tested to have confidence that it can fruitfully guide research endeavours.

Over the 12 years since the framework was first introduced in the literature, it has been used with a broad range of research approaches. It has been used with qualitative methods, quantitative methods and mixed methods. It has been used to formulate research design, as an analytical frame for the interpretation of existing data sets, and as a conceptual framing for meta-reviews of data. It has been used by individual researchers from a single discipline as well as by interdisciplinary research teams. It has underpinned undergraduate studies, postgraduate dissertations and extensive research programmes. It has been used to design research-based interventions and as an evaluation framework. And as shown in earlier chapters, it has been applied to a wide variety of problems and fields of enquiry.

This chapter is designed to guide academics and students who wish to undertake research using the cultures framework. For most of the chapter, I discuss the use of the framework to explore the interplay between culture and sustainability. By providing a structure for research investigations, the framework can help reveal what cultural ensembles, consisting of what cultural features, have causal relationships with what outcomes, affected by what external influences. It can help determine who are the actors within the culture group under study, and which cultural ensembles are already more sustainable than others. By examining the internal dynamics of culture, we can see how this leads to the sustainability outcomes. By studying cultural ensembles in relation to external influences, we can gain insights into why cultures remain static or evolve. By investigating the scope of agency of cultural actors, we can better understand why it is difficult for them to change, and who comprise more powerful organisations or institutions. And by examining whether a culture is dynamically stable or has the potential to change, we can gain insights into whether transformation is possible. Of course, not all these questions will be relevant to a given study, and the choice of questions will be determined by the particular context of the research and the sustainability issues at stake, but this gives an indication of the types of questions for which the framework can be used.

Towards the end of the chapter, I discuss how the framework can also be used as a meta-theoretical framing. In this sense, it can be used as an overarching structuring device for multidisciplinary, multi-theoretical and multi-method research, as with the examples of the Energy Cultures research programmes discussed in Chapter 7 . As covered in Chapter 4 , it builds on mature social science and cultural theories, and the framework acts as a structuring device for reaching into these fields of knowledge to examine dynamics and causal mechanisms in greater depth. I finish by discussing how the diverse and currently fragmented cultural theories discussed in Chapter 2 can make a stronger contribution to sustainability research.

Core Concepts

On the assumption that some readers may skip directly to this chapter, I will first recap on some key concepts. First, what culture is not. Culture is not about how people operate as individuals, each with their unique personal history and psychology. It is not about demographics. It is not about features that all humans share as social beings. All of these may interplay with culture, but they are not its defining characteristics. Second, the cultures framework is not just about culture. Cultures do not exist in a vacuum, and the framework draws attention to important variables that shape culture and mediate its implications for sustainability outcomes.

Recapping on what I mean by culture in this context, I describe it in Chapter 4 as comprising distinctive patterns of motivators (norms, values, beliefs, knowledge and symbolism), activities (routines and actions) and materiality (products and acquisitions) that form dynamic ensembles which are shared by a group of people and learned through both cognitive and bodily processes . These cultural ensembles can be most simply described as similar ways of thinking, doing and having that are evident across a group of people. Depending on the focus of research, this could apply to the cultures of people in their everyday lives, or the cultures of organisations or businesses, or cultures at even broader scales of institutions and ideologies.

Rather than focusing on describing groups that we typically think of in cultural terms (e.g. ethnic cultures, youth cultures, American culture), the framework invites inquiries into actors and their cultural ensembles that have implications for sustainability. Relevant actors may be identified at any scale: individuals, households, communities, organisations and beyond. Culture can be investigated in relation to a sustainability problem in both a causal sense and in the way in which cultural dynamics can resist change. Culture can also be investigated as part of sustainability solutions in the sense that many existing cultures are exemplars of sustainability. Cultural change can be a creative and fast-moving force for sustainability transitions.

The range of concerns of sustainability is exemplified by the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (United Nations, 2015 ) but as discussed in Chapter 1 , the SDGs are only one perspective on sustainability. More critical perspectives suggest that sustainability will not be achieved without more radical change to established systems of production and expectations of consumption. The framework does not predetermine what is meant by sustainability outcomes—this is left to the researcher to determine for their particular context.

The cultures framework has evolved over time. All the research examples I included in previous chapters used earlier terminologies (‘energy cultures framework’ or ‘sustainability cultures framework’) but the core concepts have changed little over time apart from becoming more generic. Earlier versions have produced sound and fruitful findings, and there is no reason why researchers cannot continue to use it in its earlier and slightly simpler form, especially those wishing to take their first forays into this field, in which case the guidance in Stephenson ( 2018 , 2020 ) will be helpful. In this chapter, I continue to use examples from this prior research, but describe how researchers can undertake inquiries using the revised cultures framework which is presented in Chapter 4 . I encourage readers of this chapter to return to Chapter 4 for fuller descriptions of the language, elements and dynamics of the revised framework.

A Guide to Research with the Cultures Framework

The framework can be applied in many different ways to support research processes. One way is to simply use the diagram of the cultural ensemble (Fig.  8.2 ) as the basis for describing a culture—its distinctive elements and their dynamics. It can be surprisingly difficult to explain what culture is, and these concepts give a solid foundation for identifying cultural features in any given context. At my university, some lecturers ask students to undertake at-home research to describe their own cultural ensembles that relate to energy use or greenhouse gas emissions. The diagram showing the ensemble, agency barrier and external influences (Fig.  8.5 ) has been used as the basis for discussions about research culture in university departments, and by research organisations to analyse how their own culture may be holding them back from undertaking transformative research. In these instances, it can be a tool for self-reflection, enabling actors to understand and articulate elements of their culture and constraints on change.

But more commonly, the framework is used by researchers in its full form (Fig.  8.1 ) for sustainability-related investigations. Some studies primarily seek to describe the cultural characteristics of a particular population. Examples I have discussed in earlier chapters include cooking cultures in Zambia, energy cultures in rural households in Transylvania and mobility cultures in New Zealand. Studies have also used the framework to compare cultures within a population. These have generally sought to explore the contribution of cultural differences to sustainability outcomes. Examples discussed in previous chapters include identifying varied cultural ensembles across populations in relation to energy consumption, energy efficiency and water consumption. Others have explored aspects of culture as influences on people’s readiness to engage in new collective behaviours, their responses to efficiency retrofits and as a factor in nations’ willingness to decarbonise.

The cultures framework

The framework is also useful for exploring barriers to cultural change. Studies discussed in earlier chapters have identified cultural characteristics that help explain resistance to change in the US Navy, failures to achieve desired levels of change in social housing interventions and cultural barriers to change in academic air travel. Chapter 7 discusses at length how the framework can be used as a basis for policy development and to underpin the evaluation of interventions.

The following section describes how to use the revised cultures framework to underpin research. For easier reference, I repeat here (as Fig. 8.1) the complete cultures framework diagram (first appearing as Fig.  4.8 in Chapter 4 ). The section is ordered as a step-by-step process, although it should be noted that not all research will involve all stages, and some research may proceed in a different order or head in different directions. Following this, I describe the range of research methods that have so far been used with the framework, and its methodological inclusivity in general.

Research on culture is research with people. In exploring what is needed to achieve societal transitions towards sustainability, researchers might wish to learn from groups and organisations that have already grappled with what it takes to live sustainably. They may wish to explore unsustainable cultures that seem unlikely to change. They might seek to work with culture groups or organisations that wish to change but can’t, or with those that are already on change journeys. In any situation, the research process and its outcomes have the potential to destabilise established beliefs, ways of life and social processes. Social research is a serious business and must be undertaken ethically and with the consent of, and ideally in collaboration with, those with whose lives you may disrupt.

Determining the Sustainability Outcomes

The cultures framework theorises that cultural ensembles have a causal relationship with sustainability outcomes, a concept that is conveyed by the two-headed arrow in Fig.  8.1 . The starting point for research design could be at either end of the arrow. If the sustainability outcomes to be examined are predetermined (e.g. energy consumption, equity, waste reduction), the research might seek to characterise different cultural ensembles within the population that have a causal relationship with these outcomes. Alternatively, the outcomes may be uncertain at the outset, but will emerge from the study. For example, research on the cultural ensembles of elderly households may reveal multiple sustainability implications such as health outcomes, energy expenditure and carbon emissions.

As discussed earlier, the concept of sustainability outcomes can be as broad or as specific, and as conservative or as radical, as the researcher wishes to make it. To be useful for the purposes of the framework, outcomes ideally are measurable (i.e. empirical evidence is available as to whether that outcome is improving or degrading) or at least able to be qualitatively described and compared. Outcomes can be uni-dimensional (e.g. a measure of water quality) or might consist of multiple interconnected qualities (e.g. health, biodiversity, equity). Outcomes may be of widespread benefit (e.g. reducing greenhouse gas emissions) or directly beneficial to the households themselves (e.g. improved health).

The double-headed arrow between cultural ensembles and outcomes also reminds researchers that if outcomes change, this changed context can become a further external influence. For example, if a farmer introduces practices that result in cleaner rivers and streams, this may create positive reinforcement for further cultural change. The farmer may enjoy being able to catch fish again, or seeing their children swimming, or hear positive feedback from community members, and may be encouraged to do more. Research on this kind of feedback could help identify whether and how positive affirmation from more sustainable outcomes can lead to ongoing cultural transformation.

Determining the Cultural Elements and Their Interactions

At an early point in the research process, it will be necessary to determine both the scope of the cultural ensemble and the scope of the member actors. The cultural elements to be studied will ultimately be determined by the sustainability outcomes you are interested in and the actors you are focusing on. For example, if you are interested in carbon emissions from a business sector, the obvious cultural actors to focus on would be those businesses, and the elements to study would be the motivators, materiality and activities that have a direct relationship to carbon emissions. However, from identifying this first-order group of actors, it may become clear that other actors also play a role. It may prove more useful to focus on a sub-group within the business such as senior leadership, or shareholders, or alternatively it may prove important to examine cultural factors at broader scales, such as at the sector level, or within suppliers for these businesses. As a researcher, be open to which group/s of actors it might be most useful to focus on. Depending on the research aim, it might be more useful to gain a rich understanding of the cultural ensembles of a small number of actors, or alternatively to investigate a narrow range of cultural features across a much larger population.

You may find it is useful to examine cultures at multiple scales. Cultures are identifiable and discussable from a minute scale, such as the cultural ensemble of a particular actor or organisation, to massive scales, such as the distinctive and enduring features of Western civilisation. You may find it useful to study the ways in which culture can act as structure—a high-level ensemble of beliefs, symbolism, practices and institutions, which shape other cultures that have less power and reach. The framework is relevant to supporting research at any scale and scope.

The next step is to determine which cultural features are most relevant to your study. The core variables of the framework reflect concepts about culture that repeatedly appear in cultural theories (see Chapter 3 ). Materiality comprises items that are made, acquired, owned, accumulated, held or nurtured by cultural actors. Activities are frequent and infrequent actions undertaken by cultural actors. Motivators are shared aspects of cognition that include norms, values, beliefs, knowledge and meanings (Fig.  8.2 ). Which specific features comprise the ensemble for the purposes of your research will depend on the sustainability outcomes, the nature of the actors and of course your interests as a researcher.

I have described a cultural ensemble as a generally consistent pattern of materiality, motivators and activities displayed by an actor or group of actors, but all three may not have equal pertinence depending on the issue—for example, beliefs, meanings or understandings may be more relevant in a particular case than activities or materiality, and vice versa. Cultures will rarely be distinguishable by unique sets of cultural elements; there may be a great deal of overlap between the ensembles of culture groups. The ways in which they are differentiated will be determined by the research context.

When doing research with the cultures framework, how deeply to drill into each element will depend on the nature of the study. For example, in relation to ‘motivators’, many studies to date have focused on depicting norms, because this was the terminology of the original cultures framework. Other studies using the framework have explored morals, meanings, values, knowledge and beliefs, which is one of the reasons for replacing ‘norms’ with ‘motivators’ in the revised cultures framework. In terms of activities, some studies have focused on routines while others have been more interested in one-off or occasional actions. Some have centred on one type of material item, while others have been interested in material assemblages. The nature of the topic should shape the focus of the research, and the researcher should hold open the possibility that relevant but unsuspected cultural features may emerge in the course of the research.

The cultural ensemble—the core elements and their dynamics

Although the research process will likely identify specific cultural features that can be directly causally related to the outcomes (e.g. the presence of particular technologies or practices), it is the cultural ensemble and dynamics between cultural features that make it ‘cultural’. Research should therefore seek to go beyond simply listing cultural features that bear a relationship to the outcomes of interest, to considering how they interact. Motivators, activities and materiality form the interconnected ‘system’ of culture, as indicated by the curved arrows in Fig.  8.2 . How people think influences what they acquire and how they act; people’s activities partly determine what they have and how they think; and the things that people have influence what they do and how they think. Exploring these interactions is critical to understanding how culture operates.

When considering the scope of cultural features to study, some may emerge as more significant than others depending on the sustainability outcomes you are interested in. For example, although sustainability research often focuses on routines or habits, it could be that in some instances, irregular or rare actions have the biggest impacts (noting that these can be equally culturally driven, such as the choice of a new house or whether to buy a car). In fields that you are familiar with, you may have a better chance of an ‘educated guess’ about which cultural features to start investigating, but you may be surprised. In research on household energy efficiency, we started by assuming that people’s values would strongly shape how efficient they were, but we found no consistent relationship between values and actions (Mirosa et al., 2011 ). So keep an open mind and, of course, explore literature in the field beforehand.

There will always be variability in the extent to which actors adopt cultural ensembles. Cultural uniformity is a myth—in reality, actors will have greater or lesser adherences to the ‘signature’ ensemble that is identified in research. This is not a problem, and indeed can provide useful insights into variability and opportunities for change. For example, if you are interested in sustainable transport, you might find that almost all actors own fossil fuelled cars, but some will use more fuel than others. Car owners will all have driving skills, but some may be more efficient drivers than others. All might drive their cars regularly, but some may drive more frequently than others. From a high-level perspective, they all share a similar mobility culture—one that is dependent on cars and fossil fuels—but if you drilled down you could identify variations in that culture. Where you choose to place your inclusion–exclusion delineation around this group, and whether you choose to segment it into sub-groups, will depend on the purpose of your research.

Ultimately, it doesn’t pay to agonise too much about exactly where to draw a line around the actors and cultural ensembles to study. What we’re interested in as researchers is finding patterns that reflect general similarities in cultural features which relate to sustainability outcomes. It is about sense-making through identifying fuzzy patterns of similarity and difference, which is more fruitful than assuming that everyone is identical.

Determining Cultural Vectors

If you are interested in how culture is transmitted, learned and adopted, you may also wish to examine the role of cultural vectors (Fig.  8.3 ). As discussed in Chapters 4 and 6 , vectors include such things as sensory encounters, forms of communication, bodily learning and semantic knowledge that are absorbed from sources such as social interactions, media, bodily experiences and formal learning. Through cultural vectors, people come to adopt similar activities to others, and/or acquire or make similar material items, and/or develop similar norms, aspirations, understandings and other motivators. Vectors are how people learn culture, how it is socially reinforced, and how new cultural concepts are passed from actor to actor.

Cultural vectors—the means by which culture is learned and shared

Cultural vectors will not necessarily be important for all research, but they can help reveal processes of cultural continuity and cultural change. In New Zealand research, for example, we asked householders about alterations they had recently made to improve the heating in their homes, and found that family and friends were by far the biggest influence on their decision. Hearing others' stories of change and experiencing the warmth of others' homes were far more influential than information campaigns, online information or advisory services.

Determining the Agency Boundary

Culture is most often used to describe shared characteristics across a population, but the cultures framework asks researchers to identify a subset of cultural features: those that are both particular to their chosen actors and that could potentially be changed by those actors. This demarcation is indicated in the cultures framework by the agency boundary, shown as a dashed circle around the core elements of culture (Fig.  8.4 ). The boundary reflects the capacity of the actor to make choices regarding their cultural ensemble. It distinguishes between elements of culture that are particular to and/or controlled by the actor group under study and those that are particular to and/or controlled by others. The actors’ capacity may be constrained by many things, such as their financial circumstances, their age or gender, their education or their familiarity with bureaucratic systems.

Depicting the agency boundary

In Chapters 4 – 6 , I describe several examples of how this agency distinction is made and used in research. One example is of people on low incomes living within rental housing; the outcomes of interest are energy consumption and wellbeing. Here, the house and chattels owned by the landlord are not considered part of the tenants’ energy culture because tenants have no control over them. The tenants’ cultural ensemble comprises the dynamic package of motivators, activities and materiality that they enact within those constraints. As well as being shaped by the landlord, their energy culture will be shaped by additional influences beyond the agency barrier, such as the cost of power, government policies and other external influences. Another example is personal mobility, where household actors’ cultural ensembles are strongly shaped and constrained by matters beyond their control, such as urban form, the availability of public transport, the safety of walking and cycling and government policies.

The agency boundary in the cultures framework thus invites researchers to differentiate between cultural features that are specific to the group they are studying (within the dashed circle), and other influences that shape (but are rarely influenced by) that culture. It also invites consideration of the factors that are limiting their agency, which may become highly relevant in studies where actors are unable to become more sustainable because of agency constraints. This invites the researcher to consider the implications of differentials in power, the relative responsibility for sustainability outcomes between actors within the agency boundary and those outside it, and their relative ability to act to alter these outcomes. Cultural features beyond actors’ agency belong in ‘external influences’ which may include more powerful cultures.

Determining the External Influences

External influences are exogenous factors that significantly shape the culture that is under study, and are conceptually located outside the agency boundary (Fig.  8.5 ). As discussed in prior chapters, external influences come in many forms, including qualities of the environment and infrastructure, purposeful policies and laws, pricing regimes, availability of technologies, and broadly accepted beliefs and conventions. For research purposes, it will be important to identify external influences that in some way affect the cultural ensembles under study, and thus ultimately affect the sustainability outcomes. They may, for example, reinforce existing cultural ensembles, erode the integrity of cultures that are already sustainable, force actors to become more unsustainable or support cultural change in a more sustainable direction. Depending on the research focus, some external influences may be apparent from the outset of the study, while others may be obscure and will need to be elicited through deep engagement with cultural actors. External factors that clearly have no influence on the culture under study can be ignored for the purposes of cultural analysis.

External influences on cultural ensembles

External influences can also be interpreted as broader cultures that influence the culture you are focusing on. For example, the mobility cultures of citizens are strongly shaped by cultural features of the municipality. A council that decides to invest its transport funding primarily in new motorways is not doing so arbitrarily. The decision will have emerged from a well-established system of beliefs, understandings, aspirations and organisational practices within the council—in other words, their culture. In researching external influences, it may therefore be important to look beyond their presenting qualities to understand the cultures within which they are embedded and replicated.

Another external influence to consider is your own impact on culture as a result of the research process. By asking questions of research participants, you are likely to be raising their own awareness of aspects of their culture that they may not have considered previously. In your interactions, even if it is not intended, you may make them more aware of the sustainability outcomes of their cultural ensembles, and/or aware of disjunctions between, say, their beliefs and practices, or between their aspirations and material possessions. Your interactions may also cause them to develop new understandings about the sustainability issue of interest, or open their eyes to external influences that they had not previously been aware were shaping their culture. The research process is never neutral, so be aware of how your work may influence your participants’ cultures, ensure that your work is carried out ethically and does no harm, and possibly build an evaluation of your impact as a researcher into your research.

Investigating Cultural Stability

Some cultures change very little over time, or at least in the features that give rise to sustainability outcomes. Some enduring cultural ensembles may be positive examples that research can learn much from, such as communities and organisations that have consciously set out to become more sustainable and have maintained that over time. Other cultural ensembles are deeply problematic from a sustainability perspective, and yet continue to endure. We can see this with highly consumptive lifestyles amongst many in the Western world, with beliefs in the value of consumption for its own sake, aspirations for material items goaded by the media (and today, by social influencers), practices of shopping valued in their own right and made more unsustainable through the proliferation of short-lived products, and wellbeing equated with more (or more wealth-signifying) possessions. The cultures framework offers a structure for exploring how and why many unsustainable cultural ensembles change little over time. It would be helpful to review the examples of research into cultural stability discussed in Chapter 5 .

Research into cultural stability might start by examining actors’ cultural ensembles, exploring relevant motivators, material assemblages and activities, and the extent to which these are aligned and mutually supportive. It may investigate cultural vectors in order to understand how cultural attributes are learned, reinforced and conveyed to new members. It would usefully identify what external influences (including structures, institutions and broader-scale cultures) are supporting the culture in its current form and enabling its continuance. It may be useful to look back in time and identify what has shaped the culture you see today. Unpacking these dynamic interactions can help explain how and why this culture is resistant to change.

Understanding these dynamics is particularly important if your research is seeking to understand why change interventions have failed to achieve their targets. Exploring culture as a dynamic system can reveal why change in one external influence or in a single cultural feature (e.g. new knowledge or a new technology) may make little or no difference to sustainability outcomes; for example because its impact is moderated by other cultural dynamics that tend to stabilise the cultural ensemble. Even if some aspects of culture (e.g. values, aspirations) are aligned with sustainable outcomes, other aspects (e.g. routines, agency limitations, external influences) may prevent or limit overall change. It is critical to gain a better understanding of the dynamics of cultural stability if we are to achieve widespread sustainability transitions.

Investigating Cultural Change

The cultures framework can also underpin research on how cultures change. From a sustainability perspective, your investigation might be into positive change, such as new cultural features being adopted with cascading impacts on the entire cultural ensemble. Of particular interest here might be how positive change processes are initiated, and the consequential effects on culture. An example that I described in Chapter 6 was how the replacement of kerosene lamps with solar lights in Vanuatu had a domino effect on many other aspects of culture including everyday practices, gender roles, beliefs, and aspirations for other solar and digital technologies. Your study could equally focus on negative cultural change, seeking to understand how sustainability-oriented cultural characteristics have been lost. For example, in Chapter 6 I described a Māori community where degradation of the inshore fisheries meant that community members could no longer gather traditional foods. The inability to undertake practices resulted in a loss of knowledge and skills that had previously sustained the fishery.

With the cultures framework as a structuring device, a researcher can explore what external influences might be tending to encourage change, as well as what changes are already occurring within that culture and whether these are leading to shifts in other cultural features. In the previous section, I discussed how cultural ensembles could become resistant to change due to strong alignments between motivators, activities and materiality. In contrast, systems where there are misalignments (e.g. aspirations are different to practices; material items don’t fit with beliefs) there is a greater potential for instability, innovation and change. Researchers interested in the potential for change might wish to examine the degree to which the relevant cultural elements are aligned.

Studying the processes of cultural change is critically important to sustainability transformations at all scales. The cultures framework can help to systematise analysis of where cultural change starts, whether it leads to consequential change to the cultural ensemble, the sustainability consequences of this change, and whether incipient changes are prevented by other factors. Cultural change is unlikely to occur all at once—it may involve incremental adjustments to the ensemble over time (e.g. a normative shift may precede a behavioural shift, or a new technology may precipitate new practices). Change also will not be uniform across a culture group, so the analysis may need to include identification of which actors have first made these changes, and through what vectors this has become more widely adopted. More research is needed to better understand the uneven, incremental processes of cultural change as well as the circumstances in which rapid transformation can occur.

People within a culture group rarely get to alter the more powerful external influences shaping their culture. But sometimes it happens, and this is possibly the most powerful driver of transformational change, as discussed towards the end of Chapter 6 . This is where cultural changes spread widely across less powerful actors, and membership of the new culture group grows to the extent that it starts to have influence beyond the agency barrier, reshaping the motivators, activities and/or materiality of more powerful actors. If researchers are interested in the potential for radical sustainability transformations, they should focus on the potential for outward as well as inwards flows through the agency barrier. The urgency of the sustainability crisis means that we need to know as much as possible about how to achieve rapid and widespread transformations of dominant unsustainable cultures.

Having an Impact

By now, your research will have produced an understanding of the various elements of the cultures framework and how they interact dynamically, and any external influences that are tending to prevent or enable change. You will understand the limits of actors’ agency, sub-cultures may have been identified and you may have also discovered cultural influences at other scales. You will have gathered evidence as to whether the cultural ensemble has positive or negative outcomes for the relevant measures of sustainability. You will know whether the culture is in the process of change or is resilient to change, and why this may be the case. If the ensemble has poor sustainability outcomes, your findings should indicate whether it has some latent potential for more sustainable change and possible ways in which change could be initiated or supported to achieve more sustainable consequences.

As a researcher, you might want to apply your findings further to actively help in the sustainability transition. Does it show a culture that already has great sustainability outcomes? If so, what can we learn from this and how can this success be supported and amplified? Does the research show a culture that is stuck in unsustainable patterns and unable to change? If so, where are the opportunities to support change? Does it show a culture that is gradually becoming more sustainable but has a way to go? If so, how can that journey be supported? Does is show a culture where attempts have been made towards greater sustainability but those attempts have been unsuccessful? If so, how can your findings help show why this might be the case?

As with many of the research projects using the cultures framework, you could develop recommendations for policy or practical actions. You might build on your work and develop a programme of action research that enables your insights to be trialled. You might assist an organisation or group of actors to interrogate their own culture and begin a process of change. You could collaborate with an already sustainable community over how to challenge the forces that are depleting it, or how to use cultural vectors to extend its reach. There are endless possibilities for making cultural research into a force for positive change.

Research Methodologies

Research with the cultures framework can be undertaken using a broad sweep of qualitative and quantitative methodologies. In this section, I outline the range of research methods that have been successfully used to date that I am aware of, and what functions these methods have played. This section is heavily referenced so that readers can go to the original papers for more detail on the specific methods of data elicitation and analysis.

Most studies to date using the cultures framework have used qualitative methods to examine cultural ensembles, either on their own or in combination with quantitative methods. Solely qualitative research often involves interviews followed by analysis to draw out evidence illustrating cultural elements (e.g. Bach et al., 2020 ; Lazowski et al., 2018 ; McKague et al., 2016 ; Scott & Lawson, 2018 ; Tesfamichael et al., 2020 ; Walton et al., 2014 ). Some projects have used a combination of qualitative methods such as workshops or focus groups together with interviews (e.g. Ambrosio-Albalá et al., 2019 ; Godbolt, 2015 ; Krietemeyer et al., 2021 ). A study of cultural change over an extensive period of time incorporated reviews of archaeological and historical evidence together with present-day interviews (Stovall, 2021 ). Researchers often apply thematic analyses to their qualitative material, but other analytical methods can be used. For example, a study on energy cultures of poverty analysed the interview texts using a computational social science methodology (Debnath et al., 2021 ).

Other researchers have used quantitative methods to characterise cultural ensembles. The elements of the framework have underpinned the design of surveys to elicit data from a larger population than is possible with face-to-face qualitative methods (e.g. Lawson & Williams, 2012 ) and as the basis of an ‘energy culture’ survey for businesses to determine the maturity of their energy efficiency efforts (Oksman et al., 2021 ). As well as using data produced from surveys specifically designed for this purpose, the cultures framework has been used retrospectively to underpin analysis of existing data sets to identify clusters of similar cultural characteristics aligned with different sustainability outcomes (e.g. Bardazzi & Pazienza, 2017 , 2018 , 2020 ; Walton et al., 2020 ). It has also been used as an integrating framework across multiple quantitative data sets (e.g. Manouseli et al., 2018 ). There will always be variations in the cultural ensembles of any group of actors, and sometimes it will be useful to explore this variability. Larger quantitative data sets have been used as a basis for segmenting populations into statistically distinctive groups  using cluster analysis (e.g. Barton et al., 2013 ; Lawson & Williams, 2012 ).

In studies using mixed qualitative and quantitative methods, the cultures framework has underpinned both design and/or analysis, and has been used to facilitate the integration of findings (e.g. Bell et al., 2014 ; Muza & Thomas, 2022 ; Scott et al., 2016 ). Some studies have gathered both qualitative and quantitative data relating to cultural elements during face-to-face interviews and integrate these in the analysis (e.g. Khan et al., 2021 ). Research on indicators of national energy cultures used a combination of policy analysis and quantitative analysis of comparative data sets (Stephenson et al., 2021 ).

To explore external influences (including multi-level cultures), studies often ask interviewees within the culture group about their perceptions of what shapes their decision-making or constrains their ability to make more sustainable choices (e.g. Ambrosio-Albalá et al., 2019 ; Debnath et al., 2021 ; McKague et al., 2016 ). Some also seek the views of experts or key informants in particular fields (e.g. Stephenson et al., 2015 ) or review the impact of laws and policies (e.g. Barton et al., 2013 ). Some projects have also interviewed actors who represent aspects of external influences (e.g. Jürisoo et al., 2019 ; Nicholas, 2021 ).

Many different research approaches can be used to identify causal relationships between cultural ensembles and sustainability outcomes. Some studies have done this quantitatively, such as identifying relationships between householder age cohorts and energy consumption (Bardazzi & Pazienza, 2017 ) and between timber drying cultures and energy use (Bell et al., 2014 ). One study used regression analysis to relate householders' cultural features to their interest in being involved in a local energy management scheme (Krietemeyer et al., 2021 ). However, in most studies to date using the cultures framework causal relationships are not quantified but are assumed based on well-established understandings of sustainable practices or the impacts of different technologies (e.g. Dew et al., 2017 ; Hopkins, 2017 ). Often the focus of research has been on whether the cultural ensemble has features that are known to align with more sustainable outcomes (e.g. types of technology and practices that represent business energy efficiency [Oksman et al., 2021 ; Walton et al., 2020 ]) rather than setting out to prove the well-understood relationship between these and measurable outcomes.

The framework has also assisted with modelling. A design for agent-based modelling for smart grid development drew from the cultures framework to incorporate energy use behaviours into the models (Snape et al., 2011 ). A project using system dynamics modelling of the uptake of electric vehicles also used the elements of the cultures framework as foundational data for the model (Rees, 2015 ). Methods such as these align well with the original conceptual framing of culture as a system, and offer a dynamic structure to explore system-type interactions between components of the framework.

The framework lends itself to multi-scalar analysis, as with research on PV uptake in Switzerland, where the work described generalised cultural ensembles of adopters and non-adopters and also drew insights on cultural processes from individuals (Bach et al., 2020 ). By focusing on collectives, researchers can observe patterns of similar cultural features across a population and identify broadly similar influences on and outcomes of that culture. By focusing on individual actors, they can also explore in detail the dynamics within cultural ensembles.

The framework has also been used to structure reviews of literature. Examples include reviews of the adoption of energy-efficient technology innovations in buildings (Soorige et al., 2022 ), academic air travel cultures (Tseng et al., 2022 ) and adoption of natural gas (Binney & Grigg, 2020 ). In a study on barriers and drivers for industrial energy efficiency, the framework was refined to fit an industrial context and used as an organising framework for metadata from a literature review on the barriers and drivers of energy behaviour in firms. This approach enabled the researchers to consider many interdependent components of efficiency decision-making by industry, including attitudinal factors, behaviours and technologies (Rotzek et al., 2018 ).

Some studies have investigated the effectiveness of interventions intended to improve sustainability outcomes. In these instances, they have used the framework to guide collection of pre-intervention and post-intervention data on cultural ensembles and/or outcomes (e.g. Rau et al., 2020 ; Scott et al., 2016 ). Other work has used the framework to design evaluation tools (e.g. Ford et al., 2016 ; Karlin et al., 2015 ).

Within larger research programmes, the framework can be used as a structuring device for allocating research roles and methods across an interdisciplinary team. In the Energy Cultures 1 and 2 research programmes, for example, we identified the core elements of culture in relation to energy efficiency (material aspects, practices, norms, beliefs, etc.) through householder questionnaires, focus groups and interviews. To relate cultural ensembles to energy outcomes, we included questions about energy consumption in the surveys and in later work we used data from smart electricity meters. Interrelationships between elements of the framework were explored in various ways. We used a values ‘laddering’ approach (from consumer psychology) to look at the relationships between values and household energy efficiency actions (Mirosa et al., 2013 ) and used choice modelling (an economics tool) to examine the interactivity between people’s motivators and preferences for adoption of efficient technologies (Thorsnes et al., 2017 ). These were staged so that the values work helped in the design of the choice modelling. We explored interactions between norms, material culture and practices with community focus groups, and these groups also assisted in identifying external influence that were barriers to changing behaviour. Desktop studies were used to examine regulatory, market and policy influences on energy culture. We used social network analysis to identify the most common sources of external influence on householder choices to adopt more efficient technologies. All of these different sources of insight were linked though the framework, which supported an integrative approach across the team, learning from each other’s findings and contributing to a holistic understanding of household energy cultures in the New Zealand context (Barton et al., 2013 ; Stephenson et al., 2010 ).

The framework is thus helpful in underpinning the design of research as a single- or multi-method project by an individual researcher, or a multi-method multidisciplinary research programme by a team. It can be used proactively to design research and analyse the findings, or used retrospectively to help analyse existing data from single or multiple sources. It is fruitful when used as a theory in its own right, and also when used in combination with other theories.

Using the Cultures Framework as a Meta-Theoretical Framing

As these examples have shown, research using the cultures framework is not confined to particular methods, and neither is it confined to any particular theoretical or disciplinary perspective. In this sense, the framework offers a meta-theoretical set of universal elements, and leaves it to the researcher to determine which theories and methodologies are best used to examine them. Rau et al. ( 2020 ) describe the advantages of the framework thus:

The benefits of using the [cultures framework] to organise the empirical material and findings of this interdisciplinary energy research were considerable, especially given its focus on the multi-method investigation of a small number of households. Its relative simplicity, easy-to-understand terminology and focus on both social and material aspects of energy use made it an ideal tool for fusing insights from the social sciences, engineering and architecture. At the same time, [the framework] was capable of connecting a higher-order theoretical approach (energy cultures) to concrete empirical energy-related outcomes. (p. 10)

While many studies use the cultures framework as a framing theory in its own right, it is at the same time an organising framework that enables multiple methods, theories and disciplines to contribute to an understanding of culture in relation to sustainability. Studies using the cultures framework to date have drawn from complementary explanatory theories as diverse as sociological theories of agency, structure, institutions and practice, theories of power and gender, behavioural theories, socio-technical systems theories, consumer psychology, economic theories, the multi-level perspective and, of course, theories of culture. Generally, these are used to inform analysis of an aspect of the cultures framework.

This flexibility is well explained by Ambrosio-Albalá et al. ( 2019 ) in their conclusion to a paper on public perceptions on distributed energy storage in the United Kingdom:

… we find that the framework functions as a useful heuristic, allowing us to organise and reflect on a wide range of factors in a way that is more inclusive than a psychology-only perspective. The idea of there being multiple possible cultures in relation to energy use – and the observation of these at different scales – also helps to stimulate thinking on further research directions in terms of how different households, demographic segments, nationalities and entities may differ in terms of the nexus of norms, attitudes, behaviours or practices and material experiences. These cultures will likely need different types of communication, informational, institutional and contractual offers, given likely differing responses. A further value of the ECF [energy cultures framework] – regarding which we would concur with its originators – lies in its comprehensibility for non-social scientists. For more specialised and narrowly specified forms of analysis, we would defer to the psychological and sociological perspectives that the ECF draws upon. (p. 149)

There are many under-explored possibilities for the use of other theories and bodies of knowledge to help explore aspects of culture in relation to sustainability. For example, in relation to the theory of structuration, culture works both to replicate social life and as a creative force for change. The framework positions culture as constrained and shaped by structure, while simultaneously situating more powerful cultures as part of structure. Despite these constraints on their agency, cultural actors can and do make independent choices and can collectively reshape more powerful structures and cultures. This interplay (and the conceptual overlap of culture and structure) invites further exploration in both a theoretical and applied sense, particularly in the context of the implications for sustainability transitions.  

Conceptual fields that underpinned the development of the cultures framework could be drawn from more extensively, including lifestyles literatures, socio-technical studies, actor network theory, systems approaches, and sociological and anthropological theories of culture. For example, social practice theory can help illuminate aspects of the inner elements of the framework, with a focus on habitual actions. Theories of power and justice can help elaborate on the reasons for limitations in agency and choice that are imposed by those outside the agency boundary. Socio-technical systems theories can assist in exploring the relationships between actors’ material items and their activities. Theories of gender can help explores difference in cultural meaning, gender equity and gender leadership in sustainability outcomes. In all of these ways and more, the framework can offer a meta-theoretical structure for deeper analysis depending on the inclinations and interests of the researcher.

Further Contributions From Cultural Theory

A further untapped potential lies in the application of cultural theories more generally to questions of sustainability. Cultural theory is a vast field that I could only sketch out lightly in Chapters 2 and 3 . There I discussed divergences and similarities across cultural theories and identified nine main clusters of perspectives on culture. I believe that each of these perspectives on culture can make an important contribution to research for a more sustainable future.

Culture-as-nature is the oldest of the nine perspectives. It is mostly overlooked by dominant ideologies, and yet its endurance offers the most hope. Culture-as-nature reflects many Indigenous perspectives that defy the intellectual separation of human society and natural systems. Culture-as-nature recognises our utter dependence on the natural world. The most powerful expressions of culture-as-nature continue to come from Indigenous peoples, although recent years have seen an increasingly strong voice from Western scholars (e.g. Haraway, 2016 ; Plumwood, 2005 ; Tsing et al., 2017 ). Culture-as-nature reinforces the indivisibility of human existence from nature and the responsibilities of human societies to maintain the integrity of natural systems. It also breaks down the barriers of cultural membership. Natural features are actors in culture: mountains and creatures are family members, trees communicate, rivers are people; they are all cultural members with agency. Many of the Indigenous societies of the world offer principles, values, practices, knowledges and worldviews that are crucial for a sustainable future (Artelle et al., 2018 ; Mazzocchi, 2020 ; Watene & Yap, 2015 ; Waldmüller et al., 2022 ; Yunkaporta, 2020 ).

Culture-as-nurture reflects the original meaning of culture in old English, referring to processes of husbandry—the careful tending of crops and animals. For the sustainability crisis, we are relearning the urgency of nurturing all life forms and regenerating natural systems. As well as reinforcing the importance of healthy natural systems and food production, culture-as-nurture can be further interpreted as the re-grounding of communities in caring for place, and reviving the spiritual roots of agriculture (Bisht & Rana, 2020 ; van den Berg et al., 2018 ). Urban agriculture or community gardens similarly reconnect people to the practices and rhythms of caring for nature, along with the sharing of food and strengthening a sense of community (Sumner et al., 2011 ). Culture-as-nurture reflects the ways in which we must re-learn practices of caring for nature, and how caring for nature aligns with caring for each other.

The original sense of culture-as-progress was the process of human development towards a so-called civilised state that reflected certain Western ideals of art and behaviours. Although it is now repellent and largely obsolete in this original sense, the idea of ‘progress’ can be reconfigured to refer to cultural journeys towards sustainability. Culture-as-progress in this sense can recognise the many cultural configurations that already have sustainable outcomes. It invites investigations of factors that underpin the relative sustainability of one culture compared to another (Buenstorf & Cordes, 2008 ; Minton et al., 2018 ) and the application of cultural evolution concepts to sustainability challenges (Brooks et al., 2018 ). A practical application of this in the world of business is the concept of energy culture ‘maturity’ and evaluation methods to assess such progress (Soorige et al., 2022 ). If the concept of progress is applied to outcomes rather than to cultural characteristics in themselves, this removes the suggestion that certain forms of cultural ensemble are better than others. Instead, a sustainable future requires a multitude of sustainable cultural ensembles specific to people and place, at a multitude of scales.

Culture is still commonly used to refer to works and practices of artistic and intellectual activity. In this sense, culture-as-product plays an important role as a cultural vector in transmitting ideas, values and possibilities. For the sustainability transition, creative works will play a critical role in challenging systems, institutions and practices that are destroying natural systems and demeaning humanity, as well as offering inspiration for alternate futures. Cultural products have the potential to convey different understandings, such as about the world’s ecological limits, actions for sustainability and new perspectives of the future (Curtis et al., 2014 ). This is already a strong theme in art and performance (Galafassi et al., 2018 ; Kagan, 2019 ) but could play an even stronger role in helping shape awareness and collective visioning for a sustainable future.

Culture-as-lifeways draws originally from anthropological studies of the distinctive way of life of a group of people. From a sustainability perspective, this concept can be redirected from studying the ways of life as a focus in their own right, to looking at the relationship between ways of life and the sustainability outcomes. From a research perspective, it encourages work that explores the variety of ways that people already live sustainably—for example, differences between ways of life in the global north and global south (Hayward & Roy, 2019 ), as well as how group or community ways of life can be re-oriented towards more sustainable consequences (Brightman & Lewis, 2017 ).

Culture-as-meaning focuses on the shared meanings and symbolisms of cultural objects such as text, discourse and possessions. For the sustainability challenge, culture-as-meaning can help reveal the ways in which symbolism can work for or against sustainable outcomes. Theories of cultural meaning could be applied to the analysis of how unsustainability is inherent in dominant rhetoric, text and discourse (e.g. Sturgeon, 2009 ), and the ways in which new meanings are being forged as part of cultural transformations (e.g. Hammond, 2019 ). Other examples of work using culture-as-meaning include a study of how the term ‘sustainable development’ is constructed in the disclosures of Finnish-listed companies (Laine, 2005 ), how the media interprets sustainability (Fischer et al., 2017 ) and the importance of symbolism in marketing for the sustainability transition (Kumar et al., 2012 ; Sheth & Parvatiyar, 2021 ).

Culture-as-structure is interested in the underlying rules by which social systems are reproduced—the cultural codes of social life. Culture-as-structure, as embedded in institutions and discourses, is intimately tied with questions of power and influence regardless of intent (Blythe et al., 2018 ). Drawing on this literature can help identify and challenge ideologies, assumptions and rules that replicate unsustainability. Relevant studies using culture-as-structure include how neoliberal ideology operates through sustainability discourses (Jacobsson, 2019 ) and the mental structures in which finance actors are embedded (Lagoarde-Segot & Paranque, 2018 ).

Culture-as-practice studies the bodily practices that produce and replicate social life, and the intimate linkages between routines, objects, meanings and competencies. This field of work can contribute to questions of how to alter practices, or develop new practices that support sustainability. Practice theory has already been widely applied to how to achieve less resource-intensive habits and routines, including how the reproduction of social practice can sustain inequality and injustice (Shove & Spurling, 2013 ) and to provide insights on collective action for social change (Welch & Yates, 2018 ).

Culture-as-purpose reflects bodies of work that focus on how to change the culture of organisations or groups of actors intentionally. Work in the field of organisational culture includes how to deliberately create more sustainable organisations (Galpin et al., 2015 ; Obal et al., 2020 ). Education for sustainability is another major field working on purposeful culture change, building on and extending educational theories (Huckle & Sterling, 1996 ) and education’s transformative potential (Filho et al., 2018 ). This includes using practices of dance and music to develop pro-social behaviours that align with sustainability goals (Bojner et al., 2022 ).

All nine conceptualisations of culture thus make important contributions to understanding the role of culture in sustainability. It is evident that at least some academics in each of these fields are applying relevant theories and methodologies to sustainability questions, but it appears to be occurring in a fragmented way with different bodies of knowledge scarcely acknowledging each other. Even if there is a ramping up of scholarly contributions on culture and sustainability, there is the risk that the slipperiness of culture as a concept will continue to handicap the use of research findings by practitioners and policymakers. If culture continues to be presented as if each part of the elephant is the full elephant, and the only true elephant, its ongoing indeterminacy will continue to confuse potential research users and dilute the effectiveness of scholarly contributions.

The cultures framework could help here by ‘locating’ these different approaches to culture and their contribution to sustainability challenges. Each of the nine clusters of meaning can offer insights for certain features or qualities of the framework. Using its meta framing, culture-as-purpose focuses on how to purposefully initiate cultural change and achieve better sustainability outcomes. Culture-as-practice focuses on routines as a subset of activities, emphasising how they cannot be understood in isolation from the objects, competencies and meanings associated with them. Culture-as-structure helps explore entrenched external influences or higher-order cultures that use their power to shape the cultural ensembles of less powerful actors. Culture-as-meaning focuses on the meanings and symbolism of activities and objects and can help illuminate the mechanisms of cultural vectors.

Culture-as-lifeways scholarship can help in studying how culture is learned, the dynamics of the core elements of culture, processes of replication or change, and the heterogeneity of cultural ensembles. In the arts, culture-as-product scholarship can help enhance the role of creative activities and products in building a more sustainable future. Academic fields that align with culture-as-progress focus more on the two-ended arrow that links cultural ensembles and outcomes and can help with studies on the many journeys involved in achieving cultures that touch lightly on the earth.

Culture-as-nurture scholarship contributes to the adoption of more nurturing food-production activities that also enhance social and environmental outcomes. Culture-as-nature opens the door to entirely different worldviews and knowledge systems regarding humans’ relationships with the natural world. Importantly, it extends cultural actors to include non-human life forms, spiritual beings and landscape features. In this way, it offers ways of understanding the sustainability transition as a process of restoring health and vitality to all living things and the natural systems that support them.

The cultures framework can thus work as an integrative heuristic, indicating how different interpretations of culture all contribute in important ways to a fuller understanding of the role of culture in sustainability. Used in this way, the framework can help reveal the complementary roles of these diverse approaches to practitioners and non-cultural academics. It can also indicate to researchers where it might be useful to reach back to the original bodies of cultural theory and bodies of knowledge to help illuminate particular aspects of the overall ‘elephant of culture’. In this way, cultural scholarship can be used more comprehensively and systematically to support sustainability transitions, and the slipperiness of culture is somewhat reduced.

As this chapter has demonstrated, there is no ‘right way’ to do research with the cultures framework. It is a set of highly generalised variables and their relationships, which can be explored using a wide range of research methods and theories. Researchers can choose which features within the general variables to focus on and can apply the framework at any scale and to any set of actors. The framework can be used as a framing theory in its own right, or alternatively (or simultaneously) can operate as an integrating frame for interdisciplinary, multi-method research, or as a meta-theoretical framing of the complex field of culture and sustainability. Either on its own or in combination with other frameworks and theories, the cultures framework thus offers ontological and epistemological inclusiveness for transdisciplinary research agendas.

There is an urgent need for a better understanding of the role of culture in the sustainability crisis and how to transform the unsustainable cultures that are inherent in most systems of production and consumption. Technologies alone will not achieve a net-zero world by 2050, or turn around our devastating losses of biodiversity, or enable equitable access to energy for families in developing countries. It will take more than simply changes in behaviour. It will require fundamental changes in the motivators, activities and materialities of people and organisations at every scale. We can learn much from cultures that are already sustainable or are on journeys of transition, but the biggest challenge is how to achieve transformational cultural change, at scale, and with unprecedented speed. To that end, research is desperately needed to improve our understanding of processes of cultural change, and particularly to understand how powerful meta-cultures can be destabilised and their unsustainable ideologies and institutions transformed.

Although the framework has already been used in a wide variety of fields, it has the potential to do much more to assist with journeys of transition. We need to know more about how sustainable cultures develop and endure, a better understanding of the dynamics of cultural change and the role of vectors in cultural learning, as well as processes of cultural expansion and collectivisation. More research is needed on the implications of actors having multiple cultural ensembles in different aspects of their life (e.g. the interplay between their food culture, mobility culture and household energy culture). Researchers could fruitfully explore how these overlapping cultures influence and shape each other, or divergences between cultural settings at home and at work. We need to better understand how cultural transformations can be enabled, and the roles that culture will need to play to achieve sustainability transitions. And while some research using the framework has explored issues of power and justice, there is much more to be done.

Cultural research can work at two levels in this quest for transformation. On the one hand, cultures are unique as to membership and cultural features. Researchers can draw conclusions regarding specific cultural ensembles and their sustainability outcomes, and can make recommendations for change initiatives. However, these will usually only be relevant to the case in question. On the other hand, as more studies are undertaken, we can start to build up generalisable understandings of cultural dynamics as they relate to sustainability. Across multiple studies, the research community can develop a better picture of universal cultural processes and effective  change interventions.

Finally, although this chapter is about culture and sustainability, the research approach I describe in this chapter could be used in other fields of inquiry. It was developed for sustainability-related research and has mainly been used for that purpose, but it could equally be applied to investigations of culture for any other reason, and in relation to any other outcome. But my hope is that it will continue to be primarily used for research that helps achieve a just transition to a sustainable future.

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• v.10(8); 2021 Aug 15

Research culture: science from bench to society

Lorenzo canti.

1 Hematology Research Unit, Groupe Interdisciplinaire de Génoprotéomique Appliquée (GIGA)-I3, University of Liège, 4000 Liège, Belgium

Anna Chrzanowska

2 Neuro-Electronic Research Flanders, VIB, 3001 Leuven, Belgium

3 Biology Department, KU Leuven, 3001 Leuven, Belgium

4 Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre, 3001 Leuven, Belgium

M. Giulia Doglio

5 VIB-UGent Center for Inflammation Research, VIB, 9052 Ghent, Belgium

6 Department of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium

Lia Martina

7 VIB-UGent Center for Medical Biotechnology, VIB, 9052 Ghent, Belgium

8 Department for Biomolecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium

Tim Van Den Bossche

Research is a long process in which the collaboration between stakeholders involved in academia, industry and governments is crucial. Ideally, these stakeholders should work together to better align the innovation process with the values, needs and expectations of the research community. Reflecting on how we perform research and how our discoveries can benefit society is therefore of the utmost importance. The complete system of shared values concerning the research process is embedded in the concept of research culture, which has been gaining more attention in recent years. With the hope of increasing awareness of research culture among established scientists and early-career professionals, in this manuscript we discuss what research culture is, what it consists of and how it can positively influence scientific developments.

Summary: With this manuscript, we aim to increase the awareness on research culture, and illustrate that a well developed research culture can positively influence scientific developments.

The research culture umbrella: an introduction

First, we have to ask ourselves what research culture is, just like Robin Hill in 1999: “Do we mean an organisational culture in which research plays a significant role? Do we mean “the way we do research round here?” Or do we mean a culture of the type found in a petri dish [...] ?” ( Hill, 1999 ). According to the Royal Society of London, research culture encompasses all behaviours, values, expectations, attitudes and norms of research communities. Moreover, it shapes and regulates all aspects of the scientific process: from how research is performed at the bench to how discoveries are communicated to the public ( The Royal Society, 2020 ). Research culture therefore includes a system of shared values and basic assumptions concerning research ( Hill, 1999 ). As a set of common rules, a ‘positive’ research culture emphasises constructive conduct, cooperation and open mindedness, while unhealthy competition and lack of transparency can lead to a ‘negative’ research culture, which will discourage creativity and ultimately hinder scientific progress itself ( Anonymous academic, 2018 ). Luckily, research culture has received increased attention in recent years as a response to the virtual monopoly of the major publishing houses on publications ( Larivière et al., 2015 ), the reproducibility crisis ( Dirnagl, 2019 ) and the increasing use of quantitative metrics to evaluate research outputs ( Brown, 2007 ; Donovan, 2007 ).

Since the scope of research culture is very broad, we will highlight in this manuscript three different aspects. First, we will discuss the common effort to get ethically acceptable, sustainable and socially desirable research and innovation outcomes by using the Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) framework. This science policy framework aims to engage academic and industrial entities, the public, political institutions and professionals in science to intimately link and adapt good common practice for aligning with the needs and expectations of society ( RRI Practice, 2019 ) Second, we will discuss gender equality, diversity and inclusivity. Gender equality refers to the given possibility to men and women of all ages to have equal rights in any aspects of their life ( EIGE, 2021 ), something that often goes along with the concepts of inclusion and diversity. These indicate both the organisational effort and practices in which different groups or individuals having different backgrounds are culturally and socially accepted and welcomed, and treated equally. ( Global Diversity Practice Ltd, 2020 ). Third, we will discuss sustainable research careers, which refers to meaningful and beneficial employment to facilitate the personal development of the worker. These aspects will demonstrate how research culture positively impacts the integrity, the openness and transparency of institutions, the diversity and the multidisciplinarity of the research team, and the entire system in which scientists operate ( Moore and Jull, 2012 ).

RRI: a joint effort to align science with expectations of society

The fast scientific and technological progress starting with the Human Genome Project in 1988 made the need of raising awareness clear about the ethical and social implications of scientific research towards society. In this sense, the RRI framework has to be interpreted as a joint effort to align and reshape science with the expectations of society. Being inspired by the Ethical, Legal and Social Aspects (ELSA) program and other precursors developed all around the world such as the Ethical, Legal and Social Implications (ELSI) program in the USA (1990) and South Korea (2001), and the Genomics-related Ethical, Environmental, Economic, Legal and Social Aspects (GE3LS) program in Canada (2000), the RRI was integrated into Horizon 2020, the most recent European Research and Innovation program promising more breakthroughs, discoveries and world-firsts by taking great ideas from the lab to the market. So, how does this framework find its place within research culture? Founded on the principles of excellence, honesty, moral integrity, transparency and the respect of ethics and professional standards in research ( National Research Council et al., 2002 ), the RRI approach is intended as a progressive framework that embodies all scientific processes, and impacts society at the present and on the long-term ( Yu, 2016 ). Despite few differences, RRI overlaps with the concept of research culture. While research culture is the mere set of values and conducts observed in the context of the scientific and innovation process, RRI is an actual framework showing how science should act towards society ( Owen et al., 2013 ). This framework takes, next to scientists, also other stakeholders into account such as entire research organizations, educational organizations, ethical committees, legislators and the civil society ( Stahl, 2013 ). Each entity benefits from interactions with the other entities. In such a context, communication is of seminal importance: informing stakeholders of the value of the translation process in the innovation chain may make them even more willing to collaborate. From the government's perspective, industry and academics' success in translating and commercializing publicly funded research means the realisation of social and economic value deriving from the discoveries made ( Yu, 2016 ). This in turn justifies further research funding, which researchers and scientific institutions benefit from. Most importantly, the public benefit from the availability of therapies, medicines and technologies derived from funding and human effort ( Yu, 2016 ). In this process of mutual connection, external participants such as international research institutes from abroad can make important contributions as well ( Stahl, 2013 ; Stilgoe et al., 2013 ). Recent discussions have even focused on how to engage lay citizens in the research process ( Heigl et al., 2019 ) but this is still a matter of debate.

The aim of RRI is thus to understand the role and responsibilities of both the main actors (the scientists) and all participants of the scientific process in Europe. Similar programs have continued or are starting to take place all over the world. Although ELSI is still active from the date of its creation in the USA, this program rapidly expanded from South Korea even to China, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan ( Yoshizawa et al., 2014 ). RRI is a nascent concept in Australia as well ( Ashworth et al., 2019 ), and efforts are being made to engage stakeholders in exporting these concepts in Africa. For example, the non-profit organisation Teaching and Research in Natural Sciences for Development (TReND) in Africa fosters scientific capacity building by acting on all levels ( TReND, 2020 ). First, the organisation supports innovation in local communities by providing tools such as educational training, practical workshops and scientific equipment to allow African researchers to accomplish their own aims. Second, they organise outreach events for the public to inspire locals and to stimulate their interest in science. Finally, to push for stable support for research on the African continent, they also create opportunities for discussions between scientists and local policymakers (politicians and university officers). Such an approach actually promotes opportunities for development and innovation that are integrated and aligned with needs and expectations of society. In this sense, we think the mere re-conceptualisation of issues is not going to help to change perspectives. An overemphasis on individual interests without sufficient attention to the greater social, economic, and structural challenges to translation may undermine rather than protect societal interest ( Yu, 2016 ). On the contrary, letting the stakeholders see the interconnectedness within the chain of translational research and the ultimate objective of public benefit may help them to recognise the importance of their roles and increase participation.

Gender equality, diversity and inclusion: hand-in-hand for equal opportunities

In spite of the social changes that have happened during the second half of the 20th century, gender inequality persists today and stagnates social progress by hindering collaboration and openness in the work field ( Newman, 2014 ). Addressing such an issue is crucial for ensuring the principle of inclusivity and profit as much as possible by the human capital. Indeed, women represent half of the world's population and therefore also half of its potential. In the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) workforce, the racial, ethnic and gender gaps are still a major issue. Black and Hispanic workers remain underrepresented, and they are less likely to earn degrees in STEM than other degree fields than Asian and White students (www.pewresearch.org/). Across STEM occupations, women make up a large majority of all workers in health-related jobs, but remain underrepresented in other job clusters, such as the physical sciences, computational sciences and engineering. While gender balance has been reached for degrees in social sciences, biological sciences, mathematics and statistics, women are underrepresented in computer sciences (18.7%), the physical sciences (19.3%) and engineering (20.9%). Additionally, women of color comprise less than 5% of undergraduates in male-dominated STEM fields. Women remain underrepresented at the graduate level, earning 20.1% of doctorates in computer science, 19.3% in the physical sciences, 23.5% in engineering and 28.5% in mathematics and statistics (National Science Foundation et al., 2019). Only 5% of all science and engineering doctorates are awarded to women of color ( National Science Foundation et al., 2019 ). In 2018, the Royal Society of Chemistry showed a worrying steadiness in the number of women retaining leadership positions ( Royal Society of Chemistry, 2018a ). The report presented evidence that just 9% of chemistry professors in the UK are women, compared to the 44% female undergraduate students, showing how the proportion drops dramatically between undergraduate and senior positions in academia. Actually, the situation in the UK mirrors what happens worldwide, where less than one in three of all research and innovation positions are held by women ( UN Woman, 2019 ). The three key barriers that have to be blamed for such a gender imbalance ( Royal Society of Chemistry, 2018b ) are (i) relying on uncertain, non-continuous funding, which creates unnecessary pressure, (ii) an inflexible and unsupportive academic culture that can drive talented scientists elsewhere, and (iii) the perception that caring and family responsibilities are unique to women. These barriers not only affect women but also ethnic minorities: evidence from the UK has suggested that poverty and social deprivation in childhood is linked to educational underachievement ( Office For National Statistics, 2020 ). As a proof of concept, white people are 1.5 times more likely to have worked in science than non-white people ( The Royal Society, 2014 ). Setting clear guidelines would be beneficial to supporting the careers of all talented individuals and to ensure an egalitarian approach for everyone. Confronting bias would be a good first step towards building a more meritocratic scientific community. This can be achieved by making people aware of their unconscious biases, i.e. unintended prejudices that influence our perceptions and judgements. To help with the identification of these stereotypes, a team of social psychologists developed the Implicit Association Test which measures an individual's subconscious attitudes, e.g. towards gender and race. Their results showed that 90–95% of people are affected by unconscious biases ( Greenwald et al., 1998 ). This further highlights the importance of pursuing focused training to understand how to recognise and fight such biases. The understanding of unconscious bias could offer an explanation of why society still looks so unequitable despite laws protecting equal opportunities. Another aspect of gender discrimination that is important to keep into consideration is the privilege of men. Privilege can be defined as systematically conferred advantages to a dominant group, which will then have access to resources and institutional power over the outsiders ( Bailey, 1998 ). Namely, it has been seen that men have better chances of getting a job than women, that men are the most represented in the accomplishments highlighting the absence of female role models. Male privilege can be seen even in language, where the masculine words are used to describe a mixed group of people or professions underlining the predominance of the male figure ( Dister et al., 2020 ). The lack of critical interrogation of this privilege allows men to reinforce their dominance and slows down improvements in gender equality ( Schacht, 2001 ). Nevertheless, it is important to recognise that some men are already playing positive roles in fostering equitable gender relations, and such roles must be encouraged and extended at a political level ( Chant and Gutmann, 2000 ). Considering all these aspects and focusing on the specific context of academia, it is critical to find and correct the failure that is impeding the achievement of gender equality. This pitfall could be represented by the system to evaluate researchers' careers that is restricting diversity in academia itself by, for example, penalising women for taking maternity leave or by seeing the maternity leave itself as a lack of productivity. Moreover, researchers should have the possibility to follow leadership courses at work where they can learn how to avoid discrimination and adopt fair and egalitarian leadership styles. The benefits of a diverse and inclusive workforce not only provides social harmony at work for the employees, but also increases productivity and profitability that will help the organisation to succeed ( Lean In, 2019 ).

Sustainable researcher careers: promoting a positive and supportive research environment

Within such a fast-changing society where the role of an individual is often fulfilled by a successful career path, the topic of sustainable researcher careers is attracting more and more attention. A career is defined as sustainable when it reflects a mutual beneficial interchange between the people and their surrounding environment, and involves the continued employment of individuals in jobs that facilitate their personal development ( Vos et al., 2020 ). Hence, a sustainable career does not refer to success only, but takes into account all of the building blocks for the wellbeing and individual growth of the researcher. Several organisations have been recently involved in understanding whether the scientific career fulfills the requirements of sustainability, highlighting many aspects and habits that still need to change.

The Wellcome Trust conducted a survey involving scientists from different environments, ages and experience who answered that they see their work more as a passion than a job ( Wellcome Trust, 2020 ). This means that researchers voluntarily deal with the deeply rooted habits in the current research culture, including the negative ones. For example, they accept working long hours in conditions of high mental stress and under short-term contracts without security for their future. The current, non-supportive environment ultimately leads to poorer research outcomes ( Wellcome Trust, 2020 ). For most of the surveyed scientists, such compliance is due to the unhealthy competition created by the funding agents' demands for fast and risk-averse results, and the pressure to publish at the expense of individual wellbeing. According to another survey conducted in the Flemish biomedical environment and directed towards various actors (such as policy makers, funders, institutions, editors, but also technicians, students and former researchers), feelings of blame and mistrust are present between groups ( Bonn and Pinxten, 2021a , b ). In general, these results are reflected in conditions harmful to mental health among scientists, as investigated by the Royal Society. Early-career researchers are considered to be a high-risk group when it comes to work-related stress, with a three times higher risk of developing mental illness than established professionals ( Raymer and The Royal Society, 2019 ). Contrarily, almost all participants of the Wellcome Trust's survey stated the importance of wellbeing for an effective working environment: the best results are achieved when scientists feel a sense of security, the environment is collaborative, inclusive and supportive, and the leadership is transparent and open ( Wellcome Trust, 2020 ). In this regard, institutes and universities need to invest more in services to ensure the wellbeing of researchers. An important role here is played by investigators, supervisors and managers who should be examples of good, ethical research conduct.

Most researchers consider an academic career as the default option and changing career paths is often perceived as failure ( Wellcome Trust, 2020 ). Nevertheless, most researchers' careers will take them outside of academia, according to a joint declaration published by the Marie Curie Alumni Association and the European Council of Doctoral Candidates ( Kismihók et al., 2019 ).

Therefore, academic institutes and governments need to ensure smooth transitions for researchers to non-academic career paths by informing them about these possibilities ( Kismihók et al., 2019 ). Investing in the development of soft skills is a complementary way to increase researchers' employability in and outside academia. Universities are already implementing networking events and transferable skills training in doctoral programs, but also researcher-driven initiatives are very valuable to individual development. Soft skills such as leadership, communication and time management will be considered as essential in at least two thirds of jobs by 2030 ( Kismihók et al., 2019 ). As shown by several reports ( Deeming et al., 2017 ; Gong, 2012 ; The Royal Society, 2018 ), the Nuffield Council of Bioethics, 2014 ) and the progressive increment of academic courses focusing on soft skills, there has been a real increase in awareness of the importance of research culture and its pillars. For example, academic institutes worldwide subscribed to the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (2012) as a sign of recognition of the need to improve the ways in which the outputs of scholarly research are evaluated ( DORA, 2012 ). Current assessment methods do not capture the whole picture of success, which is given by a combination of the researcher, the research outputs, the processes and luck. Moreover, these methods strongly rely on research outputs, discouraging important processes that contribute to the quality and integrity of research ( Bonn and Pinxten, 2021a ). If publications are relatively easy to track and quantify, how can we evaluate researchers based on their conduct and soft skills? The Royal Society had an idea to create a standardized short format CV that emphasizes wider contributions to the research system, to provide an overview of the individual and the individual's achievements ( https://royalsociety.org/blog/2019/10/research-culture/ ). This format CV is now being piloted by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the biggest funder in the UK ( UKRI, 2021 ). Similar innovative ways to evaluate individuals are starting to spread in other countries as well ( Tregoning, 2018 ). Nevertheless, still some years will be needed to bear the fruits of these changes ( Saenen, et al., 2021 ).

In general, there is a clear consensus that a change in today's research culture is essential to ensure the condition of career sustainability in science: healthy competition, openness, mobility (in terms of diversified career paths) and wellbeing must be strongly encouraged and supported. Institutes and universities will have an important role in framing new norms that fulfill the requirements for sustainability, but also researchers themselves have to undergo cultural and attitudinal changes in their own environment and to take responsibility for their own future ( Raymer and The Royal Society, 2019 ).

Conclusions and future perspectives

Science and technology have tremendous impact on today's society by achieving great discoveries and creating tools from which we can all benefit. At the same time, the current behaviors in terms of competition for funding, low success rates, increasingly long and unstandardised application forms, pressure from the university management to keep the highest level of excellence and so on, put workers' wellbeing and research quality at high risk, leading to suboptimal scientific progression and prosperity of society. Several surveys and reports clearly indicate that a call to action is required: we need to rethink our reward-recognition system and the concept of excellence itself ( Moore et al., 2017 ). These narrow definitions of research excellence suppress researchers' development, creativity and engagement, to the detriment of advances in knowledge and society ( Cohen et al., 2019 ). Therefore, it would be important to promote the reward of applicants and organisations that engage in open and responsible research through multiple tools like offering opportunities for public engagements and showcasing their work on a large scale.

Reimagining research culture needs collective responsibility and requires at the same time continuous evaluation and implementation. Some efforts in this sense have already been made. The Wellcome Trust, for example, launched the Reimagine Research Solutions Summit, a major initiative in September 2019 to bring together experts of the field to explore these topics and think about practical steps to achieve a better research culture. Equally, the global scientific communications company Cactus settled in Asia is driven by its mission to make research available to the community around the world and accelerate research impact ( CACTUS, 2021 ). In this sense, the agency does promote events for enhancing and upgrading research activities of individuals, institutions and funders. Also, it offers a good example of inclusion and collaboration by providing several types of career options, even as a freelancer. The discussion about the different aspects of research culture is open on the web as well: MetisTalk, for example, is a blog that offers a pragmatic way to discuss and put in action the proposed changes in research culture ( Downey and Stroobants, 2019 ).

We can conclude that it is important to leave the narrow reality of the bench, and be more open minded and aware of the impact science and research culture have on the environment we live in, especially for early-career researchers. These changes will allow for bringing different communities from across the research world together, raising the importance of a good research culture and creating ambassadors of change, with people taking the responsibility of going back to their own organisations to stimulate and lead discussions about research culture.

Acknowledgements

This manuscript was inspired by Dr Karen Stroobants' talk during the VIBes in Biosciences Symposium 2020 edition, organized by PhD students from the Flemish Institute of Biotechnology (VIB) in Belgium. We would like to thank Dr Karen Stroobants and Dr Paola Masuzzo for their input in this manuscript, who made this article possible and kindly provided assistance.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing or financial interests.

Author contributions

L.C., A.C., M.G.D, L.M. and T.V. wrote the first draft of this manuscript and contributed equally to the editing.

We would like to acknowledge the support of the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO) [grants 11C5119N and 11C5121N to AC, 1S90918N to TVDB].

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Historically, times of great upheaval have given rise to significant cultural changes—for instance, the Great Depression or in the aftermath of September 11. In 2020, as a global pandemic shook the world, racial justice uprisings became widely publicized, and a contentious election raised questions about the state of American democracy, the FrameWorks Institute began investigating if and how similar shifts are taking place today.

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On this page you will find the latest research and resources from the Culture Change Project, updated regularly as new findings emerge. Future research will include more and deeper analysis of these mindset shifts, along with different ways of framing social and political issues in order to help advocates build greater understanding of and support for progressive, systemic solutions.

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What do you mean by “mindsets”?

Mindsets are deep, assumed patterns of thinking that shape how we understand the world and how we make decisions. Unlike opinions, mindsets are highly durable. They emerge from and are tied to cultural and social practices and institutions with deep historical roots. (For example, “individualism” is a mindset that has dominated American thinking since before the inception of the country.) At the same time, in moments of social upheaval, mindsets can be pushed into flux and become destabilized, leading to fairly rapid changes in thinking.

It’s also important to acknowledge that we all have multiple mindsets that we can use to think about a given issue. For example, while Americans often think individualistically, we also have access to more ecological and systemic mindsets. When these mindsets are active, they bring into view social systems and the ways that environments shape outcomes alongside individual choices.

What do you mean by “culture”?

Culture can be seen as a set of shared, implicit mindsets that individuals use to make sense of information, experiences, and their social worlds; process information; interact with others; and make decisions. In addition to its external aspects in social institutions and the material world, culture exists in the mind and is shared by members of a social group.

What is the relationship between mindsets research and opinion polling?

Public opinion research examines the explicit attitudes and preferences that people hold on specific issues. Cultural mindsets research explores the deeper, underlying ways of thinking that shape and explain these patterns in public opinion. Where public opinion research examines what people think, cultural mindsets research examines how people think. For example, public opinion research might demonstrate that people support health education programs more than they support policies that foster access to healthy housing. Cultural mindsets research explains why this is, revealing the role that the mindset of health individualism plays in driving these opinions and preferences.

What does it mean for culture to change?

If culture is a set of shared, implicit mindsets that individuals use to make sense of the world, culture can change as our collective mindsets begin to shift—in this case, based largely on societal upheaval that has affected so many parts of our lives. Mindsets can shift in many ways. For example, certain mindsets can become more or less dominant over time (e.g., mindsets about the power of the free market became more dominant in the second half of the 20th century, while mindsets around the value of collective labor action grew weaker). The boundaries of a mindset can also stretch as people apply existing ways of thinking to make sense of new realities (e.g., the contours of established mindsets about marriage have stretched to encompass same-sex marriage). And new circumstances can introduce entirely new ways of thinking (as was the case in the mid-20th century when mindsets about the dangers of smoking emerged and the maleficence of tobacco companies took hold).

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Government and Community Relations Fellow, Inland Empire Community Foundation

Steph Sterling

Vice President and Senior Advisor, Roosevelt Institute

Vice President for Marketing and Communications, National Women's Law Center

Teach with Holly Rachel

a primary teaching blog

How to Teach a Country Research Project

February 17, 2022 By Holly Rachel

I love teaching a research project on a country. They are so much fun and students gain so much from studying them in your social studies curriculum. I have found that students find them fascinating and love learning interesting facts and recognising the similarities and differences between the country they are learning about and their own way of life.

What is a country research project?

In simple terms, as part of social studies, students create a report on a country by researching facts about it. Their country report could be a wide range of presentation mediums such as a written project, an oral presentation, a poster, worksheets, a performance or even a video, you can be as creative as you like! Student can use a range of methods to research their chosen country. This could be through books, the internet, interviews or from teaching presentations and information sheets.

Why are country research projects important?

It is so important that we teach students about different cultures to their own and to accept and respect differences, as well as to look for the similarities between us all. This is especially important in the interconnected world we live in today.

There are so many benefits to teaching a research project on a country. These include:

-Gaining knowledge about new places and different culture

-Sparking curiosity and a love of learning

-Understanding and accepting differences

-Recognising that even though cultures may have differences, we all share similarities

-Gaining a deeper understanding of their own culture as they learn about others

-Because they are so much fun!

How to do a country research project

A research project on a country may be part of your curriculum, or you may teach the project as part of a whole school cultural week. Alternatively you could set the project as homework for your class. It’s also a great idea to use the project to support learning across other subject areas. For example, students could use the knowledge they gain from their country study and use it in their writing, such as a story setting or an information text. Students could recreate art from the country or develop map skills.

What to include in a country research project

This is the fun part! You may wish your students to lead their own research and report on the areas that interested them, or you may wish to give some guidance. Some great ideas for your research project on a country could include:

Identify the particular country on a map of the word. Where is it located? What continent is the country in? What is the capital city? You could look for physical geographical features such as mountains and rivers. Does the country border any seas? What are the neighbouring countries?

Research the country’s flag. What does the flag tell us about the country? What is the population? What sort of climate does the country have? Students could use graphic organizers to help them record the information they find.

Food is such a great way to learn about a country. It really tells us a lot about the sort of flora and fauna that can be found the country. It can also tell us a lot about the climate of the country. Is it common to preserve food in a particular way? For example through pickling or using spices? Why might this be?

This is such an important skill. As we become more globally connected, learning an additional language is such a valuable skill. You could start with some key phrases and greetings.  Maybe choose certain activities where you could speak in language, such as greeting each other first thing in the morning, or asking. ‘How are you?’ after lunch.

Sight seeing

Learn about the iconic landmarks of the country. When, how and why where they built? What do they tell us about the country and the people who live there?

Recreate art from the country. This could be a study of a particular artist or art movement. Students could recreate a particular painting. What does the painting capture? What can we learn from it? Or perhaps use a painting from the country as inspiration for students’ own work, this could even span different subjects. Create a bulletin board of the students’ own work!

Teach students songs from the country. This is also a great way to learn a language. Listening to and singing songs can really help students gain a valuable insight into the culture.

Sweden Country Study

If you’d like to get started with a country research project, check out my FREE Sweden country study when you subscribe to my email list. These are perfect for your Social Studies 2nd Grade curriculum.

Included is a PowerPoint presentation with 10 slides packed full of information to teach your students all about Sweden. Slides include a map of Sweden, the Swedish flag, basic Swedish phrases, Swedish foods, Swedish landmarks, the Northern Lights and Dala horses, a traditional Swedish craft. That’s right, I have done all the research for you, so it is NO-PREP and ready to go!

Teach the topics as part of your social studies weekly lesson. Alternatively, allow students to complete the project at their own pace or assign out as homework.

Along with PowerPoint slide is an associated social studies worksheet for 2nd Grade students to complete with the information they have learned from the slide show. So this means no trawling the internet finding a worksheet to match a PowerPoint and spending hours making your own. It is all done for you!

Not only that, the activities are differentiated on two levels to support a range of ability levels in your class.

Do you spend hours prepping work for early finishers? Well, I’ve got you covered with a wordsearch all about Sweden!

Also include are summary activities about the project. This includes a worksheet for students to record their favorite facts and a postcard template. Students imagine they have visited Sweden and write postcard home about their travels!

Finally it comes with a super cute cover sheet so your students can make their own booklet with the worksheets. Did I mention this is all FREE? Grab your FREE Sweden Country Study today!

If you’d like to check out my other country studies, I have a whole range of countries available:

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Research culture

The Royal Society’s research culture programme of work aims to embed a culture of research that will support the science community looking forward to 2035.

Links to external sources may no longer work as intended . The content may not represent the latest thinking in this area or the Society’s current position on the topic.

Research culture encompasses the behaviours, values, expectations, attitudes and norms of our research communities. It influences researchers’ career paths and determines the way that research is conducted and communicated. 

The UK has a long history of shaping global research culture, from the times of the Enlightenment scientists, the foundation of the Royal Society  and the frameworks of publishing and peer review, through to its recent leadership in championing science as an open enterprise .

Building on this history and the strengths of research culture today, the Royal Society has started Changing expectations , a programme of work to explore how the UK can promote the cultural conditions that will best enable excellent research and researchers here and elsewhere to flourish in the future . The focus of this programme is on the assessment of research and researchers, researcher career development, and open science. 

Watch the videos recorded throughout the Research Culture: Changing expectations conference.

Read more about research culture in our latest blog posts.

Changing expectations

Research culture: Changing expectations conference

Tools to support and steward research culture

Research system, culture and funding

The UK has a world-class research system, producing high quality science that contributes to the country’s economic growth while also tackling society’s biggest challenges. The funding of research, along with the culture it supports, needs to continually evolve if science is to be the best it can be.

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Research Project

Action research on research culture.

The Action Research on Research Culture project is an international collaboration investigating how changing the recruitment, development and retention of researchers could improve research culture.

Improving research culture – the norms, values and behaviours of researchers and the research system – is a key to revitalising research and increasing its contribution to society.

The Action Research on Research Culture (ARRC) project investigates how changing the recruitment, development and retention of researchers could improve research culture.

Numerous empirical studies, reports and surveys point to problems in the culture of academic research. These include an over-reliance on inappropriate metrics, poor leadership and management, a lack of job security, unhealthy competition, and poor inter-team relationships. These problems lead to a loss of talent and diversity from the sector, and a consequent loss of quality and creativity in research.

Various solutions to these problems have been proposed and the ARRC project will test three approaches intended to improve research culture.

The findings will be used to develop relevant frameworks, policies and materials to ensure effective approaches are embedded in institutions and produce sustainable long term change.

The ARRC project is an international project, led by the University of Cambridge, in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh (UK), Leiden University (The Netherlands), Freie Universität Berlin (Germany), and ETH Zurich (Switzerland). As the project progresses the empirical research will be developed with and extended to partner institutions.

The project is co-led by Liz Simmonds, the Head of Research Culture, and Steve Wooding, from the Research Strategy Office.

The project team encompasses a balance of skills to enable them to: engage with researchers and other stakeholders in the research system; understand the context of the different institutions, circumstances, and disciplines, and; carry out high-quality, robust research, to produce the resources that individuals, and the sector, can use to improve practice.

The team members at the University of Cambridge are working on three main research projects:

Narrative CVs

Using ‘Narrative CVs’ in recruitment is intended to move away from an overreliance on publication lists and grant awards. The project will quantify how different CV formats affect the shortlisting of research applicants alongside studying applicants and recruiters experience of those different formats. This will build an evidence base for the potential for narrative CVs to drive positive culture change.

After successfully completing a pilot study with 5 recruitments in year one, our main phase is currently underway.

If you are recruiting for Postdocs at the University of Cambridge please get in touch with us to see how you can get involved by emailing us: [email protected]

An example narrative CV template, based on the Royal Society’s “Résumé for Research” can be downloaded  here .

How do researchers navigate their role and professional relationships?

The dynamic between early career researchers/academics (ECR/ECA) and their principal investigators (PIs)/managers is formative in shaping academic careers.

Research suggests potential conflicts in the different professional expectations held by ECRs and their managers. To delve into these differences we are employing three different qualitative, narrative-based methods to explore how PIs and postdocs perceive their roles and professional relationships.

Your voice (YV) submissions  

In this method, research staff at the University of Cambridge will be invited to tell us about their research experience by responding to one of three writing prompts that aim to bring participants’ emotions about research work and relationships to light.

Research culture celebration 

Postdocs and ECRs at the University will be invited to nominate their research supervisor or research group to the celebration based on their contribution to positive research culture.

My postdoc journey

Online diary entries will be used to capture how first-time postdocs at the University shift from thinking about what the role might be like to knowing and experiencing the job in practice.

Precarity in academic careers

Precarity in early research careers caused by short fixed-term contracts is one of the major issues cited by the community as leading to challenges in research culture. The problem is complex, and many discussions of the issue fail to take account of the many constraints on, and within, the research system.

This project is developing an understanding of the ways in which early career researchers make choices about their research career; how principal investigators make recruitment decisions and; how the variety of research posts has changed over time. The findings will lead to a better understanding of the different solutions available for addressing questions of precarity or mitigating its worst impacts.

We have launched the exploratory phase of this strand to elicit advice that will inform the attributes included in a discrete choice experiment.

For more details on the research approach see the project website.

The research team for this project is based in the Research Strategy Office and the Human Resources Division, working in association with the Bennett Institute for Public Policy. The team is supported by a grant from Research England alongside funding from the Institutional Strategy Support Fund of the Wellcome Trust, and internal University of Cambridge resources. The ARRC project team can be emailed at: [email protected]  

Related People

Dr Steven Wooding

Affiliated researcher.

Dr Steven Wooding is Head of Research on Research in the Research Strategy Office at the University of Cambridge, a Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Science Policy and...

Liz Simmonds

Liz is the Head of Research Culture at the University of Cambridge, responsible for driving the research culture agenda across the institution. She supports the Research Culture Steering Committee in...

Lara Abel is a Research Associate at the University of Cambridge for the Action Research on Research Culture project. Her academic background is in Psychology and Computer Science. She has...

Mollie Etheridge

Mollie Etheridge is a PhD researcher in the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. Her doctoral research explores how the transition to parenthood and/or desired parenthood changes academics’ engagement with the norms of...

Becky Ioppolo

Becky Ioppolo is an Affiliated Researcher at the Bennett Institute for Public Policy. She is interested in understanding the characteristics of high-performing research environments, particularly in universities. Currently, she is...

Noam Tal-Perry

Noam Tal-Perry is a Research Associate at the University of Cambridge, working as part of the Action Research on Research Culture (ARRC) project. Previously, he graduated with a PhD in...

Sectoral Productivity

Mental wellbeing, productivity, and work.

Organizational culture and project management methodology: research in the financial industry

International Journal of Managing Projects in Business

ISSN : 1753-8378

Article publication date: 30 March 2021

Issue publication date: 9 August 2021

Organizational culture has an impact on various activities in organizations, including project management (PM). The aim of the study is to answer the following research questions: RQ1: what significance is attributed to organizational culture compared to the objective project characteristics when choosing the dominant PM methodology in organizations? RQ2: which type of organizational culture is preferred for successful implementation of different PM methodologies? RQ3: what kind (if any) of relationship exists between the dominant type of organizational culture in organizations and the dominant PM methodology?

Design/methodology/approach

The author surveyed 100 project managers working in the financial industry in Poland with the use of personal structured interviews. The competing values framework (CVF) concept authored by Cameron and Quinn was used.

Project managers find organizational culture more important than objective project characteristics when choosing the dominant PM methodology in an organization. Although statistical analysis revealed a significant relationship between the preferred type of organizational culture and PM methodology, there is no significant relationship between the existing type of organizational culture and the PM methodology which prevails in the company.

Research limitations/implications

Future research should investigate other industries and other typologies of organizational culture.

Practical implications

The paper provides recommendations for management practice on how to shape organizational culture in the context of successful PM with the application of different PM methodologies.

Originality/value

This study fills a gap in the theory of PM by identifying and empirically verifying the theoretical linkage between the type of organizational culture and PM methodology.

• Human resource management
• Management approach
• Corporate culture
• Project success
• Organizational behavior
• Project competencies
• Eople in project-based organizations

Piwowar-Sulej, K. (2021), "Organizational culture and project management methodology: research in the financial industry", International Journal of Managing Projects in Business , Vol. 14 No. 6, pp. 1270-1289. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMPB-08-2020-0252

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2021, Katarzyna Piwowar-Sulej

Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

Introduction

The interest of researchers and practitioners in intangible management factors increased in the 1980s. Other types of noneconomic reasons which can affect the success or failure of an enterprise were investigated ( Webster and Jensen, 2006 ). Among these factors, organizational culture was of particular interest ( Alvesson, 1990 ).

Organizational culture represents the collection of beliefs, values, norms, attitudes and assumptions which dominate in a company and which do not have to be formulated. This set of elements influences people's behavior and the accomplishment of their tasks ( Schein, 1990 ). The culture which connects people in an organization remains very closely linked to the organization's performance ( Denison and Mishra, 1995 ; Martins and Terblanche, 2003 ; Mathew, 2007 ; Lucas, 2006 ; Hartog and Verburg, 2004 ). This is the key factor in fulfilling the company's mission and implementing its strategy while improving organizational efficiency and managing transformations.

Radical changes in the functioning of organizations have occurred within the last few decades. The increasingly uncertain and competitive environment and the growing expectations of customers and employees have forced companies to introduce changes. Repetitive, routine operations are gradually losing importance in favor of unique and complex activities – i.e. projects ( Piwowar-Sulej, 2020 ). In the 1990s, Drucker wrote that in 20 years, a typical large company would have half as many managerial levels and particular tasks would be performed by specialists focused on specific projects, functioning alongside traditional departments ( Drucker, 1992 ). Today, even in those industries where traditionally repetitive activities have been the basis of their operations, projects are beginning to play an increasingly important role.

One example of such an organization is a financial company. Every day, the main processes related to sales, e.g. loans and after-sales service, are carried out. Ancillary processes include administrative activities. The purpose of subsequent projects is, e.g. to open a new branch, to launch a new product or to develop an advertising campaign. Project initiation in organizations based on traditional structures involves the need to mobilize resources which belong to multiple organizational units, for the objectives to be carried out in a specific time frame and to be managed by project managers. An employee frequently performs a dual role: as a specialist in his/her line department and as a project team member.

A project can be defined as an “endeavor in which human, material, and financial resources are organized in an innovative way to carry out an extraordinary scope of work, in line with the defined specifications, within cost and time constraints, to achieve a positive change determined by quantitative and qualitative goals” ( Turner, 1993 , p. 8). Project management (PM), in turn, is the “application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques in relation to project activities in order to meet or exceed the needs and expectations of stakeholders associated with the project” ( Ward, 2000 , p. 468).

Projects can be managed in accordance with guidelines presented in PM methodologies. These methodologies are referred to as guides to the types of documentation and eligibilities necessary to complete particular project stages. The literature on the subject offers two general approaches toward running projects: traditional (managerial) and modern (agile, adaptive, dynamic or light). The traditional approach has its roots in the 1950s, while the modern one is from the 1990s. Traditional methodologies describe major processes and present, in a systematized way, a set of verified management techniques. Moreover, they imply that each stage of the project can only be initiated when the previous one has been fully completed. They also stress the completeness of documentation. Such an approach has become insufficient over the years, especially for software development projects ( Berger and Beynon-Davies, 2009 ). In the agile approach, the actions are adapted on an ongoing basis. The differences between these two approaches to PM should be also expressed in organizational culture because one of the main causes of project failure presented in the literature on the subject is that the organizational culture in which projects have to be delivered is not suitable for projects ( Larson and Gray, 2011 ).

The aim of the study is to present the significance of organizational culture as a factor which determines the choice of PM methodologies and the relationships between the two. In the first section of the paper, previous research in the literature on the linkages between organizational culture and PM issues is presented. This was the basis of the research questions. The second section, i.e. the empirical part of the paper, presents original research with its methodology, results and discussion. The paper ends with conclusions, limitations and directions for further research. It contributes to the scientific knowledge by (1) identifying and describing the linkages between the type of organizational culture and the type of PM methodology, (2) verifying the assumption through original research findings and (3) presenting directions for future research.

Literature background

Organizational culture and successful project management.

Organizational culture – like the subconscious – affects the aspirations, attitudes and behavior of employees. It focuses their actions along routine tracks in a nonverbal, imperceptible manner. Therefore, culture can be used to encapsulate all that is omitted from a written contract, offering it up as an all-encompassing psychological contract to address different situations ( Camerer and Vepsalainen, 1988 ). By influencing and consolidating certain attitudes and behaviors of employees, it may not be conducive of effective actions – it may even counteract them. Obviously, it can also support the functioning of an organization by facilitating human interactions.

Organizational culture is a concept which combines all of the various activities undertaken in an enterprise (including PM). This means that the implementation of PM can result in transformations in organizational culture. In turn, attributing the proper characteristics to an organizational culture beforehand can lead to favorable circumstances for the implementation of PM. The Organizational Competence Baseline ( International Project Management Association, 2016 ), as a guideline for setting up an appropriate organization for PM, emphasizes organizational alignment, which includes processes, structures and culture. Kerzner (2000) states that PM is more similar to a culture than policy or procedures. Finally, Cleland states that “project management meets the need for providing an organizational focus not found in the traditional form of organization. However justified, project management should not be used until the leaders of the organization are committed to its use and are willing to prepare a suitable culture for project management to germinate and grow” ( Cleland, 1994 , cited in Du Plessis and Hoole, 2002 ).

The literature on PM presents the issue of a specific culture, which covers strictly defined features that support the implementation of changes in an organization or in teamwork. At this point, however, it is worth emphasizing that in papers addressing the problem of PM, such terms as “project culture,” “project management culture,” “project climate” and “project environment” function interchangeably ( Du Plessis and Hoole, 2006 ). The climate, in turn, is only an external, easily observable layer of culture and stands for the subjective feelings of employees when referring to the atmosphere in the workplace ( Ostroff et al ., 2012 ).

The review conducted by Henrie and Sousa-Poza (2005) spanning the years 1993–2003 indicated that culture was not a widely reported or discussed topic in PM literature (journals specializing in PM). Today, we can say that various cultural aspects of PM are a popular research topic. A total of 557 documents were returned in a search of the Scopus database on February 28, 2020, with the following combination of queries: TITLE-ABS-KEY (“project management” AND “culture”) AND (LIMIT-TO (DOCTYPE, “ar”) AND (LIMIT-TO (SUBJAREA, “BUSI”) AND (LIMIT-TO (LANGUAGE, “English”). Another situation is when we search using more detailed terms like “project management culture” or “project culture”. The query “TITLE-ABS-KEY (‘project culture’) AND (LIMIT-TO (DOCTYPE, ‘ar’) AND (LIMIT-TO (SUBJAREA, ‘BUSI’) AND (LIMIT-TO (LANGUAGE, ‘English’)” resulted in 33 documents and “TITLE-ABS-KEY (‘project management culture’) AND (LIMIT-TO (DOCTYPE, ‘ar’) AND (LIMIT-TO (SUBJAREA, ‘BUSI’) AND (LIMIT-TO (LANGUAGE, ‘English’)” resulted in only in seven articles.

For example, Belassi et al . (2007) found a significant relationship between culture, a positive work environment with strong leadership and the success of projects for developing new products. A “positive work environment” refers to the perception of employees that it is their performance which matters most to their organization and that they feel free to open dialogues with their bosses. “Strong Leadership” means that long-term goals are the focus of all of top management's decisions and that employees are encouraged to keep trying if they fail in the process of creating something. Data for this research were collected from 95 manufacturing companies in the USA.

Ajmal and Koskinen (2008) discussed the impact of organizational culture on knowledge transfer in “non-project businesses” who adopt a “project-style” approach. The problem of such organizations is that knowledge created in one project is not transferred to future projects. The authors stated that for effective knowledge transfer in project-based businesses, it is the organizational culture must be ready to accept and adopt new ways to transfer knowledge. The role of project managers is to form one project culture out of differing organizational and professional cultures and to promote effective knowledge management.

The findings of Nguyen and Watanabe (2017) in the construction industry show that alignment of goals, the commitment of contractors and a focus on workers all lead to better performance and satisfaction among those involved. Labor productivity can be predicted using only two indicators of culture: contractor commitment and a cooperative attitude. In order to predict learning performance, goal alignment, trust and contractor commitment are key.

Morrison et al . (2008) provided evidence that organizational culture correlates with the effectiveness of PM. In particular, one should look to the relatively strong link between effective PM and such values as respect and interfunctional integration. Their study was conducted among matrix organizations representing a wide variety of industries. The majority were civil engineering consultancy firms (28%), while the other participating organizations were from the defense industry (17%), the government sector (14%), the industrial engineering and manufacturing sector (14%) and the finance and insurance industry (10%); the remaining participants (17%) came from the mining, national parastatal, telecommunications and information technology (IT) industries.

In turn, Graham and Englund (1997) outlined their eight factors which lead to successful projects: strategic emphasis, upper management support, project planning support, customer/end-user input, project team development, project execution support, communication and information system and organizational support. With these factors in place, teamwork and interfunctional tasks are emphasized, conflicts are identified and resolved and perfection is the driving force ( Larson and Gray, 2011 ).

In addition, project culture is based on values such as mutual trust, respect, open communication and risk and conflict tolerance of the disciplines, combined with a flexible, results-based approach and support and faith in making the right decisions, kindness and adherence to professional ethics ( Pinto and Slevin, 1987 ).

Some researchers have addressed the issue of national culture's influence on project outcomes. Building on Hofstede's work ( Hofstede, 1998 ), they feel that national culture shapes organizational culture, which, in turn, affects the execution of projects. Hofstede delineated such cultural dimensions as power distance, the degree of uncertainty avoidance, individualism and collectivism and long- or short-term orientation. Attention is primarily drawn to projects carried out by international teams and the fact that education in cultural differences can be necessary for them to be successful ( Shore and Cross, 2005 ). For example, the high power distance typical of people from Hong Kong can lead to the acceptance of inequality and the legitimacy of power groups within a project ( Rowlinson and Root, 1996 ). The impact of national differences on the specific tasks which make up PM, e.g. risk management, has also been analyzed. Risk is perceived and dealt with differently in different cultures. For example, one commonly held notion about Polish culture is the avoidance of uncertainty. This cultural trait can result in many rigorous terms and conditions being included in agreements with contractors ( Liu et al ., 2015 ).

National culture is also thought to play a role in the use of PM, in terms of the level of knowledge in this field and the extent of staff involvement in project work, as well as the adaptation of project discipline by individuals and groups. There is evidence that this deployment negatively correlates with both power distance and uncertainty avoidance but does not correlate with measures of individuality or masculinity ( Bredillet et al ., 2010 ).

There are many typologies of organizational cultures. Some of these locate organizational culture within the intensity scale of one feature (e.g. Hall's concept, ( Hall, 1976 )). Others are more complex, based on more than one dimension (e.g. the typology of Cameron and Quinn (2011) ). For example, Kivrak et al. (2014) used Hall's typology ( Hall, 1976 ) to illustrate how national culture determines knowledge sharing in an international project team. This typology distinguishes high- and low-context cultures. The messages in a low-context culture are unambiguous and fairly accurately reflect the speaker's intentions, requiring little additional context and leaving little room for interpretation. In the case of high-context communication, the message can be ambiguous and can constitute a strong barrier in the process of tacit knowledge sharing, according to some studies. Such cultural features as hierarchy and competition can also be an obstacle to knowledge sharing in international project teams. Kivrak et al. (2014) also showed that collectivism is conducive to knowledge sharing, though only within a project team (not with outsiders).

Silva and Gomes (2015) conducted research focusing on the typology of cultures proposed by Handy (1983) , who identified four characteristic types of organizational culture: power-, role-, goal- and people-oriented cultures. It is worth noting here that the goal culture is directly referred to as the task or project-oriented one. Organizations oriented toward goals treat tasks and their implementation as the most important issue. Individual competences and their contributions to specific actions are what matters most. Teams which follow these principles are able to easily adapt to the requirements of the situation. Groups and task teams are formed for specific purposes which determine the point behind their existence. Such a team works fast and makes decisions quickly. Individual team members enjoy flexibility and freedom but also face the responsibility for their work. The effects matter. Mutual relationships are usually quite loose, based more on the value of skills and input than age and formal status. The focus on action allows problems to be solved through discussions and negotiations, which provides a sense that solutions are created together. Such teams usually thrive in a dynamic and highly competitive environment. The qualitative research based on surveys with 12 respondents carried out by the abovementioned authors shows that diverse cultural types are present in different organizations which implement projects. The characteristics of the particular industry (e.g. energy, government or university) are important here. In addition, projects can be successful when other factors – apart from culture – also affect this success (e.g. selection of an appropriate PM methodology).

Although the studies presented above were focused on the cultural typologies by Hall and Handy, the hypothesis can be formulated that the typology of organizational cultures by Cameron and Quinn (2011) is most often discussed in studies addressing PM problems, although the output of management sciences includes numerous classifications of organizational cultures. The assessment tool proposed by these authors, the competing values framework (CVF), allows a company to identify a dominant cultural type across six key characteristics: dominant characteristics, leadership, human resources management (HRM), organizational glue, strategic emphasis and criteria of success. The CVF explains the complex nature of culture according to two dimensions: internal/external focus and stability/flexibility structure. These two dimensions create four quadrants, which represent four culture types: clan, adhocracy, hierarchy and market.

Clan culture is connected with a friendly, almost family-like atmosphere. A manager is treated as a mentor. The glue of an organization is loyalty and tradition. The key to success is usually taking care of the needs of clients and employees. The values are teamwork, participation and consensus.

Adhocracy comes from the Latin term “ad hoc,” which means “for this special purpose” and by extension and improvised. Adhocracy is a corporate culture which is based on the ability to adapt quickly to changing conditions – which can we define as agility. Organizations with such culture are characterized by flexibility, creativity, employee empowerment and an emphasis on individual initiative (with risk-taking). Although corporate levels exist in an adhocracy, they are less strictly defined than in more hierarchical environments. In a more general sense, adhocracy contrasts with bureaucracy, which is characterized by inflexibility and a rigid adherence to rules.

Hierarchy culture means a working environment which is structured and formalized. Employees use defined procedures in carrying out their everyday tasks. The values are effective coordination and order. The primary goal is to maintain effective functioning and stability, and the results are achieved by performing tasks efficiently. Success is defined by good planning and low costs.

Finally, market culture focuses on customer satisfaction and shareholder value. It emphasizes targets and deadlines. People are competitive and focused on goals. Leaders are hard drivers, producers and rivals. They can be tough with high expectations. The emphasis on winning keeps the organization together. Reputation and success are the most important. Long-term focus is on rival activities and reaching goals. Market dominance, achieving goals and great metrics are the definitions of success. Competitive prices and market leadership are important. The organizational style is based on competition.

For example, the research conducted by Yazici (2009) in the USA involving 86 project managers in 76 companies indicated a strong correlation between clan culture and high project effectiveness and overall organization performance. It appears that this type of culture – one focused on employee participation, social cohesion, shared values, commitment and high morale – guarantees that project goals will be achieved, client expectations will be met within the adopted time frame and satisfaction among team members will be high. Among the hypotheses presented by Yazici, attention should be paid to one in particular: “Project maturity and organizational culture have a joint impact on project implementation.” This joint impact, however, was not confirmed by the study. In total, 56% of the respondents were from the service sector (IT, banking, education, healthcare, consulting, retail and utility); 34% were from the manufacturing sector and only 10% were from government or construction.

Adhocracy and clan cultures have positive effects on tacit-oriented knowledge management strategy ( Keskin et al. , 2005 ). Wiewióra et al. (2012) in their research focused on knowledge management in projects. It was confirmed that clan culture – which promotes a collaborative environment in which people are encouraged to communicate – facilitates knowledge sharing between project team members. In turn, market culture, centered around such values as competitiveness, achievements and the focus on performance measurements, will probably hamper knowledge and skill sharing within the project. However, according to a study by Piwowar-Sulej (2014) , projects can be also successfully completed in organizational cultures with dominant “hierarchical-market” features.

Similar conclusions were drawn by Mashiane (2013) , who conducted research in a division of telecommunications company. The questionnaire was based on the management skills assessment instrument (MSAI) developed by Cameron et al. (2006) and on the project management culture assessment tool (PMCAT) developed by Du Plessis (2005) . A market-oriented culture was identified as the dominant one in the organization under study. This was not surprising for the researcher because the organization provides infrastructure hosting solutions and technical support to external clients. The strategy of the organization focuses on the market or on clients, and success is defined in terms of client satisfaction and retention. The second most dominant type of culture was adhocracy.

Finally, according to 50 human resources (HR) specialists from medium-sized and large companies, the most suitable culture for PM is adhocracy ( Piwowar-Sulej, 2016 ). These results are surprising in the context of new developing HRM concepts, such as sustainable HRM, which promotes long-term orientation and HR development ( Stankevičiūtė and Savanevičienė, 2019 ; Piwowar-Sulej, 2021 ). It should be mentioned that in the long run, adhocracies can turn out to be effective organizations, though they do not offer stable workplace environments.

Project management methodologies

As mentioned before, there are two main types of PM methodologies, i.e. the traditional one (Project Management Body of Knowledge – PMBoK – or Prince2) and the modern/agile one (which is more flexible, e.g. Scrum). Table 1 presents a comparison of these two approaches to PM.

The traditional methodology involves the mechanistic division of work, with an underlying assumption of manageability and predictability ( Saynisch, 2010 ). This approach is synonymous with the waterfall methodology. It was first outlined in 1970 by Royce, an American computer scientist and director at Lockheed Software Technology Center in Texas, as a response to managing the increasingly complex nature of software development. This approach takes the perspective that rigorous, hierarchical control best manages complexity.

The waterfall methodology is sequential. One phase continues downstream into the next stage. Each stage in this process is self-contained. The project work starts by collecting and analyzing requirements, designing a solution, implementing the solution and fixing any issues. The initial phases of the project are intended to set the stage for all project work, as well as establishing the project's scope and the requirements that are necessary to deliver it ( Thomas and Fernández, 2008 ). It is also heavily focused on requirements. One needs to have a crystal clear idea of what the project will demand before proceeding further. There is no room for correction once the project is underway.

Agile is a term which formally came into being in 2001 when several IT representatives released the “Agile Manifesto” during a meeting of 17 major players of new software development methodologies in Snowbird, Utah. Agile means “able to move quickly and easily” or “able to think quickly, mentally acute, or aware” ( Dictionary.com, 2020 ). Agile is used as a term which characterizes a given way of thinking (mindset) about complex task management (from projects to entire organizations), including openness toward change and high flexibility. The notion is also used in relation to all agile PM methodologies (e.g. Scrum, Extreme Programming or the dynamic systems development method), which are based on principles outlined in the Agile Manifesto ( Agilemanifesto.org, 2020 ).

The reason for declaring the Agile Manifesto was the increasing number of failed software development projects which were based on the waterfall approach. The inefficiency of the waterfall approach was and is connected with one of the basic assumptions of this model, i.e. focusing on delivering an IT project in the form which was specified in the first stage. Moreover, a project is carried out in organized, distinct and – in most cases – lengthy stages which makes it difficult to verify results in the course of the project. This way of working is not conducive to a culture of cooperation and ongoing communication, and it has a negative impact on the end result of a project.

The essence of agile PM lies in the fact that a project's goals are defined in less detail at the start of the project. The project schedule is also prepared approximately. The work is divided into equal iterations with assigned parts of the project scope. “In the beginning a team undertakes the most important functions, while leaving the least important ones for the end. Less important demands can later be omitted on the basis of the results of already finished iterations, the client's changed wishes/requests, the performers' proposals, or changes in the environment. A detailed specification of the iterations' products and precise scheduling of the iterations (the way of implementing, tasks, hours of work, performers, etc.) is created at the beginning of each iteration, taking into account the current results, new insights, the client's new wishes, or the ideas of developers, as well as changes to the original assumptions and requirements” ( Stare, 2014 , p. 297). The project team – not the formal project manager – is responsible for the execution plan and making the iterations.

Scrum is one of the agile PM methodologies. It implements working in “sprints” of 30 days and also focuses heavily on daily meetings (“daily scrum”) which are typically held in the same location and at the same time of day (preferably in the morning). The formal role of a project manager does not exist. There is a role of Scrum Master: a person who helps the team perform at the highest level. He/she also protects the team from both internal and external distractions and tries to fulfill Scrum values. The ideal size for a development team is between three and nine people, not including the Scrum Master and product owner. The team is self-organizing, cross-functional and as a team has all the skills necessary to create a product increment. There is no formal hierarchy within the teams. Scrum recognizes no titles for development team members, regardless of the work being performed by the person. Team members choose the project tasks themselves according to collective agreements, their skills and other factors (e.g. time). People who work on a team cannot be involved in other projects ( Schwaber and Sutherland, 2017 ).

Andersen (2006) states that an organization should apply methodologies assigned to specific types of projects. According to Cohen (2019) , traditional PM methodologies are best for short, simple projects, projects with clear and fixed requirements and projects with changing resources that depend on in-depth documentation, while the agile approach is appropriate for projects with no fixed end (with only a general idea of a product), when the project needs to accommodate quick changes and if collaboration and communication are more important than planning. Cohen emphasizes not only objective project characteristics, e.g. duration or complexity (with its many dimensions, see ( San Cristóbal et al. , 2018 )), but also organizational values (bureaucracy vs collaboration). The significance of organizational culture in comparison to objective project characteristics seems to be an interesting research topic.

Taking into account the objective project characteristics, it is worth noting that there is no common agreement on this issue. For example, Jovanović and Berić (2018) found that general characteristics of traditional methodologies (e.g. Project Management Institute [PMI] or International Project Management Association [IPMA]) make them more suitable for larger and more complex projects, such as investment or manufacturing, while agile methodologies are more appropriate for use in IT projects and some smaller and less complex projects, such as devising various studies, project reports, etc. Stare (2014) noted that almost all research studies published between 1999 and 2009 and focused on the agile approach referred to IT projects.

Špundak (2014) states that there are factors other than the characteristics of projects which determine the choice of PM methodology. Traditional PM methodologies are recommended if there is a lack of agreement between project team members or a huge fluctuation of project team members during the course of the project or if the contact between team members is more virtual. It is also possible that the nature of cooperation with external partners (contractors or suppliers) will be an important criterion in the selection of an appropriate PM methodology.

The relationship between specific features of organizational culture and PM methodology is an interesting research problem, as well. The features of “project management culture” presented above, such as trust or open communication, are so general that they will stimulate projects regardless of the PM methodology used. When trying to assess a relationship between a culture and a methodology, it is worth taking into account cultural differences – which are highlighted in organizational culture typologies.

Llanos et al . (2017) found that adhocracy culture has more positive impact on organizational agility than clan culture. On the basis of above-presented characteristics of agile PM, one can state that they are similar to clan culture or adhocracy culture, while the features of traditional PM are similar to hierarchy culture. However, at this point, it is worth highlighting the fact that the hybrid PM approach is currently being implemented as a combination of traditional and agile PM methodologies. In general, this new approach takes the best parts of both waterfall (e.g. a work breakdown structure) and agile (speed and leanness) and combines them in a flexible but structured approach. In hybrid, the planning is done using the waterfall approach, while the execution and delivery are handled by the agile method ( Cooper, 2016 ).

What significance is attributed to organizational culture compared to the objective project characteristics when choosing the dominant PM methodology in organizations?

Which type of organizational culture is preferred for successful implementation of different PM methodologies?

What kind (if any) of relationship exists between the dominant type of organizational culture in organizations and the dominant PM methodology?

Research methodology

This study investigates a subject that is rooted in two academic disciplines: HRM (and/or organizational behavior) and PM. Figure 1 presents the stages of the research process used for the purposes of this study. An exploratory and descriptive research design was chosen in order to identify the determinants of the choice of PM methodology and the abovementioned relationships between different factors and PM methodologies. The interpretative approach was used in this study, which means that the perceptions of the cultural factor from the viewpoint of practicing project managers were recognized as important ( Du Plessis and Hoole, 2006 ).

In order to eliminate biases, one should take into account the significant differences in organizational environment and types of projects. Thus, the research included 100 project managers working in different companies from the same industry. Companies from a given sector are influenced by the same external factors (the industry macroculture) – legal regulations – for example.

The respondents were employed in medium-sized and large enterprises (i.e. those which employ over 50 people) of the financial sector in Poland (banking, financial services, leasing and factoring). This industry implements many technological innovations in the form of projects. Important projects are aimed at developing security and risk management. The convenience for customers using financial services is also changing. Around 7–8 years ago, new-generation IT systems began to appear, replacing the previous ones which were based on a tabular approach. It was understood that the client not only needs accounting statements but also wants to learn how to spend and invest their money. Personalized solutions are also important. New products and services are constantly emerging. In addition, due to the changing and very restrictive legal regulations (e.g. regarding protection of personal data), companies are forced to implement changes in processes and IT systems. One can state that these regulatory projects take top priority and are often selected at the expense of other nonregulatory projects. The PM maturity level in the financial industry is high – in comparison with other industries in Poland ( Wyrozębski et al ., 2012 ).

According to data from the Central Statistical Office, in 2018, this sector consisted of main players such as 15 banks with private capital, 13 insurance companies, 47 companies specializing in credit intermediation or lending from their own funds, 11 factoring companies and 38 leasing companies ( Statistics Poland, 2019 ). It is worth noting that many companies run more than one business activity at the same tame (e.g. credit and leasing intermediation or leasing and factoring).

In order to collect the contact information of respondents, companies were selected from a list created from information accessible in secondary sources (listings of companies, websites, industry newsletters, etc.). The research, based on a quantitative approach, was conducted in December 2019 and January 2020. In the process of gathering information in the survey, the personal structured interviews (paper-and-pencil interview [PAPI]) method was used. The direct contact with respondents helped to avoid misunderstandings about the questions. Interviews with each of the respondents lasted about three hours. The interview questionnaire was designed for the purposes of a larger research project. This paper presents only the results which are pertinent to the chosen research questions and cultural typology, based on the CVF.

Statistical analyses were conducted with the use of IBM SPSS software. For the purpose of this paper, Pearson's chi-squared test and the Kruskal–Wallis test were used. These tests examine the relationship between two variables when at least one is qualitative. The chi-squared test allows the researcher to examine the significance of differences in percentage structures. It is based on comparing observed values (i.e. those obtained in the study) with expected values (i.e. those assumed by the test if there were no relationship between the variables). If the difference between the observed and expected values is large (statistically significant), it can be stated that there is a relationship between the two variables.

For the correct interpretation of the findings of the quantitative research, the in-depth interview method was used. Such interviews can provide much more information which builds a context to previous outcome data. They offer a more complete picture of the state and causes of a research problem. In total, three direct, unstructured interviews with project managers (from a bank, a leasing company and a credit provider) were used. Each of them lasted about one hour.

Results and discussion

At first, it is worth presenting the general characteristics of the industry in question. The CVF has already been discussed in relation to organizational culture in banking by Thakor (2015) , though the author did not conduct any empirical research on this topic. He only presented the assumptions of the CVF concept and implications for managers in banking. In turn, Barth (2015) showed that different types of organizational culture have different preferences for risk-taking. He found that banks with a market-oriented organizational culture have higher excess returns. Finally, Joseph and Kibera (2019) found that clan and hierarchy are the dominant cultural types in the microfinance industry in Kenya.

During the interviews conducted for this study, the dominant and secondary cultural types in the companies were identified. Table 2 shows the three cultural types which were indicated as being the dominant cultural type in the respondents' organizations as well as the dominant PM methodology used in the companies under study. Analysis revealed similar findings to above-presented resulted from research by Joseph and Kibera (2019) .

Clan culture – emphasizing development of shared understanding and commitment instead of a formalized communication process – is the most popular cultural type. At the same time, the cultural type most often indicated as a secondary one was market culture (54 responses). This type of culture is a results-oriented one. The “second” culture type in the survey was defined as one which simultaneously coexists with the first but is less expressed. The commonality between hierarchy culture and market culture is that both focus on stability and control. The difference lies in the fact that market culture promotes fast changes, while hierarchy lends itself more to incremental changes. In turn, adhocracy and market cultures have an external focus in common. The most interesting result is the combination of clan and market cultures because they are focused on completely different issues. The latter is focused on the outside of an organization, differentiation and fast changes, while the former focuses on flexibility, integration and long-term changes. These contrasting cultural types are combined in the form of employee participation (clan) linked with costumer focus (market). They can be also found together in hybrid PM methodology, which was the most popular one in the companies under study ( Table 2 ).

The in-depth interviews demonstrated that hybrid methodology was implemented because of problems with other, previously used PM approaches. At the beginning, the waterfall approach was used. A few years ago, agile PM methodology was implemented as a trendy new approach. However, numerous barriers have been noticed in the successful development of projects. Despite many years of working together, the employees had significant problems carrying out their new roles or even problems transferring their current roles to the new model. Other barriers were the unavailability or insufficient availability of internal clients and communication problems. The dominant position of traditional methodologies in the organization is associated with certain employee habits. The implementation of novelty in the form of agile moved them out of their comfort zone. The hybrid approach provided compliance with employee expectations, which is a characteristic of clan culture.

In addition, the priorities in some organizations change quite often (adhocracy culture) because of changes in legal regulations and – in the case of leasing companies – changes in the operations of the banks which finance the assets. The agile approach seems to be the most suitable in such situation. In turn, “hierarchical” banks had to meet the challenges in terms of ensuring the agile model's compliance with legal requirements. Official legal regulations emphasize a strong and active role of the bank's management board in the decision-making process and in the organization of day-to-day operations (hierarchy). The agile model assumes a limited role of the managing body. The management board is supposed to set the strategic goals but without interfering or supervising – choosing the way the goals are met. The hybrid approach allowed organizations to reconcile the business and legal requirements.

Respondents were asked about which factor has a greater impact on the project methodology used in the organization. They had the three following options to choose from: organizational culture (OC), project characteristics (e.g. duration, complexity, innovativeness and scope of cooperation with external partners) (P) and equal importance of organizational culture and project characteristics (OC + P). The results are shown in Table 3 .

The findings are partially in line with Špundak's (2014) statement that there are other factors than projects' characteristics which influence the choice of PM methodology. Organizational culture is seen to be a more important factor ( n  = 41) than objective project characteristics ( n  = 27) in the context of choosing the dominant PM methodology in organizations; however, a chi-squared test did not reveal any significant relationships between the factors taken into account ( χ 2 [4, N  = 100] = 5.40; p  = 0.249).

The research therefore shows that other factors or a bundle of factors should be taken into account when analyzing the basics of decision-making on the choice of a particular PM methodology. Špundak (2014) believes that the company size can play a role. He hypothesizes that large organizations are more likely to use the traditional approach because it helps them to control the work. However, the respondents who participated in this study worked in medium-sized and large companies, and the most frequently reported PM methodology was a hybrid one. As indicated in the in-depth interviews, such factors as the vogue for new PM approaches and the need to reconcile employees' needs (maintaining of tradition), business requirements (implementing innovations) and legal regulations are of great importance.

Results of previous research which utilized the CVF emphasized relationships between clan culture and project effectiveness ( Yazici, 2009 ) and clan culture and knowledge sharing in a project team ( Wiewiora et al. , 2012 ). The presented research shows clan culture in a slightly different context. Table 4 presents the types of organizational culture that are preferred for successful implementation of different PM methodologies.

Within the traditional PM methodology, hierarchy culture (70%) was considered to be the most appropriate environment; clan culture followed by adhocracy is considered being the most appropriate environment for agile approach. The results are reverse in relation to findings obtained by Llanos et al . (2017) in their research on the impact of organizational culture on the organizational agility. Contrary to expectations, this research also revealed a positive link between hierarchy culture and agile Approach. As Llanos et al . (2017) stated, such findings may suggest that certain features inherent to hierarchy culture lead to more agile management. Finally, according to the respondents, a successful implementation of hybrid PM methodology requires an adhocracy culture. The relationship between preferred cultural types in the context of different PM methodologies is statistically significant ( χ 2 [4, N  = 100] = 81.47; p  < 0.001).

These findings were compared with the cultural types indicated as dominant in the respondents' organizations. Due to the low number of indications of the “Market culture” variant ( Table 2 ) as the dominant cultural type, a reliable measurement with the chi-squared test of the relationships between all cultural types and PM methodologies in the organizations studied was not possible. However, focusing on only the three most popular types of organizational culture, it can be stated that there is no significant relationship between existing dominant cultural types and existing dominant PM methodology ( χ 2 [4, N  = 91] = 1.02; p  = 0.907).

Next, a series of Kruskal–Wallis tests was conducted in order to examine whether there is a relationship between the dominant culture and the indicators of project effectiveness (see Table 5 ). The respondents noted the percentage of successful projects, taking into account criteria such as time, budget and scope requirements and achieving client, team member and supplier satisfaction.

Project success strictly depends on team members commitment ( Araujo and Pedron, 2014 ), and Acar (2012) found that clan and adhocracy cultures have positive effects on employees' commitment. This study did not confirm previous findings that only clan culture ensures high project effectiveness ( Yazici, 2009 ). The analysis revealed a statistically significant difference between the types of dominant cultural type and “Project completed within the project scope requirements” ( X 2 [3] = 10.75; p  = 0.013). The follow-up pairwise comparison showed that the project managers who chose hierarchy as the dominant cultural type (mean = 93.94; median = 100) regarded project completion to be more successful than those who chose clan as the dominant culture (mean = 87.77; median = 90; p  = 0.030). No other statistically significant differences were found. The reason for these discrepancies can be a national culture and composition of team members related to their individual values. Yazici (2009) conducted research in the USA, while this paper presents research conducted in Poland. For respondents – project team members – the best cultural environment for traditional PM can be hierarchy; however, people working in projects can represent individual values congruent with adhocracy-specific values. This congruency contributes to organizational performance outcomes ( Titov and Umarova, 2017 ).

As was highlighted during the in-depth interviews, measuring the impact that culture may have on project outcomes is difficult. The level of project success is influenced by many factors, both endogenous and exogenous. Internal factors include the competencies of the project team and individual values of team members. The competences – according to the respondents – seem to be the most important factor since highly skilled project managers and project team members can deliver high-quality project outcomes, despite an unfavorable organizational culture.

Conclusions, implications and directions for further research

This research contributes to knowledge by showing a linkage between the type of organizational culture and the type of PM methodology. In answer to RQ1 , it can be said that organizational culture is seen as the most important factor which determines the PM methodology used as the standard in organizations. When it comes to RQ2 , the results of both theoretical studies and empirical research show that the most appropriate cultural type for traditional PM is hierarchy. Clan culture is most suitable for agile PM approach, while adhocracy is best for hybrid PM methodology. Nevertheless, in practice, there is no relationship between the dominant type of organizational culture and the dominant PM methodology ( RQ3 ). Moreover, projects – taking into account five out of the six project success indicators – are equally likely to be successfully completed, despite differences in organizational cultures.

There are several recommendations for management practice based on this research. Firstly, organizational culture can be developed intentionally ( Gagliardi, 1986 ; Bendak et al. , 2020 ). There is still room for improvement in the field of project effectiveness. The missing percentage of successfully completed projects could be made up with a more suitable organizational culture. Therefore, it is worth determining both current and expected cultural types by the use of survey and/or interviews among project team members and other employees. On this basis, managers should take up actions which will stimulate a cultural transformation of the company. They have to play a role of ambassadors of changes ( Kane-Urrabazo, 2006 ).

If, for example, organizational culture should have more clan features, managers should turn to their employees, find what people value, use open feedback in order to collect employees' ideas and allow them to act. Inspirational motivation (by, e.g. trust and pushing decisions to the lowest levels, allowance for mistakes) and individualized consideration effects clan culture ( Chan, 1997 ; Acar, 2012 ). Design of the workspace is also important. In clan culture, teams have to interact effectively with one another. Therefore, smaller footprints should be allocated to the individual than the team and workstation panel heights should be lower, if not nonexistent ( ISS, 2020 ). In turn, transformation into more hierarchical culture requires buttoning up processes, ensuring clear goals for teams and individuals and a workspace which provides a sense of stability. Management-by-exceptions also effects hierarchy culture ( Acar, 2012 ).

Secondly, human competencies are of the utmost value. A good understanding of the cultural aspects of PM is also emphasized. Conscious project managers and highly skilled team members will be able to deliver a high-quality product despite an unfavorable organizational culture. There is a need to develop not only technical but also cultural competences. The importance of these competencies has been so far discussed but mainly in the context of multinational projects ( Isern, 2015 ; Vlahov et al ., 2016 ). Training in this issue is a developmental field for educational institutions.

This paper has two main shortcomings, though it nevertheless provides directions for future research. Firstly, the sample population in this study was collected from project managers working for companies in the financial industry in Poland. In order to extend the applicability of the findings, more samples from different industries – and even from different countries – should be studied. Secondly, all respondents were project managers who volunteered to participate in this research. They subjectively assessed the dominant and coexisting cultural types of their companies. Since the companies were of medium and large size, their organizational culture may be fragmented. This means that different divisions of the organizations can represent slightly different cultural types. Future studies could overcome such a limitation. Further triangulation of the methods and the involvement of more respondents from a single company can be used in order to achieve more objective measures and to identify the mechanism of choosing the PM standards. Further research can also adopt different cultural typologies than those presented by Cameron and Quinn.

The research process

Traditional vs agile project management – own study based on Špundak (2014) , Cohen (2019) , Piwowar-Sulej (2020 )

Cultural types regarded as dominant and the popularity of different PM methodologies in respondents' companies

Factors taken into account in the decision-making process about appropriate PM methodology – frequency distribution

Cultural types matched with PM methodology – frequency distribution

Dominant cultural type and project success – results of Kruskal–Wallis test

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Acknowledgements

The project is financed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education in Poland under the program “Regional Initiative of Excellence” 2019–2022 project number 015/RID/2018/19 total funding amount 10,721,040.00 PLN.

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6 Fun and Engaging Activities for Your Country Research Project

Country Research Activities

Country research projects can be a powerful tool for helping students understand the diversity of cultures and the world around them. This type of project offers a unique opportunity for students to immerse themselves in another culture, learn about different customs and traditions, and broaden their perspectives. To make sure that your students are enjoying the process while they learn, it is important to incorporate fun and engaging activities into your country research unit. Here are six ideas to get you started.

I really like this project because it is an easy way to introduce students to different people, cultures and countries. Not a lot of people get to experience travel to other countries when they are young – this is the next best thing!

Virtual Tour

Take your students on a virtual tour of the country they are researching. Use Google Earth or other virtual tour tools to give students a visual experience of the country. I have used National Geographic on oculus. Here are some other resources to get your students excited and learning about the world.

Cultural Presentation

Have students present what they have learned about the country’s culture, including traditional customs, music, and food. Create a museum tour, where each student has a display on their desk representing their country and their research. Invite family to the event.

Music & Dance

Play traditional music from the country and have students learn and perform a traditional dance.

Arts & Crafts

Encourage students to create art projects related to the country they are researching. This could include creating traditional clothing, designing flags, or painting scenes from the country.

Have students learn a traditional theater art form or perform a traditional skit from the country that they researched.

Geography & Tech

Create an interactive map for students to use as they learn about the country’s geography and location. Have students mark important landmarks, cities, and geographical features.

These activities are designed to keep your students fully engaged and having fun while they learn about different cultures and the world. By integrating these activities into your country research unit, you will not only make the project more enjoyable for your students, but you will also increase the likelihood that they will remember what they have learned.

Incorporating a mix of hands-on activities, creative projects, and interactive experiences will help keep students motivated and interested throughout the project. Whether they are creating a virtual tour of the country they are studying, designing a cultural festival, or cooking a traditional dish, students will be learning in an engaging and memorable way.

If you are looking for more direction on how to plan and execute a successful country research project , be sure to check out my country research project for kids packet. This comprehensive resource includes everything you need to get started, including a student introduction letter, a detailed rubric for assessment, and a step-by-step guide for conducting research. Whether you are a seasoned teacher or a beginner, this packet will help make your country research project a success.

I used this during the World Cup for my students to become more engaged! We worked on our country project while we played the world cup in the background. Students got to choose a country that was currently still in the running, and we made a bracket to see whose country would win!

Such an engaging resource that was seamlessly integrated into our curriculum! Very little hassle, but with great outcomes! Thank you!

This resource was amazing. I needed something to connect to our curriculum for writing about countries and this was it. It matched up perfectly, but honestly presented better writing than what would have come from just our curriculum.

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• Feature Article

Research Culture: Setting the right tone

• Elizabeth Adams
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Improving the research culture of an institution may lead to a fairer, more rewarding and successful environment, but how do you start making changes?

The University of Glasgow was founded more than 550 years ago and currently welcomes over 5000 researchers working in a wide range of subjects across the sciences and the humanities. Feedback suggests that our research culture is already good, but we think that it could be even better. As the Head of Research Policy (TC) and the Researcher Development Manager (EA), we have spent the past few years working to update research culture at Glasgow. Based on our experiences, our advice to anyone trying to change the culture of their institution is to be practical, consistent, and to aim for progress, not perfection. Start even if you cannot see the end. The project is big, slow, fragmented: and yes, it is a fantasy to imagine that a university has, or should have, a single culture.

The recent research culture survey by the Wellcome Trust has highlighted what many of us would not dispute: that the pursuit of a narrow definition of research excellence, and of excellence at any cost, has limited the research endeavour and had an adverse impact on the wellbeing of researchers as well as the quality and reliability of the research they undertake. It is not too late to fix this issue, but solutions will emerge only once research organisations, funders, publishers and government coordinate their efforts to identify practical actions that can be implemented consistently across the research community.

Meanwhile, the complexity of the problem should in no way stop us from implementing changes within our own institutions. At Glasgow, we focus on fostering a positive research culture . To do so, we develop policies, guidance, communications, training and related initiatives that support the success of researchers at all stages of their career.

With the support of our senior management, we have introduced several initiatives that we hope will make our institution an inspiring place in which to develop a career — whether it is academic or administrative, operational or technical, or indeed something different altogether. Some of these initiatives are summarised in this post ; in this article we will also share the lessons we learned along the way that might be useful to others.

Start from what you know

Research culture is a hazy concept, which includes the way we evaluate, support and reward quality in research, how we recognise varied contributions to a research activity, and the way we support different career paths.

Of all the things you could do to improve research culture, start from the priorities that you think matter most to your organisation; those that reflect its values, fit with what your community really cares about, or align to the activities that are already in progress. If you can, line up your agenda to an external driver. In our situation, two prominent drivers are the UK Research Excellence Framework (an exercise that assesses the quality of research, including the research environment, at all UK universities), and the Athena Swan awards (which evaluate gender equality at institutional and local levels). Our research culture initiatives also work alongside everyday drivers from research funders and other bodies, such as concordats on research integrity , career development and open research data .

Even better, align your initiative to more than one agenda. For example, we are supporting transparency, fairness, accountability (and therefore quality, career development, and collaboration) by requesting that research articles deposited in our institutional repository follow the CRediT taxonomy , whereby the roles and responsibilities of each authors are laid down explicitly.

Once you know what you mean by culture, write it down and let people know. This will aid communication, keep everyone focussed, and avoid the misunderstanding that culture is a solution to all our problems (“The car parking is a nightmare. I thought we had a culture agenda!”).

At Glasgow we define a positive research culture as one in which colleagues (i) are valued for their contributions to a research activity, (ii) support each other to succeed, and (iii) are supported to produce research that meets the highest standards of academic rigour. We have then aligned our activities to meet these aims, for example by redesigning our promotion criteria to include collegiality, and creating a new career track for research scientists (see Box 1 ).

Changing promotion criteria and career trajectories to foster a different research culture

At the University of Glasgow, academic promotion criteria are based on a 'preponderance approach': candidates need only meet the necessary criteria in four of the seven dimensions used to assess staff for promotion (academic outputs; grant capture; supervision; esteem; learning and teaching practice; impact; leadership, management and engagement). For the 2019–2020 promotions round, the University has also introduced a requirement to evidence collegiality as well as excellence in each of the four qualifying dimensions. The criteria recognise not only the achievement of the individual but also how that individual has supported the careers of others.

From 2019–2020 onwards, promotion criteria for the academic track also explicitly state that one of the four qualifying criteria should be either academic outputs or impact. By ‘impact’ we mean the evidenced benefits to society that have resulted from the research – these could be economic, societal, cultural, or related to health and policy. The new criteria therefore formally acknowledge that societal impact holds as much value to the institution as outputs, and that generating and evidencing impact takes time. It also ensures that staff does not feel under pressure to ‘do everything’. We will be monitoring the effect of these changes in mid 2020.

In addition, Glasgow has recently introduced a career pathway for research scientists: this track recognises and rewards the contributions made by researchers who have specialist knowledge and skills, such as bioinformaticians. The contributions and intellectual leadership provided by these roles are often not reflected in the traditional promotion criteria, which depend on lead or senior authorships. Research scientists can instead progress in their careers by demonstrating specialist work stream, as well as team contributions.

Practice, not policy

Success will not come from issuing policies, but by making practical changes that signal “the way we do things around here”. Even if university policies are read, they will be forgotten unless the principles are embedded in standard practice. And if we are not serious about our practices, then we are not credible about our intentions.

Over 1500 organisations have signed DORA and have committed not to use unreliable proxies such as journal impact factors in research evaluation. Yet, even purging references to journal impact factors from all paperwork is no guarantee that these or other metrics will not be used. If we are serious about fair evaluation mechanisms, then we need to provide evaluation panels with meaningful information. At Glasgow, we ask applicants to describe in 100 words the importance of their output, and their contribution to it. Many organisations have switched to the use of narrative formats, for instance the Royal Society , or the Dutch research council ( NWO ). To show that we value all dimensions of research, we also ask for a commitment to open research and give parity of credit to academic outputs (such as papers) and the societal impact they create (see Box 1 ).

To ensure that changes are felt on the ground, we are embedding these priorities in annual appraisals, promotion and recruitment, so that the same expectations are encountered in every relevant setting. We have also included the importance of responsible metrics in recruitment training, and will be working with our colleagues in human resources to ensure that local conversations with hiring managers are consistent with our metrics policy (see Box 2 ).

Responsible metrics

The policy on the responsible use of metrics means ensuring that the mechanisms we use to evaluate research quality are appropriate and fairly applied. For example, we need to make sure that quantitative indicators are suitably benchmarked and normalised by subject, and that they are used along qualitative ones. This is to avoid the over-reliance on single-point metrics (such as research funding) and over-use of unreliable proxies for quality (such as journal impact factors).

The policy describes our approach to evaluating the quality of our outputs, our supervision and our grant capture. The proof, however, is in the way the policy is implemented in practice. For example, applicants to our strategic recruitment schemes are requested to select their four best outputs, describe the significance of each output to the field (without relying on impact factors), and narrate their contribution to the work. Applicants are also asked to describe their commitment to open research. This approach allows the recruitment panel to obtain a more rounded impression of the candidate and, we hope, reduces the use of unhelpful proxies such as length of publication list or journal impact factors.

Start, even if you cannot see the finish line

Once you have decided on the general direction, start by doing something without worrying about scoping the project from start to finish.

At Glasgow we started by doing a 360-degree review of our provision for research integrity: this was not just about the training but also about raising the visibility of this agenda in the community. We did not call it ‘culture’ then, but we realised that progress would come from communicating the dimensions of good practice (e.g. open research) rather than by sanctioning breaches of conduct. That exercise gave us experience of getting support from senior management, managing a cross-institutional working group, and getting buy-in from the academic body through the establishment of a network of 29 integrity advisers . These individuals champion this agenda to researchers, contribute to training and policy and also participate in research misconduct panels.

From integrity, we moved to open research, and from there, to careers. It started with compliance, and progressed towards culture. Do not wait for the rules to come to you. Make your own. Have confidence that once projects are initiated, they will suggest future courses of action.

Shout about it

If you want to be noticed, it helps to over-communicate. If your project serves more than one agenda, then your colleagues in, say, human resources, the library, the research office, and the equality, diversity, and inclusion team will already be helping you to amplify the message. We have set up a Culture and Careers group that brings together a range of relevant professional groups and colleagues. Focusing on our culture activities and the training that we can provide to staff and students helps us to share knowledge and to highlight where different agendas can reinforce each other.

Make the framework easy to understand: at Glasgow we talk about supporting what we value (e.g. CRediT), recognising what we value (e.g. our promotion criteria), and celebrating those values, for instance with our recently launched research culture awards . These highlight outstanding activities that promote collegial behaviours and contribute to a positive research culture. In 2019, over 30 applications were received from across the institution, reflecting a variety of career stages, coming from academic, technical and professional services roles, and ranging from groups of researchers to individual staff. The awards have changed the conversation as to what culture actually is.

But equally do not fret if colleagues do not know how your various activities fit together under a ‘culture’ agenda. It is far more important that researchers embrace the activities themselves (see “Practice, not policy” above).

Communication takes legwork, so use any channel you have. Present at committees, consult with different disciplines and career stages. Speak to the willing. Welcome the challenge. Bring together different voices in a discussion forum. For example, we recently organised a research culture event involving action-oriented conversations with academics, administrators, funders, societies, and publishers; this helped to build our evidence base, share perspectives and move forward institutional thinking in relation to key areas of culture (see the illustration for a summary of the discussion).

Map of the ideas discussed at the Re-imagining research culture workshop organised at the University of Glasgow in September 2019.

Jacquie Forbes at drawntolearn.co.uk (CC BY 4.0)

A research culture survey allowed us to assess how we were doing. It gathered examples of good practice (for example, that the community appreciated reading groups and the opportunity for internal peer review) and it highlighted the aspects of research our staff were comfortable with (open access, for instance). It also pointed us towards what people wanted to know more about, such as how to increase the visibility of their research. Together, the event and survey have informed our next actions (you can access the question set here ) and our action plan for the next five years.

No such thing as a single culture

If you work in a research organisation, you are probably relaxed about the fact that different parts of the institution have their own priorities, as befits the disciplinary community.

Institution-wide projects should be designed to address the broad ambitions of the university: for example, all areas of the university can participate in the research culture awards or meet the requirement for collegiality in our promotion criteria.

Each discipline can then be invited to implement the culture programme that suits them. Getting this right requires a bit of flexibility, some confidence that things will not unravel, but also clear leadership. Some institutional glue can be provided by sharing case studies between areas, which is helped by collecting feedback on how policies and guidance are being implemented at the university level. For example, our new guidance on embedding equality, diversity and inclusion in conferences and events contains a weblink to a feedback survey. We hope that this will help us to pinpoint where colleagues are struggling to implement best practice, perhaps due to other organisational challenges such as funding, lack of clear guidance or procurement.

What’s next?

We have published an action plan for our 2020 – 2025 university strategy , which covers career development, research evaluation, collegiality, open research and research integrity. The starting point will be to focus on supporting career development, on helping researchers to enhance their visibility, and on developing an informed and committed leadership across the university.

We have also published an institutional statement to highlight the road travelled and our future plans. All the while, we are drawing inspiration from others: the Wellcome Trust and the Royal Society, and the progressive policies introduced by publishers such as PLoS, eLife, Wiley, and F1000. We are excited by the launch of initiatives that will inform better decision-making in the culture space, and online groups for sharing ideas. We want to be a part of organisations, such as the UK Reproducibility Network , that identify priorities and work together in implementing them.

We are also casting our eyes towards broader aspects of culture: how do we define and encourage research creativity, how do we make more time, and how might we extend the scope of our actions beyond research staff to all those that contribute to research?

Culture does not happen at the expense of excellence; an updated culture is what will allow even more of us to excel.

Author details

Tanita Casci (@tanitacasci) is the Head of Research Policy at the University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom

For correspondence

Competing interests.

Elizabeth Adams (@researchdreams) is the Researcher Development Manager at the University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the extended network of academics, technicians, students and professional services staff who over a long time have variously driven, supported, and constructively challenged what we are doing.

Publication history

• Received: January 29, 2020
• Accepted: January 29, 2020
• Version of Record published: February 10, 2020 (version 1)

© 2020, Casci and Adams

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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Research Culture: A Selection of Articles

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Research culture needs to be improved for the benefit of science and scientists.

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The Action Research on Research Culture project is an international collaboration investigating how changing the recruitment, development and retention of researchers could improve research culture.

Project overview.

Improving research culture – the standards, values and behaviours of researchers and the research system is a key to improving research and increasing its contribution to society. The Action Research on Research Culture (ARRC) project investigates how changing the recruitment, development and retention of researchers could improve research culture.

Many evidence-based studies, reports and surveys point to problems in the culture of academic research. These include an over-reliance on metrics, poor leadership and management, a lack of job security, unhealthy competition, and poor inter-team relationships. These problems lead to a loss of talent and diversity from the sector, and therefore loss of quality and creativity in research.

Various solutions to these problems have been proposed and the ARRC project will test three approaches intended to improve research culture. The findings will be used to develop relevant frameworks, policies and materials to ensure effective approaches that can be used by institutions and will produce sustainable long term change.

The ARRC project is an international project, led by the University of Cambridge, in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh (UK), Leiden University (The Netherlands), Freie Universität Berlin (Germany), and ETH Zurich (Switzerland). As the project progresses aspects of the research will be developed with, and extended to, partner institutions.

The project is co-led by Liz Simmonds, the head of research culture, and Steve Wooding, from the research strategy office.

The project team includes a balance of skills to make sure that we can:

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29 February 2024

CRASSH Research Culture Seminar Series: How Do Women Researchers Navigate Research Culture at Cambridge? We were delighted to have the following speakers on our latest CRASSH research culture panel: Claire Barlow (Department of Engineering) Mollie Etheridge (Faculty of Education) Esra Ozyurek (Faculty of Divinity)...

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https://www.vitae.ac.uk/impact-and-evaluation/research-culture-framework

This page has been reproduced from the Vitae website (www.vitae.ac.uk). Vitae is dedicated to realising the potential of researchers through transforming their professional and career development.

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Research Culture Framework

Following on from the launch of the Research Culture Initiatives in the UK (2023) report and as part of the same project commissioned by UK Research and Innovation, Vitae is proud to have developed the Research Culture Framework ,  in collaboration with Shift Insight and the UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN).

The Research Culture Framework is a tool for employers, funders, and policymakers to support strategic planning on research culture, and describes 13 elements  of research culture across four themes:

• How research is managed and undertaken
• How research ensures value
• How people are supported
• How individuals engage with others

Each element of research culture is described in terms of values and behaviours, and provides a way of understanding the breadth of what is encompassed by research culture.

The framework has been designed for use in multiple contexts depending on the research setting, to help progress the research culture agenda.  Based on your priorities, you can use the framework to:

• Facilitate conversations on research culture between researchers, research enablers, research participants, employers, and other key stakeholders
• Co-develop research culture definitions, priorities, and goals
• Conduct gap analyses, considering available evidence and existing policies and practices
• Create targeted action plans, prioritising actions to address gaps and agreeing measurable outcomes

The Research Culture Framework reflects sector perspectives from a wide range of role holders across a variety of institution and organisation types, as well as from individuals identifying as LGBTQ+, disabled, Black and minority ethnic, and women.

See the full  Research Culture Framework

Take a look at the  Research Culture Framework presentation slide-set 

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7 ways to promote better research culture

Establishing support systems is essential for promoting research culture. Image:  REUTERS/Amir Cohen

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The culture in UK research establishments is one of the reasons the country is an attractive and productive place to undertake research. If you want excellent research, you need a positive research culture that supports all individuals involved. Alongside national policies and programmes, local policies and the attitudes and behaviour of staff at all levels influences this.

An important aspect of research culture is an organization’s approach to research integrity – the formal and informal ethics, standards, protocols and policies researchers follow in their environment. Organizations are increasingly recognizing the importance of the role of research integrity.

Enhancing research culture doesn’t require major effort and resources. Organizations across the UK and globally have made changes linked to integrity that have improved their research culture. These range from simple approaches such as using informal communication channels to nurture a supportive environment, discussing successes and “failures”, to embedding research integrity into the heart of institutional culture, requiring research leaders and senior administrators to lead by example.

Here are seven things that could help you promote good research integrity, and contribute to improving research culture, in your organization:

Facilitating open discussions can help foster a more collaborative environment, by giving researchers the chance to share their experiences of not only their successes, but also their “failures”. This helps to build respect and trust within the research team, by talking openly and giving support when things don’t always go right. The Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group, based at the University of Bristol, have a range of different communication channels to support their work, with one focused specifically on “triumph and disaster”, which dispels the assumption that senior academics have had continuous successes to get to their esteemed positions.

Providing and promoting career counselling, coaching and support services available to staff may help to reduce pressures within a research environment, which is imperative to staff well-being. This can help in limiting stress and time pressures, and connect researchers to other resources available at their institution, such as forms for deadline extensions, assistance programmes, career services and mental health and well-being services. The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center provides a career-counselling service solely to their scientists, providing the opportunity to discuss their career paths and the steps they need to take to progress.

Research teams could openly discuss, amend and build on existing guidelines, to develop a consensus on their collective and individual behaviours and attitudes. This could be used to develop a group standard or pledge, ensuring all team members are aware of what is expected in the research environment. This helps to enhance a positive culture by refining standards and “norms”. The Barcelona Biomedical Research Park developed a code of good scientific practice , which sets out the expectations of individuals and the collective research team.

Encourage researchers and support staff to find time and space to meet to share ideas and experiences. By involving other departments, institutions and sectors, discussions can focus on improving research integrity and culture, to share best practice on what has worked, what hasn’t and its impact. The Barcelona Biomedical Research Park is one example of where this has been put into practice.

Often seen as “role models” to their early-career peers, organization, department and team leaders who are at the forefront of promoting a positive research culture – such as by taking part in training, encouraging discussions to address difficult questions in an open and honest way and by having an open door policy – set a “norm” and redefine standards. Participants at the Royal Society ’s research culture workshops gave examples of leaders initiating small but impactful ways to set culture and improve morale in the workplace. An example of this is setting regular hours, to tackle the perception that only academics working extensive hours are successful.

Career progression is a key factor in retention and enhances not only the quality of research for the institution, but for the research community as a whole. Researchers can feel more valued if skills needs are reviewed individually and as a group, ensuring they all possess the necessary skills for their role, such as statistics, data-handling, proposal-writing and resource management. And following on from this, identifying gaps and offering courses for development. Software Carpentry developed such an initiative, by running training workshops at the University of Florida, to increase the data literacy of university staff.

Highlight the importance of research culture and engage all staff across the organization by hosting a research culture and integrity day. Presentations, workshops and panel discussions could be given from across the organization. Different departments could showcase the ways they have improved research culture and integrity, as well as addressing areas where there is still room for improvement. The University of Nevada organised an “Ignite Integrity week” where all staff were encourage to participate in activities to discuss good practice.

Research culture is pivotal to research excellence; we are at the beginning of a conversation round promoting this idea. In Integrity in Practice, the Royal Society and the UK Research Integrity Office showcase examples of initiatives led by organizations from across the world to inspire and encourage innovation in research culture. The more research culture is talked about, the more progressive these discussions will become. So why not think about research culture within your institution and start the conversation on what positive improvements you can make, both collectively and as an individual.

• The Royal Society’s Integrity in Practice toolkit launched at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2018. The Code of Ethics , produced by the World Economic Forum Young Scientists Community, is profiled in Integrity in Practice.

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Research Culture

What is research culture.

Research culture encompasses the behaviours, values, expectations, attitudes and norms of our research communities. It influences researchers’ career paths and determines the way that research is conducted and communicated (Royal Society definition).

Everyone conducting or supporting research – from academics and research staff to technicians, students and professional services is integral to King’s research culture.

Research Culture areas of focus

We envision a research culture in which individuals thrive, every contribution is valued, and good research practice is the norm. These are our three key areas of focus.

Empowering researchers to Thrive: 

King’s should be a place where all potential is recognised, individual development is supported and colleagues at all stages of their career feel empowered to do their best work. We place the wellbeing of our people at the heart of everything we do, investing in their development and building strong and supportive communities. Connecting services across the college, we work to create an environment in which the diversity of our research community is celebrated, everyone feels included, and where bullying and harassment have no place.

Valuing all contributions: 

Our research culture is defined by the diversity of voices that contribute to it. We promote the implementation of inclusive authorship policies, acknowledging team efforts, and instituting awards that celebrate excellence across various dimensions. As such, we aim to ensure that King’s is a place where everyone involved in research feels valued and inspired to contribute their unique perspectives and talents from a myriad of disciplines, roles, experiences and backgrounds. 

Supporting good research practice: 

Positive research culture is underpinned by a dedication to uphold the highest standards of research integrity, ethics, and practice. We advocate for the use of transparent and reproducible research methodologies, as well as ensuring that all researchers receive the necessary training and support to conduct ethical and rigorous investigations.

Levels of intervention

Our efforts within the three key areas take place at four intervention levels:

• Sector (e.g. feeding into national policy and initiatives)
• Institution/whole college
• Communities (e.g. Faculties, Schools, Departments)
• Individuals

Central Research Culture Team

Martin broadstock.

Head of Research Culture

Joshua Mead

Research Culture Manager (Arts & Sciences faculties)

Hanna Groothuizen

Research Culture Manager (Health faculties)

Dean of Research Culture

Marice Lunny

Director of Research Governance, Ethics and Integrity

The Central Research Culture team are very happy to support with any ideas and initiatives to improve research culture in your area or department. We can also speak to you about any concerns you may have and signpost to services across the college. We can help you embed research culture elements into grant applications and projects and work with you to ensure delivery on these. Please feel free to contact any member of our team directly, or email [email protected] .

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Irish castles and ancient Greek rites show culture’s role in regional regeneration

Finola Finlay claims to know almost every inch of West Cork in southwestern Ireland. That makes her acutely aware of climate change’s threats to the cultural identity of the remote coastal region. 

Finlay first got to know the area in her early 20s when she studied archaeology at University College Cork, or UCC. After four decades of working in higher education in Canada, she rekindled her connection to West Cork 12 years ago by choosing to retire there with her husband.

On the rocks 

Dozens of castles that dot the West Cork coastline are not just remnants of the ancient Irish clans that once held sway over the territory but also living links to the ancestral roots of today’s inhabitants, according to Finlay.

‘The locals are very proud of their heritage,’ she said. ‘They are very proud of their castles. They love them.’ 

Rising sea levels and coastal erosion resulting from climate change pose risks to that heritage. Preserving it was a prime focus of a recent EU-funded research project called  CHICC , which wrapped up in September 2023 after almost three years. 

Heritage is also a central part of the New European Bauhaus initiative to improve everyday living in Europe by bridging the worlds of science, technology, arts and culture. The EU is organising an  NEB festival in the Belgian capital Brussels on 9-13 April.

Castle views

Finlay lives near Rossbrin Castle, a historical landmark in a state of ruin after a series of severe storms in the 20th century. What remains of the castle dates from the 15th or 16th century. 

Many such structures are teetering on the brink of destruction or have already vanished without leaving a trace, according to Finlay.

‘Every time there’s a big storm, we wake up in the morning and wonder if Rossbrin Castle is still going to be there,’ she said. 

“ We were learning together about the relationship between heritage and climate. Dr Sarah Kerr, CHICC

Across the water from her home, on Cape Clear Island, stands a 16th-century stone castle that is also exposed to harsh Atlantic storms. 

Called Dún an Óir, the castle served as a case study under CHICC to assess the interplay among heritage, climate change and local communities. As a result of the rising sea, the castle can no longer be reached on foot and is marooned.

Residents contributed paintings, poems, children’s drawings and personal stories linked to the castle. The works often referenced the weather and the changing climate.

Some pictures and poems depicted violent storms and collapsing landscapes.

A man who participated recounted how, decades ago, he reached the castle on foot during low tide on a calm winter day.

‘We were learning together about the relationship between heritage and climate in this very unrestricted and non-expert-driven way,’ said Dr Sarah Kerr, an archaeology lecturer at UCC who led CHICC.

Climate conscious

The researchers also examined damaged heritage sites in Jutland, Denmark and in the Fife area of Scotland in the UK. Like Dún an Óir, both are sparsely populated. 

CHICC adopted a “citizen-science” approach in each case by involving community members as researchers. 

While Kerr decided on the research objectives, local residents collected data about the sites and chose what to do with the information.

Approximately 50 to 70 people participated online during Covid-19 lockdowns in each location, according to Kerr. 

CHICC led to a significant boost in climate literacy among the Irish, Danish and Scottish participants, according to Kerr. 

She said that about 70% of them reported a better understanding of climate change as a result of their active involvement in the project. 

While helping to keep cultural heritage alive, CHICC also made participants more aware of its potential loss – as exemplified by Dún an Óir in Ireland. 

‘By looking at the history and how the castle changed over the course of 500 years, we were learning how the life of the castle started,’ said Kerr. ‘And if it has a beginning, it may have an end.’

She said the greater appreciation that CHICC’s participants gained about the impacts of climate change helped to lay the ground for possible further environmental action by them. 

In that context, the project served as a stepping stone to longer-term local engagement, according to Kerr. 

Old foundations, new layers 

Local residents are also at the centre of another EU-funded project seeking to bridge the past and future in three European locations. 

But in this case the focus is urban areas and the role of cultural heritage in their regeneration.

Called  HERITACT , the project began in March 2023 and is scheduled to run through February 2026. 

In addition to a town called Ballina in Ireland and Italy’s second-largest city, Milan, the focal points include the Greek municipality of Elefsina.

A seaside industrial centre outside Athens, Elefsina is also the birthplace of ancient tragedian Aeschylus and home to one of the most important religious sites of antiquity – a sanctuary where pilgrims were initiated annually into the Eleusinian Mysteries for the cult of Demeter and Persephone. 

In Elefsina, whose population is around 30 000, the HERITACT researchers are involving six neighbourhoods in cultural and sustainable urban initiatives.

Active engagement

While still in its initial phase, HERITACT has already attracted hundreds of local participants including students and children, according to Dr Stylianos Karatzas, the project coordinator and a civil engineering fellow at the University of Cambridge in the UK.

‘This is something that we did not expect at this point of the project,’ said Karatzas. ‘This shows that people actually need these types of innovative solutions.’

“ People actually need these types of innovative solutions. Dr Stylianos Karatzas, HERITACT

The project has created plant-covered walls and shading systems for public spaces. It has used a design technique – tensegrity – that balances pushing and pulling forces to produce strong and flexible structures. 

The installations are not just for looks; they’re designed to be low-maintenance and to showcase sustainable urban development.

The project will also use urban mobile furniture, which can be rearranged and adjusted as users see fit. The aim is to make heritage spaces capable of hosting various activities such as food markets, sporting events and theatre performances.

HERITACT will extend this approach to some of Elfesina’s industrial heritage spots including an old soap factory, the city’s first such site founded in 1875, and to the Eleusis cinema, built in the first half of the 20th century and recently reopened after closure in 1988.

In Milan, the project plans to strengthen cultural and social activities in ancient farmhouses, called “cascine”, through additions such as local vegetable gardens and green tensegrity installations. 

In Ballina, HERITACT is repurposing historical buildings like the Convent of the Immaculate Conception, focusing on their potential for preserving Ireland’s social, cultural and artistic heritage.

Back in West Cork, Finlay has shown the power of local heritage through a  blog that she has written with her husband, who died last month.

The blog, which has delved into the region’s history, landscape and culture, has amassed more than 2 million views in the past year. 

Research in this article was funded by the EU’s Horizon Programme including, in the case of CHICC, via the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA). The views of the interviewees don’t necessarily reflect those of the European Commission. If you liked this article, please consider sharing it on social media.

New European Bauhaus

A century after it emerged in Germany, the Bauhaus school of art, architecture and design is getting a rebirth in Europe in a bid to improve urban life.

The  New European Bauhaus (NEB) aims to help cities across the EU become less polluting and more attractive through artistic, cultural and technological projects reaching many millions of residents.

Initiated by the European Commission in 2020, the NEB has three prime goals: reduce environmental harm including climate change, tackle social inequalities such as exclusion and spruce up public areas.

Changing the design and use of urban spaces and structures is central to the whole undertaking, with sustainability, inclusion and aesthetics shaping the overall vision.

While serving policy goals set at EU level, the NEB relies on bottom-up initiatives undertaken by a range of people and organisations. These include city dwellers, artistic groups, architectural experts and local businesses, authorities and students.

Research is a main feature of the NEB, with almost €160 million for EU projects in 2021-2024.

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We all have a role in building a positive research culture

Head of Knowledge Management and Scholarly Communication, Medical Research Council

8 December 2022

Find out how we’re introducing a new type of investment which will embed positive research and innovation culture within research excellence.

In September 2022, we published our strategic delivery plan , in which we commit to strengthen our efforts to advance an open and collaborative research and innovation culture. The plan also recognises the importance of working with a wide range of partners and the biomedical health research community to build on and inform research culture frameworks and strategies.

Defining a positive research culture

Demonstrating that we are acting on our commitment is important for us at the Medical Research Council (MRC). For example, we’ve just launched a new funding model, the MRC Centres of Research Excellence . The new investments aim to foster challenge-led collaborative research in an environment which nurtures a positive research culture.

There have been many conversations in recent years about research culture, and the need for change has been clearly demonstrated. However, we haven’t explicitly identified the relevant ingredients and it is often assumed that everyone just knows what it is about.

To help understand what is meant by a positive research culture, I have found the Royal Society’s initiative, Research culture embedding inclusive excellence , very inspiring.

Their definition provides a good basis to build on:

Research culture encompasses the behaviours, values, expectations, attitudes and norms of our research communities. It influences researchers’ career paths and determines the way that research is conducted and communicated.

Embedding across our policies

As funders we have tried to embed these elements in our best research practice policies, as well as cross sector concordats. And more recently with the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment . These can be organised across 3 key principles, stating that:

• research is conducted with integrity, centred on reproducibility, responsible innovation, collaboration, interdisciplinarity and multidisciplinarity
• research is communicated to maximise impact, built on transparency and openness, and partnership with the public
• career paths, and training environment, are provided to recognise a diversity of talents, skills, and outputs, and embrace team science as the way of working

Future considerations and support for applicants

Applicants for our new MRC Centres of Research Excellence will be invited to consider these principles and describe what they will do to establish and communicate:

• day to day behaviours
• expectations
• norms that signal ‘this is the way we do things around here’

We understand that activities will need to be built over time, supported by existing, institutional programmes. We are developing a framework which will support applicants in their thinking as they move from their outline to a full application. The approach to research culture will be unique to a particular investment, but at a minimum the following elements will be addressed :

• team science
• good research practice and openness
• reward and incentives
• physical environment and infrastructure to nurture collaborations
• equality, diversity and inclusion

Looking forward to a positive future

A positive research culture is essential to deliver excellent research and we are taking the opportunity to embed this in the new funding model. I am really looking forward to new and innovative actions as they emerge to change our ways of working. Communities can learn from each other and co-develop best practice. We all have a role to play in building a positive research culture.

Find out more

Learn how UK Research and Innovation supports a healthy research and innovation culture .

Find out how we celebrate the diverse and broad impacts made by our research community through our MRC prize schemes . The new annual MRC Impact Prize recognises individuals and diverse teams that advance open science and team science. It also champions early-career researchers that are trailblazing change across the research culture and the wider research environment.

Top image:  Credit: Marco VDM, E+ via Getty Images

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Géraldine Clément-Stoneham

Géraldine Clément-Stoneham is the Head of Knowledge Management and Scholarly Communication at the Medical Research Council, a part of UK Research and Innovation, where she leads on the development and implementation of open science policies.

This is the website for UKRI: our seven research councils, Research England and Innovate UK. Let us know if you have feedback or would like to help improve our online products and services .

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Project to address harmful language relating to Indigenous peoples receives prestigious Mellon Award 

Sonya Jampolsky - April 8, 2024

Stacy Allison-Cassin, an assistant professor in Dal’s Faculty of Management, and Camille Callison, university librarian at University of the Fraser Valley, have received a $1.8-million grant from the prestigious Mellon Foundation. They are pursuing the next steps in a decades long journey to remove antiquated, racist, and harmful language found in libraries, archives, museums, and data-systems worldwide.   

Shown right: Camille Callison

The RTTP is a dynamic and open online platform to create and share appropriate and respectful multilingual terminologies. That terminology will then be used in places such as libraries, museums, and other knowledge-based organizations with archival management systems.   

Dr. Allison-Cassin and Callison explain the significance of the project like this.   

To be called by one’s name is a fundamental mark of respect that should be extended to everyone. However, the stark reality is that many are denied this basic human right... people are compelled to use harmful language to conduct a search for one’s own history, heritage, language, or culture.     

 Change is ‘frustratingly slow’ 

Elaine MacInnis, associate dean of library services at Dal, is dismayed that “American Indians is still a subject heading in the library catalogue system.” Not only is the language incorrect, she says, but it also inflicts harm and continues the cycle of trauma.  

Cataloguing and descriptive work in libraries and archives uses international standards intended to ease data exchange and guide practitioners. Many of these standards were developed by colonial institutions. Some, like the U.S. Library of Congress and the Canadian government, have tried to address disrespectful, incorrect, and harmful words, but Dr. Allison-Cassin calls the change ‘frustratingly slow’, and such efforts are typically not led by Indigenous peoples themselves.  

Drawing on years as a librarian, she says, “it’s impossible to decolonize these systems.” Changing terms within a colonial system is not enough, she adds, “because the underlying structures remain the same — it’s time to create something new.”   

A collective approach, no more working in silos 

The RTPP imagines a different reality where, as Callison puts it, “when people search for information about Indigenous and other marginalized communities, they would see appropriate and correct terminology describing themselves and others, which subconsciously creates respect toward them and their identity, leaving an imprint of reverence.”    

It’s taken nine months of intense work to do the invite-only application to the Public Knowledge Program at Mellon. But as Dr. Allison-Cassin explains, the project has long roots. The RTPP was launched through NIKLA in May 2022 and follows decades of advocacy and research by Indigenous librarians, archivists, and museum professionals across North America.  

The grant will be used for the design of practices, workflows, and systems to create the capacity for systematic change. Dr. Allison-Cassin says, “it’s also about Indigenous Data Sovereignty having the right to own, control, access, and steward data about their communities, lands, and culture.”  

W. Dominika Wranik, the Faculty of Management’s associate dean of research, says it’s an honour for the university to be associated with the project.  

"It’s in direct alignment with Dalhousie University’s Strategic Research Direction, specifically in the area ‘Reconciliation & Indigenous Peoples’ that supports the building of inclusive and resilient communities,” she says, adding that Dr. Allison-Cassin's research "also lies at the core of our faculty’s strength in the advancement of Indigenous paradigms for management and the decolonization of knowledge.”   

We want to fulfill the dreams of our elders 

Callison acknowledges the broad support the project has gathered with contributions coming from across Canada and beyond. “It is important to gathering together in a concerted, overarching efforts to address these historical harms enabling local adaptations rather than continue to work in silos ensuring that our efforts at creating and mobilizing efforts move forward into the future in a good way," she says.     

As a scholar who has volunteered hours writing and editing material for Wikidata and Wikipedia, Dr. Allison-Cassin admits she’s passionate about documenting cultural materials that don’t fit easily into standard systems of description or are ignored entirely. She says knowing ‘how information is structured’ helps her think about ‘the power in structures.’

Dr. Allison-Cassin says that the work of so many people over past decades is what enabled the RTPP to come into being. Callison emphasizes, “Our desire is to acknowledge and honour the work of those who came before us who worked tirelessly at the grassroots and in community for their whole careers to advocate and create changes that is a foundation that we can build. It is critically important to elevate the voices of First Nations, Métis, Inuit peoples who have been and continue to work to create change for future generations to come.”   

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IAS Critical Area Studies Funded Projects announced

10 April 2024

In 2024 the IAS offered a one-off fund to foster research, public engagement and/or innovative pedagogy in any field of critical area studies (CAS). Below you can find details of the recipients and their projects.

Techno-Urban Atlas: Mapping Inter-Asian Transformations in Hsinchu, Taiwan and Chennai, India

Imagining “the west”: an interdisciplinary workshop on the portrayals of “the west” in eastern europe.

• ‘ South Asia’ + ‘Middle East’’ + Early Modern’ = ?

Precarity in urban China: surviving in capitalist ruins

‘traversing beyond borders: intermediality and cross-cultural communication’ pg conference, infrastructure soundscapes, children’s letters for palestinian childhoods, indigeneity and art in the himalayas.

Dr Pushpa Arabindoo, Geography; Dr Leah Lovett, Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, Bartlett; Richard Müller, Geography

This project will facilitate two public engagement workshops in Chennai and Hsinchu and the creation of a web-based Techno-Urban Atlas to bear witness to and promote inter-Asian comparison regarding the socio-spatial reconfigurations emerging within these urban areas. The workshops will be in collaboration with local cultural organisation partners, the Chennai Photo Biennale and Hsinchu City Art-Site. The workshops will train participants in 3D-scanning methods before venturing on a walking tour through key techno-industrial areas within Chennai and Hsinchu. The participants will 3D-scan sensorial traces, surfaces, and artifacts of the urban landscapes which will then be aggregated into the public Techno-Urban Atlas website.

Dr Jessie Barton Hronesova, SSEES; Dr Jelena Calic, SSEES; Prof Eric Gordy, SSEES

To be held on 7 June 2024 at SSEES.

‘South Asia’ + ‘Middle East’’ + Early Modern’ = ?

Dr Jagjeet Lally, History; Dr Seth Anziska, Hebrew & Jewish Studies, Prof Tariq Jazeel, Geography

See event page, 21 June 2024 in the IAS Forum

Image: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/453673

Dr Alison Lamont, Social Research Institute, IOE; Dr Annabella Massey, Education Practice and Society, IOE

This half-day workshop uses Anna Tsing’s (2015) The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins as a gateway to invite participants to explore these local conditions, particularly in connection to the idea that people are currently piecing together lives and meaning in the “ruins” of capitalism. Tsing’s concept of capitalist ruins invokes images of what is left behind in the wake of capitalist advancement and reminds us that capitalism has boundaries and externality, domains of non-capitalist experience which capitalism itself scavenges for the accumulation of value. Tsing uses her ethnographic “art of noticing” to illuminate the areas of life from which capitalism scours resources, noting that they are often created within the ruined remains of capitalism’s own processes. 

We therefore invite researchers to think of their work in China’s cities and distinct model of capitalism in connection to Tsing’s notions of “salvage accumulation”, and to explore the “landscapes of unintentional design” that rapid development leaves behind, while also drawing attention to the global pull of supply chains and markets. Ranging from lived experiences of precarity and informal work and social media livelihoods, to urban exploration, to urban planning policy, through to play and rebellion in the city, the workshop aims to highlight the Chinese city as both a space of precarity and a space made up of creative responses to that precarity.  To be held on 21 June in the IAS Common Ground

Serena Pei, SELCS; Gefan Wang, King’s College London

We are enormously delighted to announce that we have invited London-based Turkish artist Merve İşeri to be our keynote speaker, whose creation is based on the unique understanding of immigration, displacement of identity, cross-cultural experience, and memory. For more information about İşeri’s works, please see her website: https://www.merveiseri.com/

To be held on 31 May in the IAS Common Ground. View the call for papers

Image credit: ‘Sev Kardesim’* (love, sister and brother) by Merve İşeri (2021). Oil, pastel, acrylic, and pigment spray paint on canvas. * The painting’s title alludes to the song of the same name by Turkish singer Şenay.

Dr Igor Rogelja, EISPS; Manca Bajec, Goldsmiths University of London; ZRC SAZU, Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Arts and Sciences

The artistic intervention will consist of a continuous recording of soundscapes along the route, but also two 'stopping points' in Trieste, where the artist will consider how infrastructures that have lost their original purpose come to occupy a space of cultural identity. Considering the methodological approach of interviewing objects and images, we will be interviewing the buildings in question in relation to the sounds of untold and often repeated histories. The project will produce a soundscape map and essay, hosted on the project’s digital portal Footnotes.

Presented at IAS in early summer 2024.

Image credit: Silas Capps

Prof Rachel Rosen, Social Research Institute, IOE; Dr Feryal Awan, Culture, Communicatin and Media, IOE; Malak Mattar, Gazan artist

The project is an extension of Letters for Palestinian Childhoods, which is a response to a global call to action by childhood studies scholars and students, who demanded an immediate ceasefire and called on people to stand in solidarity and counter the dehumanisation of Palestinian children and adults. The result was a coming together of international academics and artists, who used their area studies knowledge to build an online ( website / Instagram ) and travelling exhibition.

Image credit: Shelter, by Malak Mattar (2021)

Sangita Thebe Limbu, Institute for Risk & Disaster Reduction; Mridu Rai, Anthropology

Our project aims to bring together artists and researchers from Nepal and India to share their experiences of working on issues of identity and collective rights in the eastern Himalayas. In doing so, we will critically reflect on Indigenous storytelling, knowledge production and methodologies, and the contested discourse on Indigeneity in Asia. 

Through a one-day event comprised of film screening, a shadow play, a photo exhibition and a panel discussion, the project aims to create a safe and collaborative space where artists, storytellers, researchers, community mobilisers can come together to network, learn from one another, and co-produce shared agendas and approaches.  

Images: video still from the docufiction Ningwasum. The photo was provided by artist Subash Thebe Limbu.

Evaluating Hookup Culture on Campus: A Lesbian Separatist Perspective

• Megan Ruskey Rutgers University

Hookup culture on the college campus simultaneously offers young women a venue for sexual liberation, while reproducing gender inequities observed throughout much of society. Thus, women are subjected to power imbalances, sexual dissatisfaction, and restrictions in their own bodily autonomy in the pursuit of casual sex. Given this bind, I set out to evaluate hookup culture from the framework expressed through lesbian separatist practice. Specifically, I analyze The Furies Collective, a lesbian separatist group operating in Washington D.C. from the years 1970-1972. In these two years, the Furies developed a self-titled newspaper, educational networks, and a compelling set of feminist principles to guide their activism. In this project, I draw insight from both a personal interview with Furies Collective founder Charlotte Bunch, as well as primary and academic sources. This research finds that while hookup culture does reflect various societal and physical inequities for women, it also provides opportunities for homosocial bonding, as demonstrated in lesbian separatism, that work to make this culture more satisfactory for women. Therefore, in order to benefit from the liberating aspects of hookup culture, women can capitalize on the separatist spaces associated with the hookup environment, like the sorority and pre-game, to fortify connections with one another as a means of protection in hookup spaces.

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