Who is Joe Smith?

Joe Smith has posted a comment on Booker's Telegraph article disputing the characterisation of him as a "climate activist".

Christopher Booker describes me as a ‘climate activist’. In the interests of accuracy and fairness I want to state clearly here that that is a label which I flatly reject. The research and policy dimensions of climate change are not simple or easy. Myself and thousands of scholars around the world will need to be thoughtful, open minded and dogged in doing justice to their complexity. People need to keep in touch and exchange views in a thoughtful and civil way. I would have welcomed a conversation with Christopher as he prepared his piece but was not given the opportunity. The free exchange of views about demanding topics is one of the things that the seminars that his piece refers to have been all about.

Yours
Dr. Joe Smith
The Open University

Update on Nov 20, 2011 by Bishop Hill

Take a look at this video of Joe Smith speaking at the Communicate 2009, a conference for environmental communicators (sponsored by, among others, the BBC). Particularly from 2min30s.

Comments

[Bernie]

Action Research seeks to address the effect researchers have on their subjects. Anthropologists were among the first to recognize that their observing a culture had an impact on that culture. These are genuine issues and well documented. I spent 35 years studying organizations as a consultant. Believe me, any effort to collect data is fraught with problems of responders trying to determine what your agenda is. A few years ago, I was collecting survey data for a major corporation who were trying to optimize the physical work environment for their employees. A small but vociferous group of respondents believed the survey was designed to justify the elimination of private offices. As far as I was concerned it wasn't. The research problem is how do you get valid data when someone believes that you are out to get them.
Action Research should not be a smokescreen for activism and, alas, much of what masquerades as social science is far more activism than research. Smith's diary project is interesting BUT is essentially going to be meaningless since the sample is very much self-selected and the analysis of the data subject to the predisposition of the analysts. In all likelihood it is simply an extension of Smith's activist agenda.

[Snotrocket]

@Latimer: (Nov 20, 2011 at 9:27 PM) I don't know about his KPIs, after reading his OU profile, his comments to Booker and viewing the vid, I'm still trying to figure out his USP.

(Unique Selling Point)

[Mac]

If yuo wondered what action research looks like in practice then follow the link below concerning an Australian organisation, The Change Agency.

http://www.thechangeagency.org/01_cms/details.asp?ID=73

Title: "climate action building the climate movement |action research project"

Objectives:

Strengthen the Australian climate movement

Draw lessons and insights from climate change organising since the 1980s

Facilitate dialogue, reflection and relationship building

Bridge the gaps between grassroots and NGO activists, between environmentalists and other citizens concerned about climate change, and between the rebels, reformers, citizens and change agents in this crucial people's movement.

Also closer to home:

http://www.ukcds.org.uk/publication-Building_a_collaborative_platform_for_climate_change__an_action_research_approach-361.html

The case study highlighted gives a definition of participatory action research (PAR)

Participatory action research (PAR) differs from other forms of research in that it seeks not to understand a situation but also to stimulate positive change through the way the research is carried out. The research team act as facilitators, guiding a process of reflective analysis and action by the people who are affected by the situation – its stakeholders. Participatory planning is an approach that engages stakeholders in a linked process of problem identification, information collection, analysis, negotiation and formulation of plans. Many of the techniques used in PAR and participatory planning involve bringing stakeholders together in meetings, workshops and other ways.

So if it looks like a climate activist, walks like a climate activist, talks like a climate activist and smells like a climate activist then it is a climate actvist.

Action research is being used to mask climate activism. Maybe that is it's intent.

[Jack Savage]

If that man is NOT an activist...then I am a banana.

[Richard Tol]

on the internet, nobody knows you're a banana

[Richard Drake]

Richard: lol and double lol. And nice to see Jack alluding to the editor of Private Eye in the first place. I'm sure Hislop will come round in the end, his satirical instincts demand it.

[Billy Liar]

I think you're all being a bit unfair to the good Dr Joe Smith. There is a good deal of common ground between the Social Sciences and AGW - they're both baloney and very loosely related to science. (I've slightly exagerrated my 'narrative' to to capture the public’s imagination)

Nov 20, 2011 at 10:03 PM | ChrisM

... there are some highly motivated people out there who want to tear up the narrative that climate change is human caused and requires urgent action ...

Whenever you see the word 'narrative' in a social science setting replace it with the word 'lie'. It improves the comprehension.

Newspeak dictionary:

Action research = activism = propagandising

[Hengist McStone]

I suppose it doesn't matter whether Joe Smith's science is good or bad any more. You all can just denounce him as an 'activist' , because he's made a You Tube video. That's the beauty of post normal science you don't actually have to address any of that boring science stuff.

[James Evans]

Tell us about Joe Smith's science, Hengist.

[RoyFOMR]

@Hengist
"That's the beauty of post normal science you don't actually have to address any of that boring science stuff."
Welcome to the enlightenment McStone. That's what we've been trying to tell you for years.
I'd always marked you as one worthy of redemption and, with tears of gratitude, I welcome you into the arms of logic, scientific scepticism and apolitical curiousity that is the hallmark of those who question the concen$us certainty of the next Armageddon.
Well done!

[Richard Tol]

@Hengist
There is quite a difference between post-normal science and action research. The former is natural scientists masquerading as the social scientists, the latter activists masquerading as social scientists.

[Jiminy Cricket]

@Richard Tol... my coffee went over the keyboard...

Then it makes you wonder is there any such thing as real Social Scientists... are they equipped to spot impostors...?

[Richard Tol]

@Jiminy
There is plenty of excellent research in the social sciences, and its results are ubiquitous.

[Kolnai]

'Post-normal science'? Along with 'action research' and 'post-modernism', ideas straight out of our nightmares. For what can any of them possibly mean? In fact, all of them are code for: 'Don't argue with me'. Through the use of such stale rhetoric and the 'political correctness' cult, our masters continue to strengthen their hold over us. Welcome to the pleasuredrome, where everything - sex, drugs, ultra-violence – is freely available on tap, at any rate for the present. Just keep your mouth shut...

[Kaylee Ward]

Thoughtful suggestions , I was enlightened by the facts ! Does someone know where my company would be able to get access to a sample USCIS I-9 CNMI form to use ?