You might wonder what has happened with the Dissertation Research Abstract [1]. I used to think that I would like to do a community-based research (CBR) on transportation. What I have learned from my recent CBR project with The Natural Step Monona was that transportation is not on their top priority list. As a result, there is no strong basis for conducting CBR in transportation because transportation is not a pressing issue for Monona residents and therefore there is no immediate needs in addressing it.
Another learning point from this is that when a researcher wants to conduct a CBR, a topic becomes secondary. CBR is a methodology that aims to address whatever we learn from the needs assessment process. Community will identify a set of local community issues and then rank them to see what is the most important for them to asnwer. This can be anything from a chicken in someone’s backyard to as complex as Wisconsin’s collective bargaining issue. It is imperative that CBR follows community’s interests.
What can we learn from existing travel behavior data [a] about automobile use in Monona Wisconsin? How has the idea of automobile use been constructed by residents of Monona? How has community knowledge on health been a part of the consideration on automobile use? In what ways might the current transportation system in Monona have suffered certain social groups in Monona? The intensity of automobile use has long been recognized as a primary cause of the current unsustainable transportation system. Yet a considerable number of individuals have continued to travel with their private cars and some social groups have continued to be marginalized due to inadequate transportation infrastructures. This dilemma suggests that sustainable transportation has a complex set of problems and requires a robust approach of research in order to understand the complexities of the problems and offer potential solutions to these problems.
Just found out yesterday, introduced by a librarian. This should be a cool tool for many PhD students who are often unsure about keeping their timeframe. This may not fit with those who have a non-university research partner like myself, a grassroots community organization. Regardless how you do your research, I think this is really helpful with some dates and some suggested instructions in meeting the dates.
Please click on the image and it will bring you to the actual site.
