Interestingly, I also gave a guest talk on a masters level module about data impact in academia; I talked to the students about my recent project proposal submitted to the ESRC and the ethical considerations of asking organisations to be impact partners. I ended the talk with the question: even if we have created impact as measured by a whole america rcs data host of metrics, does anything ever really change as a result of our research? but it is a question that we have to ask ourselves as social scientists. Although we would love to create changes in societal attitudes, behaviours, practices, procedures and legislation (and beyond) from our research, in reality this is very difficult to do, especially if the messages that we wish to convey are not in agreement with the ‘powers that be’. But we should continue to get our research findings out to a wide an audience as possible; this is part of our job as responsible, engaged and dedicated social scientists.
Muttarak, who currently lives in the UK, says:
The price of healthier foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables are higher than processed and energy-dense foods in this country. As a sociologist, I feel that these inequalities should be addressed.
Our model is straightforward. You tell us your ideas for using our data collections in teaching (there is a template to help) and we can add further information and formatting. Then, we can acknowledge you as the contributor and make the ideas available on the website and publicise through different networks.