在危机期间，领导者依靠研究人员收集情报，帮助他们决定如何应对. 有时研究产生卫星图像、数据库或实地采访. 但很少有足够的信息可以全面了解受战争影响的人口的情况, 饥荒, genocide or natural disasters.
A team of Old Dominion University researchers aims to demonstrate 跨学科研究的价值不仅在于帮助决策者理解他们能够获取的信息, but the value of what information might be missing. 的y have received $1.前国防部长唐纳德·拉姆斯菲尔德(Donald Rumsfeld)的著名说法是“已知的已知和已知的未知”，这些挑战会影响决策.
的 project, titled "What's Missing? 在难以到达的环境中创新跨学科方法," is funded through the Minerva 研究 Initiative, 它支持教师调查人员网络，以加强国防部与社会科学界的联系. 目标是帮助国防部更好地理解和评估未来的挑战.
Over the next three years, the ODU team, led by principal investigator Erika Frydenlund, 将尝试了解研究人员如何进入非正式定居点收集可以为政策提供信息的数据. 他们的项目将把来自四所国际大学的研究人员聚集在一起研究同一地点, all using different research methodologies. To approximate the conditions of crisis areas, 他们将在专家指定的国际地区进行研究，这些地区被称为“贫民窟”，即缺乏基础设施的城市贫困地区, 治理, 经济机会和典型的社会保障，比如急救人员和医疗保健.
“在任何情况下都很难收集真正的跨学科研究, 尤其是当你试图在一个难以到达的环境中进行研究时, due to conflict or hostile regimes," Frydenlund said. "During a conflict event, like what we're seeing unfold in Ukraine, 很难收集到定性数据，以便为东道国和难民人口工作人员的决策提供信息."
五个小组将在开普敦卡耶利沙的同一地点出发回答同样的问题, South Africa. 他们将共同努力确定“基础真相”——基于观察或测量的已知真实信息.
的 five teams will be:
- Visual sociology (led by Jennifer N. 鱼,ODU)
- 制度人种学(由挪威阿格德大学的Hanne Haaland和Hege Wallevik领导)
- Citizen science (led by Frydenlund and South Africa consultant)
- 调查(由哥伦比亚北卡罗来纳大学凯瑟琳·帕拉西奥领导)
- Web and social media (led by Michele Weigle and Michael L. Nelson, ODU)
一旦他们的数据被收集，建模和模拟工具(由Jose J. 帕迪拉, ODU)将帮助他们了解，如果一种类型的研究被删除，将失去哪些关键发现, 揭示“基本真相”如何在没有特定数据的情况下变得不那么清晰.
加拿大约克大学的学者们(由Michaela Hynie领导)将对这些研究人员进行研究, examining how the teams collaborated and negotiated "ground truth." Based on their findings, 团队将在新的地点重新评估和复制该项目, 看看他们能否将在南非学到的经验应用到巴兰基亚的加拉加斯别墅, 哥伦比亚.
“你永远不会有这样的机会派一群聪明人到野外去玩寻宝游戏来了解真相," Frydenlund said. "We have nothing to lose. No matter what, we will gain knowledge."
She is excited to 分享 this opportunity with graduate students. "Interdisciplinary work is the way of the future, 培养研究生的跨学科交流能力也很重要,她说.
Through their collaboration, 研究人员的目的是向领导人展示为什么每种类型的研究在规划军事或人道主义干预时都很重要, or simply trying to understand how people are being affected.
俄罗斯在乌克兰的战争提供了两个难以触及的环境的例子，在这些环境中，发现“地面真相”的研究方法受到了阻碍. While Ukraine poses research challenges as an active war zone, 随着俄罗斯变得越来越孤立，它带来了不同的挑战. World leaders trying to understand how the war is being interpreted in Russia have little access to interdisciplinary research; the media is controlled by the state, many foreign reporters and researchers have left, 公民也不能在大多数流行的社交媒体网络上分享最新消息. Without that access, Frydenlund said, it's hard to know how the war and sanctions are being perceived, and what actions might yield desired results.
的 project is the second Minerva grant 由弗吉尼亚建模中心的故事建模团队的研究人员收到, Analysis and 模拟 Center. In 2019, the team began work on its study, "Computational Framework for Assessing Absorptive Capacity,“旨在更好地了解收容地区管理流离失所人口涌入的能力, including refugees and asylum seekers.
的 Storymodelers team uses computational science, engineering and other technical approaches to collect, analyze and map human systems. 他们的工作产生数据，以更好地了解包括流离失所人口在内的全球挑战.
