#on-the-ground-research

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Running
fromiRunFar
3 days ago

Building Community the Old Fashioned Way

Building relationships through shared training experiences enhances the running community.
Public health
fromThe Nation
4 days ago

Public Health Needs to Get Off the Laptop and Into the Streets

Transformational experiences in South Africa with TAC emphasized the importance of community engagement and effective communication in health education.
Silicon Valley
fromFast Company
4 days ago

A small city just voted on AI and the result could ripple nationwide

Port Washington voters passed a measure requiring community approval for future data centers, reflecting local opposition to big tech's expansion plans.
Philosophy
fromBig Think
4 days ago

The important role of ignorance in building a better society

Total freedom without laws leads to chaos; social contracts are essential for order and security in society.
Psychology
fromSilicon Canals
5 days ago

Not everyone who keeps a small social circle is protecting their energy. Some of them built a wide one once, watched it reveal exactly how many people would show up during an actual emergency, and quietly restructured around the answer - Silicon Canals

Small social circles often result from past crises that reveal true friendships, rather than a preference for fewer connections.
Roam Research
fromenglish.elpais.com
1 week ago

How to measure bad smells: the citizen science that is challenging the stench of rotten eggs and cabbage soup

Different methods exist to scientifically measure odors, but they often fail to assess the discomfort caused to individuals at a distance.
Philosophy
fromApaonline
6 days ago

What About Knowledge That No Longer Knows What It Is For?

Knowledge and education have become distorted by managerial frameworks, leading to a superficial understanding of their true purpose and value.
Brooklyn
fromTruthout
2 weeks ago

Inside the Grassroots Campaign That Pushed a Drone Company Out of Brooklyn

Protesters occupied Building 77 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard to oppose the lease of Easy Aerial, linked to the Department of Homeland Security and Israeli military.
fromArchDaily
2 weeks ago

A Community Art Ecosystem in Practice / MINOR lab

The project emphasizes the reactivation of spatial value within existing community structures, transforming building stock into community assets of public significance.
Renovation
Data science
fromNature
3 weeks ago

How I squeeze fresh science from public data

Utilizing existing data can lead to significant discoveries and collaborations in research.
fromPhilosophynow
1 week ago
Philosophy

The Collective City

Islamic philosophy invites plurality and coexistence, emphasizing the importance of dialogue and the acceptance of error in understanding.
fromwww.bbc.com
3 weeks ago

Campaigners celebrate after new town plans dropped

Campaigner Aysha Hawcutt stated that residents were 'not anti-homes', but believed the Adlington plan was 'the wrong proposal in the wrong place'. She expressed pride in the community's resilience against the development threats.
London politics
Psychology
fromPsychology Today
3 weeks ago

The Creativity of Science: How We Discover New Things

Psychological research requires creativity to design studies, develop explanations, and provide practical recommendations.
Philosophy
fromThe Nation
3 weeks ago

In Defense of Being Performative

Democracy requires citizens to actively perform civic engagement; dismissing performative politics misunderstands that democratic participation is inherently performative and essential for democratic survival.
US politics
fromFlowingData
1 month ago

Database to explore conflicts of interest through financial disclosures

ProPublica created a searchable database of financial disclosure documents from the president and 1,573 executive branch appointees, revealing their assets, outside positions, and compensation.
Philosophy
fromWarpweftandway
4 weeks ago

Two Collaborative Learning () Events This Week

The 四海为学 Collaborative Learning Project hosts two free public events: Louise Edwards discussing childhood and gender in China on March 19, and Peter Hershock exploring AI and agency from a Buddhist perspective on March 20.
fromTruthout
1 month ago

The Science of Unlearning And Why Organizers Need It

Real change rarely happens through debate or persuasion. Instead, transformation grows out of relationships, shared struggle, cognitive dissonance, and practice. Together, Kelly and Lewis explore what organizers can learn from the science of neuroplasticity, the role of rupture and confrontation, and why movements need to focus less on 'changing minds' and more on creating conditions where people can unlearn harmful beliefs and step into collective action.
Social justice
Data science
fromFlowingData
1 month ago

Mapping what makes us happy

HappyDB contains 100,000 crowdsourced happy moments classified and visualized on a map using axes of personal agency and time horizon, with filtering by demographics.
Philosophy
fromPsychology Today
4 weeks ago

Why Some Scientific Debates Never End

Complex questions involving values cannot be definitively settled by evidence alone, as different priorities lead experts to emphasize different findings from the same data.
Online Community Development
fromPsychology Today
1 month ago

No One Is Coming to Help-Except Your Neighbors

Building community-led resilience networks and mutual aid groups nationwide enables neighbors to support each other through overlapping crises including climate change, inequality, and government violence.
Education
fromArchDaily
1 month ago

When the School Becomes the City: Community-Centered Projects in the Global South

School architecture functions as a catalyst for social transformation by creating multifunctional civic spaces that integrate education, culture, sports, and community engagement within urban territories.
UX design
fromMedium
1 month ago

User personas of consequence

User personas are conceptually valuable but often poorly executed due to speed prioritization, template reliance, and AI tools that sacrifice quality for efficiency, making accurate human representation increasingly difficult despite easier creation methods.
fromPsychology Today
2 months ago

Finding Social Connection in a New Community

"I feel like it was easier to connect with other transplants," she said. "Everyone seemed to revolve around hobby-based communities."
Relationships
Philosophy
Society exists as a real entity distinct from individuals, comparable to how organs form a brain; denying society's existence while acknowledging individuals is logically inconsistent.
Startup companies
fromFast Company
2 months ago

Community is the smartest investment a solopreneur can make

Building intentional communities is essential infrastructure for solopreneurs to sustain creativity, provide reality checks, and amplify professional impact.
fromNieman Lab
2 months ago

Journalism lost its culture of sharing. Here's how we rebuild it

If you've worked in a technical role in news for long enough, you likely remember when the "show your work" spirit was everywhere. Newsroom nerds shared code on GitHub, swapped tips on social media and unfurled long blogs guiding others on how to get things done. You might also have a vague sense that - like reaction GIFs, demotivational posters, and that guy who sang "Chocolate Rain" - you're seeing less of it these days.
Media industry
fromArchDaily
1 month ago

The Machine in the Age of Collective Practice

Every architectural epoch has been defined by its instruments. The compass, the drawing board, the camera, and the computer have each altered how architects think and produce. Yet the current moment feels qualitatively different.
Design
Marketing tech
fromThedrum
2 months ago

Locala Unveils New Insights for Hyperlocal Advertising

Locala provides Traffic Share and Media Receptivity tools using mobility data and machine learning to optimize multi-location advertising and local media strategies.
New York City
fromThe Verge
2 months ago

How one newsroom reaches immigrant communities where they live online

Documented NYC uses WeChat, WhatsApp, and Nextdoor to directly connect Chinese-speaking and other immigrants with local news, services, and immigration guidance during intensified immigration raids.
Typography
fromItsnicethat
2 months ago

Work-Form's practice has its roots in participatory design and place-making

Work-Form combines teaching and studio practice to produce research-led, community-centered graphic design emphasizing immersive processes, participatory methods, and playful typographic experimentation.
Environment
fromSocial Media Explorer
2 months ago

Entorno Law and the Role of Public Interest Law in Protecting Communities and the Environment - Social Media Explorer

Public interest law ensures accountability and enforces environmental and consumer protections to safeguard public health, community welfare, and natural resources while promoting sustainability and fairness.
fromNature
2 months ago

'It means I can sleep at night': how sensors are helping to solve scientists' problems

In fact, Stawicki was on a mission to save the lives of around 1,000 zebrafish ( Danio rerio) in her laboratory. Similarities between lines of hair cells on the fish's flanks and those in the mammalian inner ear enable her to use them as a model to study hearing problems in humans caused by some antibiotics and chemotherapy drugs. A sensor had picked up that the lab's heating system had been knocked out by a power fault.
Science
Miscellaneous
fromwww.thelocal.com
1 month ago

How to make The Local one of your preferred sources on Google

Add The Local as a preferred Google source to prioritize its articles in search results and support independent journalism.
San Francisco
fromMission Local
2 months ago

I be thinkin'

Joe Eskenazi is a San Francisco-born, Berkeley-educated journalist and editor with extensive Bay Area reporting experience and a 2019 Journalist of the Year award.
#local-news
fromNieman Lab
2 months ago
Media industry

Many people who live in "local news deserts" don't feel deprived of local news, study finds

fromNieman Lab
2 months ago
Media industry

Many people who live in "local news deserts" don't feel deprived of local news, study finds

Canada news
fromFast Company
2 months ago

This whole city block got an indigenous redesign

An Indigenous-led Toronto development integrates traditional healing, cultural design, housing, job training, and public spaces to reflect Indigenous traditions and community-led planning.
World news
fromPrx
2 months ago

The World

Jimmy Lai sentenced to 20 years; Milan Cortina bans PFAS ski wax; Sanae Takaichi won snap election; Albania reviews 45 years of Hoxha films.
Real estate
fromArchDaily
2 months ago

What Informality and Incrementality Reveal About Sustainable Urbanism in India

Indian urban growth reveals an invisible order where informal settlements embody layered, enduring urban histories that call for reinterpretation rather than standardized correction.
fromInc
2 months ago

How to Create a Social Listening Tool In 3 Easy Steps

You don't need to pay for expensive software tools in order to analyze what people are saying about your brand online, according to Jazmin Griffith, the founder of social listening agency Que Lo Que. Social listening, or the act of tracking customer sentiment through social media comments and posts, is an important practice for any business with an online presence. "There's a lot of data out there," John Box, the CEO of Meltwater, a SaaS platform that provides social listening services, previously told Inc.
Social media marketing
Pets
fromPortland Mercury
1 month ago

Circles Of Life

Created a backyard habitat attracting diverse birds, managed predators and pests, and faced challenges with aggressive squirrels, a hawk, and neighborhood cats.
Mental health
fromPsychology Today
2 months ago

What Does 'Care' Mean During Times of Social Instability?

Care is fluid and adaptive; emotional signals like anger, numbness, and fatigue indicate needs and limits, and individual care requires collective support for survival.
UX design
fromArchDaily
1 month ago

"Users Are the Experts on Themselves": How People Shape the Spaces They Use

Design should be guided by lived user experience, using research, observation, dialogue, testing, and simulation to prioritize occupants' needs and behaviors.
fromwww.npr.org
2 months ago

Want to be part of a village? You might need to get out of your comfort zone

People say it takes a village to do difficult things: raise a child, sustain a community, build a barn. But we don't often talk a lot about what it takes to be a villager. What does it mean to not just be in a community, but to help create one? Priya Parker, author of The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters, says the key is to put yourself out there, even if it's scary.
Relationships
Higher education
fromwww.mercurynews.com
2 months ago

Opinion: Sociology is taking it on the chin. Here's how we can preserve this critical field of study.

Sociology faces politicized attacks, curricular exclusion, and erosion of departmental standing despite teaching critical thinking, inequality analysis, interdisciplinary synthesis, and scrutiny of power.
Social justice
fromMedium
1 month ago

Practice notes on including citizens in the design process

Citizens must be enabled to shape decisions, define problems, and co-create public services through participatory practices that redistribute agency and build trust.
Public health
fromMedium
3 months ago

PostCOVID user research needs a revised safeguarding plan

Safeguarding must cover logistical and wellbeing risks—infection, travel, lone working, fatigue, and sick leave—because these directly affect research quality and ethics.
Science
fromNature
2 months ago

Daily briefing: Scientists delve into the smells of history

Researchers recreate historical smells and use imaging, AI, and biomedical advances to probe heritage, ancient human timelines, medical rescue devices, and rare-disease genetics.
US news
fromNieman Lab
2 months ago

ICE activity is pushing readers to nonprofit news sites that cover immigrant communities

ICE deportation actions drive major spikes in local and nonprofit news site traffic, especially among outlets covering targeted immigrant communities.
Marketing
fromDigiday
2 months ago

Gale agency study on emerging media encourages marketers to tap more deeply into communities

Community-driven social platforms enable stronger brand marketing outcomes by increasing attention, trust, and word-of-mouth conversion potential.
fromThedrum
2 months ago

Hyper-local measurement to optimise catalogue effectiveness

They were trying to get to the bottom of how to diminish catalogue distribution without having a negative impact on store and online sales. They were also keen to define the geographic areas where digital content would work best and how to profile those areas to classify digital purchase behaviour. Together with Analytic Partners they were able to uncover opportunities to eliminate 22% of catalogues with negligible sales impact and increasing digital support in high-performing topologies, preserving€ 294 million in sales.
Marketing tech
fromPrx
1 month ago

The World

The US Supreme Court has struck down much of the Trump administration's tariffs on foreign goods, which have been a cornerstone of its trade and foreign policies. Also, Iran prepares for a possible US military strike. And, the International Energy Agency has removed climate change from its list of priorities for the next two years, following threats from the US
World news
Media industry
fromPoynter
2 months ago

When local news disappears, people turn to social media feeds, influencers and gossip - Poynter

Residents in U.S. news deserts rely slightly more on social media and other nonjournalistic sources than on local news organizations for local information.
Data science
fromNature
2 months ago

How to stop the survey-taking AI chatbots that threaten to upend social science

Online survey recruitment faces widespread inauthentic and automated responses, increasingly amplified by AI agents, threatening data validity.
UX design
fromMedium
1 month ago

Field study: prototypes over mockups

Engineering handoff occurs through PRs using runnable prototypes that reuse the design system components and tokens, enabling engineers to reuse components and reference prototype code.
Public health
fromState of the Planet
1 month ago

Leveraging Risk Communications to Bridge Tribal Voices

Culturally grounded, partnership-based, multi-directional disaster communication systems can reduce Tribal Nations' household, livestock and land disruptions from extreme weather.
Science
fromNature
2 months ago

To gain public trust, make art central to science communication

Art-science collaborations should be supported and normalised to communicate science, strengthen public trust, and develop researchers' observational, creative, and empathetic skills.
Social justice
fromNature
2 months ago

My professor said 'Black people are not interested in the environment'. I set out to prove him wrong

Dorceta Taylor pioneered research, programs, and leadership to document and advance racial diversity, inclusion, and environmental justice within environmental science and conservation.
Philosophy
fromPsychology Today
1 month ago

Neighbors, It's Time to Make a Stand

Universal conviction in one's own righteousness divides humanity, while accelerating evolutionary mismatch from our technology-created world remains our shared existential problem.
UX design
fromBig Think
2 months ago

The key to understanding what clients really need

Observing how people actually work and jury-rig solutions reveals latent needs that conventional research misses, enabling breakthrough product innovations.
fromPsychology Today
2 months ago

How Can We Change the World?

There's a myth in our society that real change requires force, strength, and domination. We celebrate athletes, CEOs, and politicians who crush their opponents. But history tells a different story. Lasting social change has often been triggered by humble people whose weapons were passion, principle, and an unwavering commitment to justice and the truth - not the truth we see on TV or read in print media, but rather the truth that we feel deep inside ourselves.
Social justice
Science
fromFuturism
2 months ago

Scientists Suddenly Discover That Cow Tools Are Real

A cow spontaneously selected, adjusted, and used a broom handle to scratch itself, demonstrating tool use and suggesting cattle possess underestimated cognitive abilities.
fromMedium
7 months ago

Who are we designing for now?

AI is disrupting more than the software industry, and is doing so at a breakneck speed. Not long ago, designers were deep in Figma variables and pixel-perfect mockups. Now, tools like v0, Lovable, and Cursor are enabling instant, vibe-based prototyping that makes old methods feel almost quaint. What's coming into sharper focus isn't fidelity, it's foresight. Part of the work of Product Design today is conceptual: sensing trends, building future-proof systems, and thinking years ahead.
UX design
fromInside Higher Ed | Higher Education News, Events and Jobs
2 months ago

We Need to Revitalize Area Studies (opinion)

Just before winter break, news broke that the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill plans to close its centers for African, Asian, European, Middle Eastern, Latin American and Slavic, Eurasian and East European studies. Though UNC administrators said in a statement that decisions on closures are not finalized, they confirmed they are evaluating centers and institutes as part of a budget-cutting effort in response to state and federal funding changes.
Higher education
Science
fromNature
1 month ago

Why we don't really know what the public thinks about science

Public understanding of science is limited because measures focus on factual literacy; researchers must broaden evaluation to include institutional knowledge and lived scientific experiences.
fromApaonline
2 months ago

Threading the Needle: Can We Respect Local Knowledge While Resisting Misinformation?

It's common knowledge that we are awash in misinformation that can have severe negative consequences for society. When people hold false beliefs about the safety of vaccines, the outcomes of elections, or the causes of climate change, it is much more difficult for them to make responsible decisions on behalf of their families and communities. It is tempting to respond to this challenge by insisting that expert scientists know best and to dismiss those who challenge the experts.
Philosophy
Philosophy
fromArchDaily
1 month ago

When Do Buildings Begin to Matter? Rethinking Heritage in Local Time

Global heritage systems prioritize longevity and material authenticity rooted in European slow-growth models, disadvantaging rapidly changing cities where cultural time operates unevenly.
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