Testing Reflexive Practitioner Dialogues: Capacities for Socio-Technical Integration in Meditation Research

Over the last two decades, policies and research programs advancing socio-technical integration have been introduced across the globe to incorporate societal considerations into research and development practices. In consequence, technoscientific practitioners find themselves in a tension between taking responsibility to respond to ethical and societal issues while operating in wider institutional and political structures which enable and constrain their agency. We study practitioners’ capacities for navigating this tension through reflexive engagement with socio-technical integration. We focus on mindfulness researchers because they actively pursue integrative activities to maintain their hybrid role identity. They perceive frictions between their scientific and their contemplative selves within the new public management regime in the academy. We examine how they enact various forms of socio-technical integration in work-related decision-making to engage with these frictions. In two online workshops, we invited mindfulness researchers to collaboratively engage with impending decisions in reflexive practitioner dialogues guided by the decision protocol of Socio-Technical-Integration Research (STIR) and conducted follow-up interviews about their experiences thereof. Our data set comprises eight files, among which there are four types of transcripts pertaining to each workshop: transcripts of (1) online workshops, (2) practitioner dialogues (also referred to as reflection exercises), (3) interviews, (4) STIR decision grids. We completed the decision grids based on audio-recorded practitioner dialogues in preparation for the interviews.近二十年来，全球范围内陆续推出了推进社会技术整合（Socio-Technical Integration）的政策与研究计划，旨在将社会层面的考量纳入研发实践之中。由此，技术科学从业者陷入了一种两难张力之中：一方面需肩负起回应伦理与社会议题的责任，另一方面又需在更广泛的制度与政治结构中开展工作——这些结构既赋予其行动能动性，也对其构成约束。本研究聚焦于从业者借助反思性参与社会技术整合来应对这一张力的能力。我们选取正念研究者作为研究对象，因其为维系自身兼具双重属性的角色身份，会主动开展各类整合性实践活动。在学界的新公共管理体制下，他们能察觉到自身在科学属性与静观特质之间存在的内在摩擦与冲突。本研究旨在探究他们如何在工作相关的决策过程中践行多种形式的社会技术整合，以此来应对这些内在冲突。我们开展了两场线上工作坊，邀请正念研究者参与由社会技术整合研究（Socio-Technical-Integration Research，STIR）决策规程引导的反思性从业者对话，共同探讨待决决策问题，并针对他们的参与体验开展了后续访谈。本数据集共包含8份文件，对应两场工作坊的四类转录文本：(1) 线上工作坊转录文本，(2) 从业者对话（亦称为反思练习）转录文本，(3) 访谈转录文本，(4) STIR决策网格转录文本。我们结合从业者对话的音频记录完成了决策网格的填写，以此为后续访谈做好筹备。