Research Clusters Spur Productive Collaboration in a Fast-changing World

One important aspect of CityU’s strategic plan has been to identify a number of overarching research themes that bring together scholars and experts from different disciplines.

In identifying these areas, the aim is to spur productive interdisciplinary collaboration, thereby enhancing the University’s ability to address wide-ranging academic questions, but also to respond to the very real challenges facing society at large in a fast-changing and ever more connected world.

The basic brief for each area is to make an impact through ideas, innovations and publications, as well as providing a sustainable, long-term agenda for teaching and related outreach activities.

In line with the University’s strategy, the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS) has established three research clusters, namely One Health, Digital Society, and Smart City. Faculty members are shaping the direction of interdisciplinary research initiatives and showing why such an approach has become essential.

Tackling Health Issues Through an Interdisciplinary Approach
Coincidentally, COVID-19 serves as a good example. It is an animal-based disease which jumped the species barrier to infect humans. That has happened before, this time, though, it has led to a global pandemic, with all the additional complications that inevitably ensue.

“The problem is that, in a situation like this, public health and veterinary science only get you so far,” says Dr Nicholas THOMAS, convenor of the One Health cluster. “There are also the cultural, political and economic components. You must be able to manage and understand the social and cultural behaviours, and that is where the social sciences fit in.”

Safeguarding public health therefore requires an integrated approach not just to implement the right measures, but also to ensure effective communication and contend with the knock-on effects.

“The cluster acts as a catalyst for new ideas between departments and then later with colleagues in other schools and colleges to spark new projects,” Thomas says. “The very cool thing is that we are bringing people together and looking at the same problems from different perspectives.”

With COVID-19, he notes, it is immediately obvious that countries around the world have handled the outbreak in contrasting ways. These differences come down to policy choices that arise from the political and social systems in which they are embedded. And it means that successfully addressing any disease requires something more than biomedical and technical expertise.

More Than Just Medicine
Also required is a better understanding of the way economics, politics and culture impact on decisions about public health. These social elements are a key factor in eliminating diseases, especially when it involves people adopting new behaviours such as wearing masks, adhering to quarantine regulations, or being subject to contact tracing.

With this in mind, one current research project is looking into how public health messages are developed and whether they should be text-based or infographic. A second is considering how trust in government shapes people’s behaviour when it comes to health. And others are set to examine responses to COVID-19 in Southeast Asia and the extent to which cultural and political attitudes determined the different approaches taken in China and India.

“Overall, a One Health approach that encompasses biomedical and veterinary sciences alongside social sciences allows for the development of more successful interventions than medicine alone can bring,” Thomas says. “If you don’t have this kind of understanding, things start to fall down.”

An ongoing series of seminars will further develop these themes, combining discussion of policy initiatives with topics like antimicrobial resistance. Attention will also centre on Hong Kong’s position as an “epidemiological crossroads”. The city’s population gets the developed world’s typical respiratory diseases and cancers. But it can also be hit by the non-developed world’s dengue fever, malaria, SARS and bird flu.

Besides developing good health strategies, clear protocols, and resilience to respond to the disease, Thomas adds that people must also be ready for the mental health aspect and the possibility of businesses going under. “This non-medical side has been an important part of dealing with infectious diseases since the 1300s,” he says.

“There is also a longer-term plan to offer a minor in One Health drawing on health-related courses offered in different departments across the College. This will be a pedagogical platform that will support the research work being undertaken in this field. It is envisaged that this will benefit not only students in CLASS but also students from disciplines across the University.”

The Digital Revolution and Changing Behaviour
The concepts and changes being studied by the Digital Society cluster are similarly intriguing. The arrival of the digital age has already had an enormous impact on many facets of daily life. But the group wants to examine where these innovations are taking us and, in particular, to gain a more thorough understanding of the evolving relationship between technology and people. This, of course, is one of the most pressing issues facing society today.

“As humanities and social sciences scholars, we’re interested in the disruption to society caused by digital technology,” says Dr TSUI Lik-hang, convenor of the Digital Society cluster. “We’ve been doing related research all along, but this new initiative will foster a dialogue across disciplines.”

The initial plan is to concentrate on three specific areas. The first is digital research methodologies and how best to carry out different kinds of inquiry using online data or the cloud rather than traditional methods. Next is digital citizenship, looking at how the average person in current times has become so reliant on devices and absorbed by social media, with fake news and trivia often subverting everyday discourse.

And the third is the digital platform and shifts in culture, for example how e-wallets and online interactions are changing business and behaviours, and how the availability of digital tools is altering our approach to the arts and humanities.

“We will look at this from multifaceted angles, not just paint a rosy picture or be Luddites and say it is ruining the world,” Tsui says. “Experts in humanities and social sciences adopt a more nuanced view and, no matter the answers, realise we will be living with the consequences.”

The cluster already includes scholars specialising in applied linguistics, communication studies, and translation plus an historian and an urban geographer. In terms of conducting research from digital sources, one of their early challenges is to consider how the technical experts should be “training” the computers to digitise and analyse books and newspapers, and what kinds of algorithms to use.

“I deal with a lot of published sources, so what’s interesting for me is how we turn written materials into digital data,” Tsui says. “It requires a lot of human intervention and scholarly knowledge. We recognise it is about these technologies, but we also have to direct attention to what we deem to be really important and meaningful.”

Dealing with Big Data and Information Overload
At one level, the positives include being able to cover a lot more ground than previously, with keyword searches, computational analysis, and much more data at one’s disposal. However, the broader negatives of all these developments are starting to become more obvious, with an overload of information – and who controls it – creating new challenges for educators and society in general.

“As scholars in humanities and social sciences, we are not interested in faster computers or better technologies in themselves, but more in reflecting on their repercussions,” Tsui says. “It is important to ask questions about how they are influencing and shaping our daily lives.”

To that end, one of the first initiatives of the cluster is to offer appropriate training for faculty members and doctoral researchers not yet fully familiar with all the technical wizardry now available. At the same time, dates and agendas will be finalised for a first round of events, which are expected to include roundtable discussions with eminent overseas speakers, seminars on the potential of e-research, and deeper analysis of how digital tools will change the humanities.

Smart Cities and Better Living
The work of the Smart City cluster will be similarly farsighted, but addressing a quite distinct set of challenges. Their main task is to study how factors like urban planning, environmental concerns, sustainable energy, government regulation and high-tech innovation are transforming the way city dwellers around the world will live and work.

“The team’s current mix of planners, architects, engineers, geographers, economists and policy analysts lends unique research strength and expertise,” says Professor ZHANG Xiaoling, convenor of the Smart City cluster. “Our aim is to evolve urban intelligence associated with optimising and enhancing operations, functions, services, strategies and policies in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.”

The ultimate goal is to build an interdisciplinary, international training base for the best talent in Hong Kong and beyond to design better cities. That will mean looking at the prospects for everything from transport systems and autonomous vehicles to renewable energy, smart offices and robots about the house.

“We will work on smart city theory and technology and are committed to cutting-edge excellence,” Zhang says. “This will include spatio-temporal analysis, low-carbon and recycling projects, green branding, and understanding changes in the industrial and urban metabolism.”

Combining Different Perspectives
For future research, three major trends have already been identified. One is quality improvement of urban big data, as an important basis for further analysis. Another is the emergence of smart cities in developing countries like China, with different priorities and alternative models for co-operation between government and private enterprise. A third is the integration of technologies such as geographic information systems, radio frequency identification, and building information modelling – and what citizens actually think of them.

“The key is to try and make people’s lives more convenient,” says Zhang, noting that seminars every two months will invite international experts to discuss their findings. These forums allowing regular contact will help foster synergy and create a sense of teamwork among participants from around the globe. “We want to imagine the future urban landscape and the extent to which and to what end citizens’ lives will change. If possible, we also hope to dig out any correlation between smart cities and happiness.”

As with most projects nowadays, one of the first tasks was to set up a user-friendly website to introduce the cluster’s objectives and meet the basic needs of students, researchers and other potential stakeholders. This platform will make it easier to share resources, highlight notable achievements, and update information about contacts and conferences.

“Interdisciplinary study is all about the synthesis of ideas and characteristics from many subject areas,” Zhang says. “Our approach provides a thematically consistent way of bringing together different perspectives to inspire meaningful learning and stimulate creative thinking.”

By forming these clusters, CityU CLASS is intent on providing new impetus for research that is sure to resonate far beyond the world of academia. It will be fascinating to see where it takes us in the years ahead.