All Institute

05/12/202206/10/2023

Developing a Sustainable, Needs-based Roadmap for Social and Assistive Robots for Older Care

Social Technologies

Symposium

Authors: Louise Veling is a Senior Post-Doctoral Researcher with the Horizon 2020 SHAPES Project as part of the Assisted Living and Learning (ALL) Institute / Department of Engineering at Maynooth University. Rudi Villing is a Lecturer with the School of Engineering at Maynooth University, Programme Director of the BSc in Robotics & Intelligence Devices, member of the Hamilton Institute and associate director of the Assisted Living and Learning (ALL) institute.

Left to Right Rudi Villing, Louise Veling — Rudi Villing and Louise Veling

Few people would dispute the importance of centring older people’s needs when it comes to developing assistive technologies. For assistive robots, this is even more important. As in other fields, within robotics and human-robot interaction (HRI) research, older people are often subject to stereotypical representations and ageist attitudes. Assistive robots are also still in their infancy, with few yet deployed in practice, so there is still some distance to go before robots make it out of the lab and into the real world. What they will be capable of and how they will be used is still in a process of negotiation.

05/12/202205/12/2022

Is Social Sustainability the Forgotten Pillar of Sustainable Development?

Social Structures

Symposium

Author: Ruth O’Reilly, Senior Built Environment Design Advisor, Centre for Excellence in Universal Design, National Disability Authority

Here at the Centre for Excellence in Universal Design, we often use this quotation from the designer, Victor Papanek, to explain the focus of our work:

The only important thing about design is how it relates to people

Quotation 'The only important thing about design is how it relates to people' alongside an image of a book with the title Design for the Real Workld, by Victor Papanek. — Figure 1: Quotation from Design for the Real World by Victor Papenek (1971)

A key tenet of Universal Design is that good design works well for everyone. Sometimes however, it seems that social sustainability is the forgotten pillar of sustainable development. How can we persuade designers that taking a Universal Design approach – designing for all people, regardless of their age, size, ability or disability – is a key element of sustainable development?

05/12/202205/12/2022

The All Institute through a Sustainable Lens: Celebrating the Ideas in ALL blog’s Second Anniversary

Symposium

left to right Hannah Casey, Lea Urzel Francil and Matthew McKenna — Hannah Casey, Léa Urzel Francil and Matthew McKenna

The ALL Institute celebrated its fifth anniversary at the end of November, which also coincided with the second anniversary of its blog – Ideas in ALL–. With this in mind, we, the blog’s editorial team, invited ALL members, as well as its collaborators and close stakeholders to engage with the topic of sustainability and contribute to a dedicated symposium.

Central to the work of ALL is the core ethos of a rights-based, person-centered approach to social inclusion and independent living. The theme of sustainability aligns itself closely with this underpinning vision. As such, the work of ALL comprises a vital nexus between academic research, civil society, lived experience, law and policy. Sustainability represents a core principle of the ALL Institute, and hence of the Ideas in ALL Blog.

05/12/202205/12/2022

Sustainability: What it means and how to practice it.

Social Structures

Symposium

Click for the Audio Version

Author: Cassandra Murphy, PhD researcher in the Psychology Department of Maynooth University, funded by H2020 project GoGreenRoutes, Assisting Living and Learning Institute (ALL)

Cassandra Murphy

I often talk about sustainability in my work being in the realm of environmental psychology. My research explores the human-nature relationship, which inevitably links to pro-environmental behaviour. People often assume pro-environmental behaviour defines sustainability, but sustainability is much more than recycling and planting trees. Through my conversations I have learnt that the term ‘sustainability’ can be perceived differently. We constantly hear about sustainability, in the news, in our emails, in daily conversations; but what does this term really mean? Everyone’s understanding is individual to their lives and their experience. For some they instantly think of the UN Sustainable Development Goals whereas for others it can simply mean having the ability to keep up momentum of what they do each day and not burn themselves out. An all too familiar experience of many after the recent pandemic.

UN Sustainable Development Goals logo.

The most common definition of sustainability comes from the UN World Commission on Environment and Development which says sustainable development means “to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” That’s exactly what it is. Ensuring that throughout our lifetimes we strive to create a world in which we do not take from the generations that come after us, but instead make sure they have what we have, if not better. The future generations should have equal access to the resources we have and be able to benefit from them no matter where they are, or how much money they earn. In a sense, this is the idea that we are leaving no one behind.

05/12/202205/12/2022

Our Journey to the End of the Night… and towards a new future. Happy Birthday Ideas in ALL!

Symposium

Picture of the three ALL Institute Co-Directors in front of a white back drop. From left to right: Deirdre Desmond, Mac MacLachlan, Delia Ferri — *Delia Ferri, Mac MacLachlan, Deirdre Desmond*

Ideas in ALL is two years old! Our blog was set up on 3 December 2020, amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. The blog seeks to engage an audience beyond academic journal readers – it aims to be relevant to a much wider range of stakeholders and to engage with public debate. A crucial element of the Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute’s blog – Ideas in ALL is to empower and give voice to people with disabilities, mental health problems, or chronic illnesses and older people, and their many and varied experiences of positive ageing. We also want those often marginalized from the benefits of mainstream society to feel that they can share ideas here. We strive to ensure that Ideas in ALL is characterized by accessible style, pluralism, openness and appreciation of difference.

05/12/202205/12/2022

Sustainability: What it means and how to practice it.

Sustainability: What it means and how to practice it. Author: Cassandra Murphy. Voiced by Anastasia Campbell

25/11/202206/10/2023

The Impact of the Welfare State on the Working Lives of Disabled Artists: A New Research Project in ALL

Social Structures

Author: Philip Finn, Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute and Post-Doctoral Researcher; recipient of the Irish Research Council Enterprise Partnership Fellowship.

Philip Finn

Life as an artist is precarious, even more so for disabled artists. First, disabled people face higher risks of poverty, social exclusion, and discrimination in their working lives and in public services. Secondly, for many in the arts sector income is sporadic, producing an insecurity necessitating on interim reliance on welfare payments to get by. This is felt acutely by disabled artists, often accessing crucial welfare payments and supports, who receive lower incomes from artistic employment, funding and grants. My research focuses on the role of welfare state payments and wider supports in facilitating or impeding disabled artists’ working lives.

The right to participate in the cultural life of the community is enshrined in a number of international documents, for example the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 27) and the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (Article 15(1)(a)). In relation to the specific needs of people with disabilities Article 30 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities requires States to ‘enable persons with disabilities to have the opportunity to develop and utilize their creative, artistic and intellectual potential’. The Convention is central to elaborating a human rights model of disability underlining the recognition and participation of persons with disabilities in communal life. It necessitates accessibility as both consumers of culture as well as creators.

18/11/202218/11/2022

Blog 2: Getting to the heart of designing research using systems thinking

Stories/Lived Experience

Authors: Bob Williams, Systems Thinking Practitioner, Trainer and Evaluator – Consultant. Joan O’Donnell, Systems Thinking Trainer and PhD Researcher at Maynooth University’s Assisting Living and Learning Institute, Research Funded through the Science Foundation of Ireland (SFI) Centre for Research Training in Advanced Networks for Sustainable Societies (ADVANCE CRT)

Joan O Donnell & Bob Williams

In this blog, we will discuss topics covered during ADVANCE CRT’s Summer School on Systems Thinking at Maynooth University in June 2022. See here for the first blog. It can be read as a discourse around designing research, and you are invited to consider how the questions posed offer an inflection point for your research.

Nobody would deny that research is a complex business. One of the most complex decisions is deciding the focus of your research among the vast range of possibilities that lie within its scope. This blog explores how understanding and addressing three different kinds of complexity can help with that tricky decision. Ontological complexity helps you address the reality you are dealing with; cognitive complexity helps you understand how different people make sense of that reality and praxis complexity helps you decide which parts of ontological and cognitive complexities ought to be inside and outside of your focus.

21/10/202221/10/2022

Blog 1: A feast of new ideas: Systems Thinking in research

Stories/Lived Experiences

Authors: Joan O’Donnell, Systems Thinking Trainer and PhD Researcher at Maynooth University’s Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute, research funded through the Science Foundation of Ireland (SFI) Centre for Research Training in Advanced Networks for Sustainable Societies (ADVANCE CRT) and Bob Williams, Systems Thinking Practitioner, Trainer and Evaluator – Consultant

A picture of Joan O'Donnell, wearing green, smiling, in the brightly lit conference room with a closed bar counter in the background with shutters down, at the Glenroyal Hotel Maynooth. — Joan O Donnell

This blog is the first of a series of blogpost contributions outlining basic Systems Thinking concepts presented at the ADVANCE CRT Summer School that we helped to design in June 2022, held in Maynooth.

‘The Systems Thinking summer school opened up little doors in my mind to paths that had been unexplored previously. It’s like an added tool to my repertoire and if I get back into old ways of thinking and get stuck, I remind myself of that door. It makes exploring topics more exciting also because it’s more of an adventure with this way of thinking’. Ashley Sheil, PhD Scholar, Maynooth University.

The ADVANCE CRT Summer School focusing on Systems Thinking marked the largest and most ambitious event of the Science Foundation of Ireland PhD programme to date. It brought over 60 students and supervisors together for four days in a memorable event that was as much a celebration of being together in physical space as an opportunity to delve deeply into the richness that Systems Thinking offers research.

This introductory blog gives an overview of Systems Thinking and a sense of its importance for transdisciplinary research. It also outlines some of the topics that students experienced during that week.

14/10/202217/10/2022

World Mental Health Day: Reflections on Access to Nature and Mental Health

Social Lives

Author: Ellen Staeglin Tucker, 3rd year BSc psychology intern of Dr Tadhg MacIntyre at Maynooth University

Autumn School on Our Future in Forestry Sustainable Management, Biodiversity and benefits for health nordic irish collaborations and pathways to policy
10-12 October Maynooth University Glenroyal Hotel — Autumn School on Our Future in Forestry

World Mental Health Day takes place on the 10^th of October every year and has been running since 1992. The month of October is also World Mental Health Month. Every year a theme is highlighted around the topic of mental health today, as well as a general aim to spread awareness and gain support. The theme for 2022 is “Make mental health & well-being for all a global priority”. There are two important factors being highlighted this year; 1. the need for everyone, regardless of their circumstances, to have easy access to mental health services, and 2. the prioritisation of mental health and mental health services. For some, professional healthcare is vital to find ways of improvement and recovery, for a lot of people mental health services could go a long way in improving mental health. This is where a lot of the disparity in access lies. However, there are daily activities that nearly everyone can do at home to help improve their mental health.

22/09/202217/10/2022

September 7th, the Publication of the ‘European Care Strategy’: A Brief Appraisal of the European Commission’s Strategic Policy Document

Social Structures

Author: Matthew McKenna, PhD Researcher at Maynooth University’s Assisting Living and Learning Institute (ALL), Research Funded through the Science Foundation of Ireland (SFI) Centre for Research Training in Advanced Networks for Sustainable Societies (ADVANCE CRT)

Matthew McKenna

The highly anticipated publication of the European Commission’s (EC) ‘European Care Strategy’ (ECS/strategy) on the 7^th of September 2022 has been met with cautious optimism and circumspection. Certainly, there is a unanimous agreement that the arrival of this strategy is a welcome policy development. However, last week’s unveiling of the ECS also underlined how long overdue this development has been, and it represents an initial and elemental step in addressing the long-term systemic deficiencies in the European Union’s (EU) approach to the care of its citizens. If one is to view this radical collective change as a physical journey, then the ECS is arguably representative of a social and legal point of embarkation from a policy sense, and it is certainly not a final destination.

15/09/202217/10/2022

What we talk about when we talk about Open Cultural data?

Social Structures

Author: Marta Arisi, is part of the University of Trento team working for the reCreating Europe Project focusing on GLAM.

Marta Arisi

Open cultural data can be considered an umbrella term referring to anytime data from Cultural Heritage Institutions (“CHIs”) is made available without restrictions, e.g., thanks to open licensing (as the Creative Commons). It often refers to online resources that contain descriptions, metadata, images, etc. Thus, open cultural data is also relevant to the field of digitization of cultural heritage.

“Open” stands for the possibility to access the content freely, and- to re-use it. While there is not an accepted definition, useful examples may come from the Open Data Charter or the definition of openness proposed by the Open Knowledge Foundation. Some projects even address the context of CHIs, such as OpenGLAM.

18/08/202217/10/2022

GoGreenRoutes: Malta Summer School’s European Vision

Social Lives

Author: Jack Hilliard, undergraduate, B.A. Psychology student at Maynooth University, working as an Intern under Dr Tadhg MacIntyre and Ph.D. researcher Cassandra Murphy as part of the SPUR (Summer Undergraduate Experimental Research) Programme.

Team Phoenix posing in the Lower Barrakka Gardens in Valletta, Malta.

The Go Green Routes Summer School Malta was an exciting three-day showcase of the consortium’s recent successes, which further integrated the transdisciplinary researchers from across Europe towards the common goal of nature connectedness through 360-health. This broadly aligns with the Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute’s goals of developing appropriate technologies, person-centred systems and evidence-based policies which will empower people towards a greener future. Situated in the historic capital, it was hoped the setting would act as a microcosm for future nature-based solutions (NBS) across the Mediterranean as referred to by the Irish President, Michael D. Higgins.

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