Those who seek change – grassroots activists, policymakers, researchers, nonprofit managers, community members – share much in common: they need to work with others and they need to strategize about what to do. While they each bring valuable expertise to understanding the problems they care about, no single individual knows everything they need to know to develop effective strategy.
In short, expertise often does not become useful for solving problems in civic life on its own. Rather, it becomes useful when people choose to and feel comfortable sharing their expertise in conversation with others. Yet there’s a big catch: valuable new collaborative relationships often do not arise on their own.
In this talk, based on his forthcoming book, Adam Seth Levine will unpack why not, and what we can do about it. Ultimately, his goal is use-inspired basic research: advancing understanding about the science of collaboration in civic life, while also providing actionable guidance for those who seek change and want to foster new relationships themselves.
Adam Seth Levine is the SNF Agora Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management in the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins. He has published research findings in a variety of journals, as well as in one book entitled “American Insecurity,” published by Princeton University Press. His second book, tentatively entitled Collaborate Now! How Expertise Becomes Useful in Civic Life, is forthcoming. He is also the president and co-founder of research4impact, a nonprofit that creates powerful new collaborative relationships between researchers, practitioners, and policymakers.
