This blog is part of a showcase of exhibits from South Asian think tanks participating in the Think Tank Initiative’s Policy Engagement and Communications (PEC) programme. You may view other entries on the PEC Showcase Overview Page. 

Is your research locked into rigid forms like books and reports that are stable and occupy space? Has it become a commodity to be disseminated? How can you organize your research evidence into streams of value that generate meaning and have enduring living properties?

At the start of the Policy Engagement and Communication (PEC) programmme, the Centre for Studying Developing Societies (CSDS) was planning on identifying new engagement opportunities for one of its research projects, Indian Youth and Electoral Politics. The research was completed in 2011 and published as a book in 2014.

Upon reading the book, it was clear that the research theme was very relevant, engaging and had the power to influence many related themes such as citizenship. However, its potential to reach new audiences was hidden given its form as a book was limiting. Therefore CSDS’s challenge was to mine the data buried in the book and convert and organize this data into insights, ideas, concepts, core arguments, and opportunities for engaging potential audiences. This process turned into mining for mobility, not messaging with the assumption grounded in the belief that shifts in perception and meaning would arise when evidence was mobilized and iterated just-in-time for resonance and receptivity. The book was then mapped and synthesized to identify patterns, relationships and insights. Data boards were developed and shared with the research team. The content was organized as central and associated ideas to develop a coherent story. In addition, a visual was produced by accessing meaningful data hidden among the pages of the book.

The exhibit from CSDS is a suite of related images that illustrate the work-in-progress between January and July 2014. The exhibit includes a photo of one of the maps from the research synthesis, the graphic that shows how the data is organized and the visual. The process, concept and products development involved CSDS and the facilitator Susan Koshy.

Showcase exhibit #1: View CSDS infographic – Organisation of content as central and associated ideas
Showcase exhibit #2: View CSDS Infographic for Visualising data from value streams
Showcase exhibit #3: View CSDS research synthesis map

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This post has been produced as part of the Think Tank Initiative’s Policy Engagement and Communications (PEC) programme. However, these are the author’s personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect those of TTI. You can find all ongoing outputs related to this project via the PEC mini-site on Research to Action. To get updates from the PEC programme and be part of the discussion sign-up to our RSS or email updates. You can also follow our progress via Twitter using the following hashtag #ttipec.

Feature image courtesy of Susan Koshy.