Relevance Paradox
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The Relevance Paradox occurs where individual, professionals or groups of professionals are unaware of certain essential information which would guide them to better decisions, and help avoid inevitable, unintended and undesirable consequences, but lacking the information, they don't see its relevance so don't seek it. Affected persons will only seek the information and advice they think they need as opposed to what they actually need to meet their own or the organisations goals.
For example a Civil Engineers from the 1950s onwards unwittingly caused an increase in the debilitating water borne infection schistosomiasis (Bilharzia) for locals as a result of irrigation schemes not having simple low cost counter-measures built in. UN guidelines had been published in the 1960s describing cheap control measures that could be built-in to the structures of the irrigation schemes.
The Civil Engineers were victims of the relevance paradox to the extent they only thought they need to know about concrete, water flows etc. Not how to restrict velocities to prevent the snail species which carried the disease from multiplying.
Other examples include the NASA engineers who having spent a fortune on unsuccessfully developing the complex sliding and articulating inside knee joint needed for space suits eventually went to the Tower of London and ruefully copied the armour of Henry the Eighth with just such a joint – stating “we wish we had known about this earlier!”
(See 8b. Andrews, D. (1986) Information routing groups – Towards the global superbrain: or how to find out what you need to know rather than what you think you need to know, Journal of Information Technology, 1, 1, Feb, 22-35. Page 28 references communication from Keeper of Royal Armouries on this point.
Or the astonishing and not widely appreciated fact that the UK wastes heat from power stations equal to the entire import of natural gas for heating, which is an amazing example of the relevance paradox and hierarchical incompetence of particular relevance 30 years on now that fears are growing about inadequate reserves of natural gas.
Thus the “Relevance Paradox” can and does apply to entire professional groups and individuals in numerous ways.
The notions of IRGs or Information Routing_Groups and Interlock research are desigined to counter this paradox by the promotion of lateral communication and the flow of Tacit knowledge.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
1. "Beyond Mass Media" Brian Martin. Science, Technology and Society University of Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia. General discussion of the IRG concept(http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/pubs/95metro.html).
2. The Power Of Open Participatory Media And Why Mass Media Must Be Abandoned. Brian Martin, March 20, 2006. General discussion of the IRG concept http://www.masternewmedia.org/news/2006/03/20/the_power_of_open_participatory.htm
3. The IRG Solution - Hierarchical Incompetence and how to overcome it. David Andrews. Souvenir Press, London, 1984. Pages 200 - 220. isbn 0285 626620. Page 88 - 89 - desctription of symposium attended by engineers where this problem became apparent.
4. The Hidden Manager Communication technology and information networks in business organizations. Taylor Graham Cambridge / Los Angeles,1986. David Andrews and John Kent. Much tighter description of IRG concept and its application to business management. ISBN 0 947568 15 8 1986
4a. Mogens Niss Professor of Mathematics and Mathematics Education IMFUFA, Roskilde University, Denmark "Om folkeskolelaereruddanelsen i det vigtige fag matematik" in Peter Bollerslev (ed.): "Den ny matematik i Danmark - en essaysamling", Copenhagen, Gyldendal, 1979, pp107-122. The relevance paradox is defined on p. 111.
5. Niss, M. (1994) Mathematics in Society. In Biehler, R., Scholz, R. W., Straesser, R., Winkelmann, B. Eds. (1994) The Didactics of Mathematics as a Scientific Discipline. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 367-378. Relevance paradox
5a. MATHEMATICAL COMPETENCIES AND THE LEARNING OF MATHEMATICS: THE DANISH KOM PROJECT. Page 2 - Relevance paradox Mogens Niss IMFUFA, Roskilde University, P.O. BOX 260, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark mn@mmf.ruc.dk
6. Energy Research Group, Open University. Communication Within the Agriculture, Water, Waste and Energy Industries. Discussed examples of how the industries mentioned can be integrated to a greater or lesser degree, leading to lower pollution and energy use. Emphasizes problem is lack of co-ordination and communication. DC Andrews. ERG 033. Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, England 1980. David Andrews
6. "The Importance of Knowing the Right People" (Article on Lateral Access Networks - the forerunner of Information Routing Groups. Printed in the Guardian Newspaper, London (The National Newspaper) March 20th 1980. Raised issue of irrigation schemes casuing bilarzia becasue engineers were unaware of it and the UN guidlines.
8. Energy Research Group, Open University . Information Routing Groups. Discussed the need for IRGs and how they might be organized. DC Andrews. ERG 037. Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, England 1980. David Andrews
8a Library Association Record to a seminar run jointly by IEE and the LA on 'Biblionic man', held at the IEE on 26 November 1980
8b. Andrews, D. (1986) Information routeing groups – Towards the global superbrain: or how to find out what you need to know rather than what you think you need to know, Journal of Information Technology, 1, 1, Feb, 22-35. details of lateral referral, diffusion.
9. Yewlett, J . L . Town Planning, Wales, Institute. of Science & Technology . "Networks : Developments in theory & practice" . The paper reviews developments in the U .S .A. & U .K . in recent years, progressing beyond network analysis to explore the structure & use of networks. The paper seeks to address questions of how to construct multi-actor policy structures, & build networks for particular purposes. Contributory concepts explored included the 'Reticulist', the 'Leader/Co- ordinator', the 'Segmented Polycephalous Network' & the 'Information Routing Group' 10. Charnock, Anne (1980) Taking Bilharziasis out of the irrigation equation. New Civil Engineer, 7 August. Bilharzia caused by poor civil engineering design due to ingnorance of cause and prevention.
