The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations

TIHR is a social science research, consultancy and training organisation that applies social science ideas and methods to problems of policy and practice, change and innovation, and organisational design. A distinctive feature of the Institute’s work is its focus on social, organisational and policy dynamics through action research, formative evaluation, cross-national research, consultancy, and leadership and management training all in service of supporting sustainable change and ongoing learning. TIHR staff come from a broad cross-section of disciplines, including political science, sociology, psychology, anthropology, psychotherapy, and organisational studies.

TIHR contributes with knowledge based on the following specific research and work priorities:

  • Impact assessment
  • Case studies
  • Ethics

Role in the project

In EmerGent, TIHR is leading the effort in work package 2 (WP2) – starting with leading the review of current approaches of impact measurement applicable to social media (T2.1), leading the impact assessment of social media in emergencies for both EMS (T2.2) and citizens (T2.3) via a selection and analysis of case study exemplars, as well as contributing to the enhancement of EMS’ work practices (T2.4) and to workshops to gather feedback from experts (T2.5). Otherwise, TIHR will contribute substantially to WP3 and WP4, including the analysis of the current use of social media in emergencies (T3.1) and contributing to the functional definition of requirements (T3.4), the analysis of potentials for citizen involvement in EMC through social media (T3.5) and the potential for embedding social media in improved EMS work practices (T3.6). It would also contribute to the definition and categorisation of social media data sources (T4.3) and have a substantial involvement in WP7, including the dissemination and exploitation activities planning (T7.1, T7.4), the actual dissemination of results (T7.2) and in drawing up guidelines to increase the benefit of the use of social media in emergencies in future (T7.3).

Contact

Joe Cullen, jcullen@arcola-research.co.uk
Thomas Spielhofer, t.spielhofer@tavinstitute.org

WWW: www.tavinstitute.org