1st Edition
Perspectives on Research Assessment in Architecture, Music and the Arts Discussing Doctorateness
Research in the creative fields of architecture, design, music and the arts has experienced dynamic development for over two decades. The research in these practice- and arts-based fields has become increasingly mature but has also led to various discussions on what constitutes doctoral proficiency in these fields. The term ‘doctorateness’ is often used when referring to the assessment of the production of doctoral research and the research competence of research students, but in architecture and the arts, the concept of doctorateness has not yet attained a clearly articulated definition. The assessment of quality has been practiced by way of supervising, mentoring and the evaluation of dissertations but much less discussed.
This book offers perspectives on how to qualify and assess research in architecture, music and the arts. It creates a broader arena for discussion on doctorateness by establishing a framework for its application to creative fields. The book is grouped into three sections and includes contributions from international experts in the various fields working in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, the Netherlands and the UK. The first section offers general frameworks for further conceptualising doctorateness in the fields in question. It is followed by a section that describes and discusses various experiences, concerns and visions on the production and assessment of doctoral research reporting from doctoral programmes in different stages of development. The third section includes future-oriented perspectives on knowledge-building processes, and asks how the ongoing, profound changes in academia could influence the concept of quality in both doctoral process and product.
The book presents different perspectives on research assessment practices and developments of relevant criteria in the practice-based and creative fields of architecture and the arts. The contributions propose ways of framing this issue conceptually, show the need for awareness of the specific context and tradition programmes develop and give proposals for various potential trajectories for the future.
The Art of Assessment: Focusing Research Assessment from Different Perspectives (Halina Dunin-Woyseth, Nel Janssens and Fredrik Nilsson), Part I: Framing "Doctorateness", 1. Doctorateness: Where Should We Look for Evidence? (Michael Biggs), 2. Emerging Epistemic Communities and Cultures of Evidence: On the Practice of Assessment of Research in the Creative Fields (Halina Dunin-Woyseth and Fredrik Nilsson), 3. Setting the Scene: The Development of Formal Frameworks for Doctorates in Europe (Anne Solberg), Part II: Various Experiences, Cases and Concerns, 4. Criteria for "Doctorateness" in the Creative Fields: A Focus on Architecture (Oya Atalay Franck), 5. Preserving Openness in Design Research in Architecture (Murray Fraser), 6. Design Practice Research in Architecture and Design at RMIT University: Discovery, Reflection and Assessment (Colin Fudge and Adriana Partal), 7. Doctoral Scholarship in Popular Music Performance (Tor Dybo), 8. Exploring, Enhancing and Evaluating Musical ‘Doctorateness’: Perspectives on Performance and Composition (Karen Burland, Michael Spencer and Luke Windsor), 9. Constructing Publics as a Key to Doctoral Research. A Discussion of Two PhD Projects Engaging in Societal Issues with Artistic and Design-Based Methods (Liesbeth Huybrechts and Marijn van de Weijer), Part III: Doctorateness to Come?, 10.Non-Observational Research: A Possible Future Route for Knowledge Acquisition in Architecture and the Arts (Nel Janssens and Gerard de Zeeuw), 11. When Will it Thunder? (Rolf Hughes), 12. Precision: The Compositional Accuracy of Artistic Judgement (Catharina Dyrssen)
Biography
Fredrik Nilsson is Professor of Architectural Theory and Head of the Department of Architecture at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden.
Halina Dunin-Woyseth is Professor Emerita at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design, Norway, where she was the founding head of the doctoral programme.
Nel Janssens is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Architecture at KU Leuven, Campus Sint-Lucas, Brussels, Belgium, and visiting scholar in the Department of Architecture at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden.
