The TERRITORIES final event took place on 12-14 November 2019 in Aix-en-Provence (France). There were around 75 participants, including the SHARE president, Dr. Susan Molyneux-Hodgson from Exeter University, and other SHARE members (Dr. Deborah Oughton, NMBU; Dr. Catrinel Turcanu, SCK·CEN, etc). During the event, SHARE members had the opportunity to discuss two final project deliverables that are being prepared which include recommendations related to post-accident situations and NORM contaminated sites.
As part of the conclusions session, the SHARE president pointed out that TERRITORIES demonstrated for the first time the inclusion of SSH in the radiological field through the socio-technical integration research (STIR). The presentation from Prof. Susan Molyneux-Hodgson can be downloaded here.
SHARE researchers, under the leadership of Dr. Michiel Van Oudheusden (now affiliated as Marie Skłodowska-Curie research fellow at University of Cambridge), showed that this method is possible and it is useful in the field of radiation protection. The SHARE president questioned whether the results are evident in the final deliverables. The STIR method was satisfying for those who took part, but the results did not appear to be visible in the project deliverables. The ‘traditional’ SSH methods were also applied successfully in the Territories, for instance the media content analysis (under the leadership of Dr. Tanja Perko, SCK•CEN and University of Antwerp) and semi-structured interviews (under the leadership of Dr. Bieke Abelshausen, SCK•CEN and University of Ghent). They empirically proved that stakeholder views are not always in accordance with the assumptions. SSH researchers need to systematically question assumptions about stakeholderrs. There is a need to ensure that the appropriate SSH expertise is utilised, dr. Susan Molyneux-Hodgson, the SHARE president, stressed to all TERRITORIES partners.
Further information at: https://territories.eu/