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Producing Shared
Understanding for Digital
and Social Innovation
Bridging Divides with
Transdisciplinary Information Experience
Concepts and Methods
Faye Miller
Producing Shared Understanding for Digital
and Social Innovation
 Faye Miller

Producing Shared
Understanding
for Digital and Social
Innovation
Bridging Divides with
Transdisciplinary Information
Experience Concepts and Methods
Faye Miller
Research and Career Development Consultancy
Human Constellation Pty Ltd
Canberra, Australia

ISBN 978-981-15-7371-2 ISBN 978-981-15-7372-9 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7372-9

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 For Raj

For Maura

In memory of James Alexander Miller

 Contents

1 Prologue 1
Retrofuturistic 1
Three Big Questions 3
How Do We Future Proof Our Digital Lives? 3
How Do We Produce Shared Understanding? 4
How Do We Educate for Responsible Innovation? 5
Eight Invisible Gaps that Need Bridging 8
Making Meaningful Work Across Boundaries 8
Transdisciplinary Collaboration and Competition 9
Human Impact and Responsible Digital Social
Innovation 9
Accessibility and Public Understanding of Social
Science 9
Inclusivity in Innovation 10
Tolerance, Empathy and Polarity in Shared
Understanding 10
Platforms for Transdisciplinary Interaction 10
Moments of Shared Understanding 11

vii
viii Contents

Transdisciplinary Producing 12
Fusionist 15
Analogue Experience Guide 15
Virtual and Augmented Reality Experience Creator 16
Innovation Manager 16
Social Change Agents 17
Co-producing Transdisciplinary Knowledge 18
Shared Understanding for Digital and Social Innovation 19
References 23

Part I Concepts

2 Revealing Transdisciplinary Invisible Work 31

The Makings of a Transdisciplinary Producer 31
Transdisciplinary Experiences and Cultures 36
Knowing the Gaps 37
Imagination and Creativity 38
Listening and Noticing 42
Bridging the Gaps 44
Problem Emergence and Multiple Stakeholders 44
Informed Learning and Personal Change 45
Revealing the Complex Social-Ecological System 47
Challenges for Social Change Agents: Revealing
Transdisciplinary Work 48
References 49

3 Informational Waves 51
Waves Across a Universe 51
Signs of Life 52
Sustainable Resources 55
Approaches 58
Objects 59
Concepts 60
Social-Ecological Information Experiences 61
Life Moments 67
 Contents ix

Movements 68
Self and Audience Awareness 69
Relatable Information 70
Balanced Critique 71
Holistic Approaches 72
Curated Waves 73
Embodied Waves 74
Expanding the Universe 77
Challenges for Change Agents: Understanding
and Creating Informational Waves 81
References 82

4 Transdisciplinary Resonance 85
Re-interpreting Waves 85
The Silver Lined Cloud of Resonance 86
Resonance in Cultural Shifts 87
Resonance Powers Waves 88
Informal Learning for Resonance 90
Common and Nuanced Resonance 91
Resonant Information and Learning Experiences 93
Understanding Yourself for Transdisciplinary Innovation 94
Understanding People for Transdisciplinary Innovation 97
Co-designing for Resonant Information and Learning
Experiences 100
Challenges for Change Agents: Understanding
and Developing Transdisciplinary Resonance 101
References 102

Part II Methods

5 Turning Resonant Waves into Shared Understanding 107

References 108

6 Moments 109
Moments as a Transdisciplinary Method 109
x Contents

Moments as Curated Waves 110

Accidental Moments 111
Chronotopes and Space-Time 112
Raw Moments in Collaboration 113
Translanguage Moments 114
Healing Moments 114
Challenges for Change Agents: Understanding
and Creating Moments 115
References 115

7 Paradoxes 117
Understanding Paradoxical Tensions 117
Paradoxes as a Transdisciplinary Method for Producing
Shared Understanding 120
Working Through Paradoxes 120
Problem: Formulating the Mess 124
Dilemma: Either/Or Thinking 125
Paradox: Discovering the Link with Both/And Thinking 126
Workable Certainty: Negotiated Understanding 127
Culturally Diverse Collaborations for Shared
Understanding 131
Understanding Social Innovation and Sustainable
Development Through Paradoxes 132
Challenges for Change Agents: Understanding
and Navigating Paradoxes 135
References 137

8 Dialogues 139
Sparking Dialogue about Dialogue Mapping 139
References 146

9 Paradigm Shifts Towards Co-producing Shared

Understanding 147
Informational Waves as Creative and Critical Capacity 148
Unifying Bridging Concepts 149
 Contents xi

Producing Shared Understanding as a Creative Model

for Digital and Social Innovation 149
Shared Understanding Brief for Transdisciplinary
Teamwork 150
Collaborative Information Experience and Co-designing
for Shared Understanding 151
References 158

Epilogue 159

Acknowledgements 161

Glossary 163

Index 171
 List of Figures

Fig. 9.1 Resonant waves in developing capacities for creativity,

critical thinking, communicating and collaborating 151
Fig. 9.2 Producing shared understanding creative model for digital
social innovation 152

xiii
 List of Tables

Table 7.1 Examples of working through paradoxes 128

Table 7.2 Traditional “And/Or” leadership compared with
paradoxical “Both/And” leadership 129
Table 9.1 Elements and questions of the shared understanding
brief 153

xv
 1
Prologue

Retrofuturistic
The first time I ever saw a live and spinning zoetrope—a pre-cinematic
animation device—was on a visit to the Exploratorium Museum of
Science, Art and Human Perception on San Francisco’s Pier 15, in March
2017. Derived from the Greek words zoe, meaning “life”, and tropos
meaning “turning”, a zoetrope is also known as a “wheel of life”.
This was my first “live” zoetrope experience because as a child I had
seen a static zoetrope in a detailed, illustrated entry about how motion
pictures were made, in a leather-bound antique encyclopedia volume
by Arthur Mee. As Mee’s encyclopedias for children were published in
mid-twentieth-century Europe, it is likely that I am in the minority of
millennials who have ever heard of Mee’s encyclopedia. I remember being
fascinated by countless entries that naturally unified the natural sciences,
social sciences, humanities and arts, spanning across several volumes.
Most school teachers said that the information held in those books was
quite archaic, and that I should have consulted the latest Britannica CD-
ROM or even the pre-Google search engine AltaVista in the mid-1990s
wave of the World Wide Web. But browsing these newer resources felt

© The Author(s) 2020 1

F. Miller, Producing Shared Understanding for Digital and Social Innovation,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7372-9_1
2 F. Miller

mechanical and limited. They were devoid of the fusing of ethical and
humanist wisdom and wonder, alongside scientific proofs.
Over knowing what we know, these classical texts inspired us to place
even higher value in being curious about what we do not know. Arthur
Mee was honest about his encyclopedia; although it was very thorough,
carefully presented and detailed, he made it clear to learning minds that it
was not the fountain of all knowledge once devoured. The real magic was
found in the unknown gaps in-between. Like the zoetrope, only through
the illuminated gaps in the wheel did the whole story come to life.
If I had been more deliberate and orderly in my early research, I might
never have randomly come across the zoetrope, as both an innovative
concept and a precursor invention which ultimately led to traditional
audiovisual motion picture and—as we know and love it today—digital
multimedia and animation, social media, GIFs, memes, live streaming
on reddit’s Public Access Network, YouTube, cat videos and Pixar.
A zoetrope is also known as a “wheel of life”. An illusion. A simulation.
Is digital life an illusion? Is reality a simulation? Is simulation a reality?

You realize the sun doesn’t go down it’s just an illusion caused by the
world spinning round—The Flaming Lips “Do You Realize?”

Also inside the Exploratorium that day, there was a sign in the Tinkering
Studio.
A quote from Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget in the early 1970s, when
transdisciplinary thinking was just taking flight:

To understand is to invent.

Quotes such as this reflect the assumptions prior to the Artificial Age—
that the social or environmental impact of any invention was a primary
consideration before unleashing it onto the universe. Now it appears to
be the opposite. The concept of the Anthropocene is driven by tech-
nocratic narratives—both utopian and dystopian—but not all of its
solutions will be technological ones. Furthermore, tech solutions to tech
problems seem paradoxical. We need to make sure that the problem is
not compounded by the “solution”.
 1 Prologue 3

Somewhere—in the mix of watching zoetropes live, thinking about

Piaget’s thoughts and exploring a very hands-on museum, lighting up
our imaginations—came the first sparks of this book.
To share understanding is to reinvent.

Three Big Questions

How Do We Future Proof Our Digital Lives?

In response to a 2018 newspaper headline ROBOKIDS: a hi-tech syllabus

for schools to future proof our young, I tweeted: “If you teach a child
how to be a robot, it’s likely an actual robot will be able to do their
future job. Teach the child how to be a human who can communicate
well with people and technologies. Then they should be future proof ”.
Rather ironically, the tweet went viral and I turned into an Influencer.
Not really—but one person did reply with “Well said” and the tweet was
kindly picked up and shared globally through The Conversation’s Science
and Technology Editor. I hope it made at least some people think and
act differently if “hi-tech” is now mainstream in our education system.
Technology is a tool made to help humankind. Humans are not tools
for tech to control. Technology is increasingly becoming dehumanizing
and unsustainable. Don’t get me wrong—I believe in the power and
magic of technology to make our lives better in some ways, but there is a
growing gap between technology and business development, policy and
legality, and fully understanding the intentions, processes and outcomes
for humans—those who design and build technologies and those who
use them on a daily basis.
In defining the unprecedented and long-term challenges associ-
ated with transformative social innovation for sustainability in the
Anthropocene, Per Olsson and colleagues highlighted a need for more
unifying focus on interactions, experiences and feedbacks for people-
planet-technology relationships (Olsson et al. 2017). Transdisciplinary
work is production, research or educational design that transcends the
boundaries of disciplinary perspectives, involving non-academic and
academic participants as equal participants in the process to reach a
4 F. Miller

common goal usually a solution to a problem of society at large. A

social-ecological system has two interrelated sides: external interactions
between people and things or machines (Informational Waves), and
internal experiences within human relationships built on trust and shared
understanding (Resonance). Transdisciplinary collaborations and social-
ecological systems’ approaches (more on these in Chapters 2 and 3)
can help us work towards major global well-being and quality of life
outcomes such as the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals
for 2030, plans for the life-changing contexts of the Anthropocene—
the current geological age recognizing humans as a force of nature, their
influence and impacts on the environment—and Globalization 4.0, with
its emphasis on the collaborative brain, co-creation and talent.
By revealing transdisciplinary invisible work and invisible problems
towards social innovation and shared understanding, we can ensure tech-
nology makes our lives better by using adaptive approaches and design
concepts. One of these adaptive approaches is the focus of this book—a
“resource awareness” mindset consisting of: informational waves, trans-
disciplinary resonance and shared understanding. These concepts repre-
senting much of the “invisible work” and “invisible problems” involved
in producing for shared understanding are explored in Chapters 2, 3
and 4. In light of developing responsible innovations, these emerging
concepts introduced in Part I: Concepts are defined from the literature
and perspectives in the humanities, arts, social sciences and the natural
sciences.

How Do We Produce Shared Understanding?

As identified in sustainability research, there is a need for more unifying

focus on interactions, experiences and feedbacks for people-planet-
technology relationships. At the same time, a climate of separatist,
polarizing or tribal mentalities is increasing as society becomes more
judgmental of differences of opinion and values, or refuses to see differ-
ences in harmonious coexistence without it being a betrayal. Shared
understanding as a concept and practice—that is both helped and
hindered by technological innovations—is something we desperately
 1 Prologue 5

need now and in the future. Digital and social innovations often do not
take a holistic look at their potential impacts and outcomes across an
ecosystem (Olsson et al. 2017). We need new ways of bridging divides
between different stakeholders around a digital innovation. Decisions
and actions based on myopic views prompt a need for broader under-
standing to prepare for long-term impacts. Transdisciplinary mindsets
prompt us to think and act beyond our individual personal agendas
and be guided by a mindset that encourages less ego-centrism and
more humility to make lasting impacts for community and global goals.
There is a need for balance of individual and communal considerations
through shared understanding. We can produce or co-produce shared
understanding in complex adaptive systems, consisting of informational
waves and transdisciplinary resonance, through approaches explored in
Part II: Methods, such as navigating paradoxes, capturing moments and
mapping dialogues.

How Do We Educate for Responsible Innovation?

With a focus on employment, particularly technical skills and training

for the science and technology workforce, mainstream education and
training for technology is sidestepping the growing need for safeguarding
people and their environments and ecologies from potential harmful
effects. Social science and information science research into technology
are working towards addressing many pressing ethical issues, which can
affect our quality of life, but these often theoretical or applied projects
are not collaboratively connecting into computer science and artifi-
cial intelligence work as much as they could be, especially in industry
contexts. We need more recognition of the growing importance of trans-
disciplinary work cultures and capacities which, by design, take into
consideration the effects and potential impacts of science and tech-
nology innovation on the environment and society. For example, the
book Human + Machine: Reimagining Work in the Age of AI (Daugherty
and Wilson 2018) identifies eight new “fusion skills” that are impera-
tive for success in an AI workplace, drawing on the blending of human
and machine talents within a business process to create better outcomes
6 F. Miller

than when each works independently (Accenture 2020; Daugherty and

Wilson 2018, pp. 186–205):
8 Fusion Skills for a Workplace of “Collaborative Intelligence”:

1. Rehumanizing time. As we no longer rely on the concept of

“machine time”, adopted to keep up with assembly lines and, later, to
computers in office environments, there’s a new way to think about
time and work. People will have more time to dedicate towards more
“human activities”, such as increasing interpersonal interactions and
conducting creative research.
2. Responsible normalizing. It’s time to rethink and responsibly shape,
or “normalize”, the purpose and perception of human-machine inter-
action as it relates to individuals, businesses and society as a whole.
3. Judgment integration. In some instances, a machine may be uncer-
tain about or lack the necessary business or ethical context to make
decisions. People must be prepared to sense where, how and when to
step into provide input.
4. Intelligent interrogation. People simply can’t probe massively
complex systems or predict interactions between complex layers of
data on their own. It’s imperative to have the ability to ask machines
the right “smart” questions across multiple levels.
5. Bot-based empowerment. A variety of bots are available to help
people be more productive and become better at their jobs. Prepare to
embrace the power of AI agents to extend your capabilities, reinvent
business processes and even boost your professional career.
6. Holistic (physical and mental) melding. In the age of human-
machine fusion, holistic melding will become increasingly important.
The full reimagination of business processes only becomes possible
when humans create working mental models of how machines work
and learn, and when machines capture user-behaviour data to update
their interactions.
7. Reciprocal apprenticing. In the past, technological education has
gone in one direction: People have learned how to use machines. But
with AI, machines are learning from humans, and humans, in turn,
 1 Prologue 7

learn again from machines. In the future, people will perform tasks
alongside AI agents to learn new skills and will receive on-the-job
training to work well within AI-enhanced processes.
8. Relentless reimagining. This hybrid skill is the ability to reimagine
how things currently are—and to keep reimagining how AI can trans-
form and improve work, organizational processes, business models
and even entire industries.

A recent research report by Tytler et al. (2019) lists the 100 Jobs of
the Future based on identification of future key skills and knowledge,
emphasizing the importance of developing transdisciplinary thinking
through STEM/STEAM at all levels of education and training. This
research points to a need for more dedicated education, mentoring
and training at elementary, secondary and university or college levels,
for bridging and intermediary roles in digital and social innovation—
essential roles for the future that cannot be easily automated. My own
teaching has a strong emphasis on developing soft skills and attributes for
successful projects and work placements, along with challenging expe-
riences for learning outside of comfort zones and nurturing personal
passions, perseverance and resilience. Employers and colleagues often
demand this, but educators often focus on science and technology
knowledge and skills only. In today’s social media and attention driven
society, people spend more time working to be more engaging and influ-
ential in their communication, how to convince someone of their point
of view, rather than developing capacities which are central to activating
responsible digital and social innovations such as listening, interpreta-
tion and perception abilities. This book is all about the soft skills—or
states of mind that enable soft skills—developed in the complex, invis-
ible spaces in-between. This reflects a paradigm shift from the common
understanding of communication, from being engaging and influential
to improving how we listen, perceive and interpret informational waves
to create transdisciplinary resonance and shared understanding.
Le Hunte (2020) emphasizes the importance of transdisciplinary
education and emergent creativity: “With the current thinking on the
future of work and the predictions that today’s graduate will have to work
across many fields, transdisciplinary learning becomes more important. It
8 F. Miller

has also been suggested that the future of research is transdisciplinary, as

advances of knowledge are more likely to take place between and across
disciplines, not simply within them. As universities take up the call to
work as incubation centres that forge futures for our industries, govern-
ments and society, creative transdisciplinary education will become far
more important” (p. 102).

Eight Invisible Gaps that Need Bridging

Making Meaningful Work Across Boundaries

Despite many recent efforts, we still have massive disconnects between

the worlds of theory, policy, practice, media and the general public.
Furthermore, there is a gap between career and human resource develop-
ment towards meaningful, sustainable and fulfilling work, and the incen-
tives or rewards offered by various institutions and groups potentially
involved in transdisciplinary innovation. Ideally, transdisciplinary and
socially innovative work should be made a priority and support resources
allocated accordingly. Institutions currently fund and reward multidis-
ciplinary projects—usually originating from universities—temporarily
combining more narrow disciplinary expertise. More meaningful work
needs to be done across boundaries, which clearly delineates the meaning
of transdisciplinary problem solving, innovation and understanding,
from interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary projects. Recent publica-
tions on increasing impact of contemporary social science research (i.e.
Alvesson et al., Return to Meaning: Social Science with Something to
Say, 2017) prompt an urgent need for new ways to produce and
communicate meaningful research findings, which facilitate collabora-
tions between different stakeholders within, across and beyond academia.
 1 Prologue 9

Transdisciplinary Collaboration and Competition

In a world where polarities and divisions are increasing, there is a growing

disconnect between the mythical ideal of collaborative research and prac-
tice and the often disturbing reality of competing and polemical interests
that arise, sometimes during the process of collaboration. This situation
calls for new approaches that harness competitive and collaborative ener-
gies, healthy and paradoxical tensions, dynamics and communication
capacities towards innovation and impact.

Human Impact and Responsible Digital Social

Innovation

There are disconnects between current innovations, particularly tech-

nological and economic profit-driven innovations using artificial intel-
ligence (AI) and algorithms, and more responsible, ethical, sustainable
and compassionate social and digital innovations. There have been
many efforts towards designing digital innovations with ethical and
human-centred design frameworks, but these have received relatively
little attention from technology companies and developers. In contrast to
classic technological innovation, Edwards-Schachter and Wallace (2017)
define social innovation as “a collective process of learning” that involves
“the distinctive participation of civil society actors aimed to solve a
societal need through change in social practices that produce change
in social relationships, systems, and structures, contributing to large
socio-technical change” (p. 73).

Accessibility and Public Understanding

of Social Science

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in developing a

more informed public through movements such as Internet-based open
access research, science communication and research-informed jour-
nalism. People, non-experts, especially young people, are becoming more
interested in participating in digital and social, civic and humanitarian
10 F. Miller

action and are turning to these online information sources, particularly

through social media and news sites. However, this dangerously coincides
with the rise of misinformation on the web and a lack of transdisciplinary
integration and translation between scientific research and social science
research, now more freely available—both of which are starting to be
driven by public concerns rather than by agendas set by university or
government authorities.

Inclusivity in Innovation

There are many barriers to creating a shared understanding for

digital social innovation—language, hierarchical, political, epistemolog-
ical, identity, cultural and moral conflicts and social stigma. These
barriers represent several hidden disconnects between stakeholders which
can be remedied by inclusive approaches to increase participation in both
innovative design and through the participative digital social innova-
tions themselves challenging social disablement and public perceptions
(McLoughlin et al. 2019).

Tolerance, Empathy and Polarity in Shared

Understanding

Within shared understanding as both a concept and practice, there is a

disconnect between resonance (tolerance and empathy) and dissonance
(polarity and conflict). While it is easy to discount in the current divisive
climates, both resonance and dissonance are necessary for truly shared
understanding to occur.

Platforms for Transdisciplinary Interaction

There is a disconnect between the traditional spaces for research-

informed discussion such as disciplinary-focused academic conferences
and seminars, and emerging non-traditional spaces and platforms for
transdisciplinary interactions. We need to devise new ways to design
 1 Prologue 11

information experiences such as shared understanding for transdisci-

plinary innovation. This book represents a critical extension of the
emerging terms and objects of study, information experience (Bruce et al.
2014) and information experience design (Bruce et al. 2017; Miller
2014; Miller et al. 2016; Sayyad-Abdi et al. 2019). These ideas were
born in the information discipline and historical context of informa-
tion literacy, human information behaviour and library and information
science, with those particular audience(s) in mind but could have broader
application. In this context, Bruce et al. (2014) defined information
experience as a “complex, multi-dimensional engagement with informa-
tion” in real-world contexts. In this book, information experience design
is about increasing opportunities and personal agency and empower-
ment for richer learning experiences through paying attention to what
informs deep learning (Miller 2013; Miller et al. 2016). In the design
context, in relation to collaborative critiquing experiences in transdis-
ciplinary work, Forlano and Smith (2018) make the observation that
“there are still no tools that support the different styles, approaches,
languages and values of critique that are common in the studio with a
specific focus on openness, multiplicity and collaboration”.

Moments of Shared Understanding

Currently, it appears that moments of disunity outweigh the moments of

unified shared understanding. When we experience information and data
as life moments, often amplified through social media or other physical
forms of curation, these moments encourage shared understanding from
different perspectives. In contrast to Piaget’s individual view, to under-
stand is to invent, the collaborative view is, to share understanding is to
reinvent. The concept of this book realizes this postmodernist turn.
This book is not about how to get ahead, play the game or exercise
power in highly charged political environments—all of which are diffi-
cult realities in today’s world. For it is these very things seen as measures
of success and status, which often contradict and sometimes hinder flow
of the transdisciplinary collaborative experience. This book is about facil-
itating transdisciplinary research and projects to meaningfully impact
12 F. Miller

upon all stakeholders involved, to make a substantial, as opposed to a

perceived difference, both now and in the future. This book is a guide to
unifying bridging concepts to produce and promote shared understanding
in projects which can address complex societal problems drawing upon
the expertise, evidence and experience from several disciplines, industries
and citizens’ perspectives.
Shared understanding refers to how people and various stakeholders
from different fields and perspectives are communicating and reflecting
on shared responsibilities within social ecologies. I propose that shared
understanding should be the main goal and quality or success indi-
cator for everyone involved in these projects, as opposed to success only
meaning promotion. For example, many (but not all) early careers are
candid about how their primary goal is to be promoted. I think a more
noble aspiration would be to develop and facilitate shared understanding
and dialogue around issues that matter in our lives. This is my motiva-
tion for writing a book on this topic, particularly given the concerning
invisible gaps presented in the opening paragraphs of this book. This
book introduces essential mindsets for surviving and thriving in the next
decade and beyond, and how they relate to each other: Transdisciplinary
producing and shared understanding for digital and social innovation.

Transdisciplinary Producing
A producer, like a midwife, is someone who not just makes, but makes
possible the birth or creation of something (or someone). Put simply, the
goal of this book is to produce more meaningful moments of shared
understanding—in our public and private lives—through digital and
social innovation. There are too many moments of disunity. Let’s create
a more unified universe. Where do we start? With wider access to tech-
nology, many people, both experts and non-experts, are now producers
of products and services with an innovative bent. We must consider why
we are producing so much, in ways that go beyond the physical mate-
rial motives and worlds, into and including the intangible metaphysical
realm, including ethical dilemmas.
 1 Prologue 13

The problem with many projects is that they only focus on variables or
constructs in isolation, but in reality we see many of these constructs and
patterns often simultaneously interacting in nature. This makes many
projects irrelevant, untenable and unusable across different contexts. It
could be argued that projects or findings are like small pieces of a
larger puzzle, and that literature reviews are of much greater value—
holistically speaking, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Some-
times it is impossible to write literature reviews on emerging concepts,
not because people lack the time or skills, but because it takes many years
to reach critical mass for meaningful, multi-voiced reviews to iteratively
emerge. For example, the premise of this book was inchoate when it was
proposed. I thought I might see it mature as the book grew into its own.
Instead, I saw its gravitas much larger than the book itself and the feeling
of being inchoate only increased.
In fractured times and societies, connectability matters.
Before I start a project, I like to imagine where it might go. Of course,
there will always be surprises, but this helps anticipate which debates and
discussions your work can contribute to and how it may be received or
impacted within and beyond your topic, discipline or location. Keeping
this in mind can enable people who work across boundaries to connect
your work into the larger scheme of things.
This book aims to guide the development of innovative mindsets for
new and seasoned researchers—scientists and social scientists, students
and other practitioners who collaborate with researchers, such as educa-
tors, industries, media and publishing, policy-makers, advocates and
the general public who might contribute to transdisciplinary projects.
Rather than focusing on how and why specific research methodolo-
gies are employed, this book aims to increase meaningful research and
actions by nurturing transferable and lateral mindsets, across every stage
of the social innovation production. These mindsets and methods for
understanding centre around the key concepts of informational waves,
transdisciplinary resonance and shared understanding, between a variety of
collaborators and audiences, in an increasingly digital and data-driven
world.
Ideally, this book could be read by anyone who is contemplating, or in
the early stages of, or re-designing a digital social innovation project. You
14 F. Miller

might be a citizen researcher or advocate, an Internet or software engi-

neer or a media or communications professional, a policy developer or an
academic researcher or educator. This book is for those who are, or aspire
to be, innovators, logicians and problem solvers from any field, industry
and walk of life. For example, those who teach courses and work-
shops at any educational level, in fields and topics of a transdisciplinary
such as STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math-
ematics); media and documentary professionals who produce, direct
or collaborate on various media such as film, podcasts or experiential
art; GLAM professionals (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums);
citizen journalists, students and advocates; business leaders who are inter-
ested in becoming forces for responsible innovation; intermediaries or
partnership brokers—including library and information and knowledge
management professionals—who actively facilitate informed collabora-
tive relationships for transdisciplinary social innovation projects in a wide
range of contexts.
Another objective of this book is to guide people who wish to step into
roles or enhance their roles as producer, facilitator, coach, bridger, inter-
mediary or social change agent, working with transdisciplinary project
teams to produce output that is meaningful, innovative and relevant
to problems in social policy and practice. Barjolle et al. (2018) define
an innovation broker as “Individuals whose highly developed under-
standing and perception provides a bridge (often customised) between
knowledge producers and those who could benefit from the innovations
enabled by that knowledge” (p. 12). There is an increasing demand for
transdisciplinary specialist “producers”, internal and external to organiza-
tions, to enable project team collaborations working across boundaries of
academia, policy-making, industry, media and the public or independent
consultancy (Battisti 2019; De Silva et al. 2018; Miller 2016). Here are
four fascinating examples of transdisciplinary producer roles identified in
the 100 Jobs of the Future report (Tytler et al. 2019):
 1 Prologue 15

Fusionist

Fusionists will use design approaches to bring together professionals

from art, engineering, research, science and other disciplines to create
innovative ideas, experiences and solutions to complex problems.
Fusionists will be employed across many industries, where they will
act as bridges between people with specialist disciplinary knowledge. For
instance, a fusionist could be part of a team responsible for designing a
new kind of attractive smart fabric for clothing that changes its properties
depending on the weather conditions. Other team members may include
a materials engineer, a fashion designer, an artist and a digital sensor
designer.
A fusionist will blend knowledge and skills of different team members
to create an overall approach to the design of the fabric, and translate
and coordinate the specific tasks required to complete the design.
Fusionists will be excellent communicators, with exceptional listening,
written and oral communication skills. They will be able to under-
stand technical concepts from different disciplinary areas and be up
to date with the latest technology and research developments in their
areas of interest. Fusionists will be experts in design and solution devel-
opment. They will also have well-developed organizational and project
management skills.

Analogue Experience Guide

Analogue experience guides support people to unplug from digital life

and reconnect with the natural world, without digital implants or
augmented reality.
Analogue experience guides help people to appreciate a simpler and
slower life by experiencing natural environments such as forests or
mountainous areas without digital infrastructure or surveillance.
Along with psychologists and other healthcare workers, they may work
with people to help them recover from digital, implant or aesthetic
modification addictions.
16 F. Miller

They may employ approaches such as: horticultural therapy (cultiva-

tion of plants); yoga; mindfulness techniques; traditional food prepara-
tion and cooking methods without bioprinting or other processing; and
analogue art-making.
Analogue experience guides have strong interpersonal skills and
specific skills in their preferred therapeutic techniques. They have a deep
appreciation of nature, horticultural skills, and prefer to live simply
without too much digital input.

Virtual and Augmented Reality Experience Creator

The virtual and augmented reality experience creator specializes in

designing digital experiences that are used for tourism, games and
entertainment, marketing and healthcare purposes.
Virtual reality experience creators build entirely immersive simulations
of real or imagined places, including multi-sensory tourism experiences
anywhere on earth or beyond, or immersive movies and games.
Augmented reality experience creators build interactive overlays over
the real world, to add to what is there. It is used in numerous places, such
as to create retail pop-up stores, virtual changing rooms (where you can
try on clothes without getting undressed), interactive museum exhibits,
visualizations of tumours in surgery and virtual navigation beacons for
travel.
Virtual and augmented reality experience creators need to have strong
visual communication skills. They need to have coding skills and be
able to use VR/AR engines. They will be familiar with principles of
user interface and user experience design, and be comfortable with 360-
degree cinematography. Depending on the focus of their work, they will
need to collaborate with games designers, film scriptwriters, marketing
specialists, medical professionals and museum curators (among others).

Innovation Manager

An innovation manager will work as an independent consultant or

within an organization to create an environment that fosters innovation.
 1 Prologue 17

They will develop strategies and processes that bring together a mix of
experts, lead brainstorming sessions, encourage collaboration and sharing
of ideas to design and develop innovative solutions.
The innovation manager will seek out new methodologies and tech-
nologies to maintain a fertile environment for innovative thinking to
flourish and be realized. They will think “big picture”, considering the
cycle of innovation from inception to marketplace, and play a role in
readying the market for new products and services. Innovation managers
will be highly creative and future orientated, seeing the world through
the lens of curiosity as they detect new developments and early trends.
They will have significant knowledge of organizational development,
drawing on analytical skills to create enabling structures and processes.
They also have the leadership qualities and influencing skills to support
people through organizational change.

Social Change Agents

A social change agent is an essential human actor in any complex adap-
tive system, often involved in collaborating, facilitating, analysing or
advocating for the transformation of cultural and social institutions over
time. Complex adaptive systems consist of large numbers of compo-
nents, often called agents, that interact and adapt or learn (Holland
2006, p. 1). By engaging in a range of transdisciplinary projects spanning
across different “worlds” and cultures, social change agents are working
in liminal spaces towards bridging the gaps between theory, practice,
industry and policy (Miller 2016). Social change agents from academia
are also recognizing that true impact means going beyond citation
counts. There are four different types of impact roles for change agents:
(1) Collaborators, who establish close collaboration with actors, particu-
larly those they consider to be the target audiences of their research; (2)
Facilitators, who support knowledge exchange between different scientific
and societal actors (e.g. by organizing social spaces in which actors can
meet and interact directly); (3) Scholars, who maintain a certain distance
to the field under study and analyse it academically without involving
and engaging with societal actors; and (4) Advocates, who actively try to
18 F. Miller

bring about a social change and tend to generate practice-relevant

results (Hoffman et al. 2017). Social change agents are facilitating
changes in the ways in which the world produces and consumes in
the Anthropocene, towards Sustainable Development Goals for 2030,
set by the United Nations (Leal-Filho et al. 2018). Norstrom et al.
(2014) identified “three conditions necessary for establishing Sustainable
Development Goals:

1. an integrated social-ecological system’s perspective and acknowledge

the key dynamics that such systems entail, including the role of
ecosystems in sustaining human well-being, multiple cross-scale inter-
actions and uncertain thresholds;
2. to address trade-offs between the ambition of goals and the feasi-
bility in reaching them, recognizing biophysical, social and political
constraints; and
3. the goal-setting exercise and the management of goal implementa-
tion need to be guided by existing knowledge about the principles,
dynamics, and constraints of social change processes at all scales, from
the individual to the global” (p. 1).

Co-producing Transdisciplinary Knowledge

Transdisciplinary knowledge is problem and solution-oriented knowl-
edge that transcends disciplinary boundaries and bridges the natural
sciences, social sciences, humanities theory and practice. It is the unity
of knowledge beyond disciplines, holistic and comprehensive, consists
of multiple perspectives and can inform social change on personal
and societal levels. Polk (2015) defines transdisciplinary knowledge co-
production as an “approach targeting real life problem solving. Knowl-
edge is co-produced through the combination of scientific perspectives
with other types of relevant perspectives and experience from real world
practice including policy-making, administration, business and commu-
nity life. Co-production occurs through practitioners and researchers
participating in the entire knowledge production process including joint
 1 Prologue 19

problem formulation, knowledge generation, application in both scien-

tific and real world contexts, and mutual quality control of scientific
rigor, social robustness and effectiveness” (p. 111).
This book is a product of empirical and creatively experiential research
approaches using a novel combination of two methodologies: construc-
tivist grounded theory, which is about knowing and understanding
people’s lived experiences through interpersonal interviewing (Charmaz
2006), and autoethnography, which aims to reveal more personal knowl-
edge and understanding about oneself through self-reflection in relation
to lived experience in cultural contexts (Adams et al. 2015). The find-
ings from several of my research projects and publications which used
constructivist grounded theory to investigate knowledge ecosystems of
early career researchers (Miller 2015; Miller et al. 2016; Miller 2019),
evidence-based information practices in higher education (Miller et al.
2017; Gillespie et al. 2017), academic researchers’ impact on public
policy development (Miller 2008) and information experiences in social
media (Miller et al. 2019) are expanded by integrating findings from
relevant international researchers’ studies, and my own critical reflec-
tive narratives in a variety of cultures experienced. In this way, this
book is an example of transdisciplinary knowledge integration, which
I hope uncovers further insight into how the findings of these studies
can contribute to co-designing transdisciplinary information experiences
and producing shared understanding for digital and social innovation.

Shared Understanding for Digital and Social

Innovation
My interest in the concept and practice of shared understanding grew
from my experience with implementing intersubjectivity, or shared
meaning, as a qualitative concept and approach in phenomenology
(Owens 1970; Duranti 2010; Husserl 1960), ethnography (Fabian 2014;
Gillespie and Cornish 2010; Prus 1996) and constructivist grounded
theory (Charmaz 2006; Lloyd and Somerville 2006; Olmos-Vega et al.
2018). Accepted across diverse fields such as psychology, cognitive
sciences and philosophy, intersubjectivity has been defined by Zlatev
20 F. Miller

et al. (2008) as “the sharing of experiential content (e.g. feelings, percep-

tions, thoughts, and linguistic meanings) among a plurality of subjects”.
In the context of holistic health care, Cody (1995) referred to intersub-
jectivity as a shared understanding of meaning between the conscious
minds of human beings. Cody argued that intersubjectivity “makes
meaning possible”, and it develops during interactions with a person
or indirectly over time and distance via language. In my practice as
a qualitative social researcher and interviewer, I realized that while
establishing rapport with my interview participants required developing
mutual empathy and understanding, it was not only about seeking and
focusing on our common ground, but also about making the effort to
understand our different perspectives and orientations, without judge-
ment. From my experience, my understanding was that intersubjectivity
was about creating new meaning from the differences, or as Bateson
(1972) defined information as “a difference that makes a difference”.
The majority of the limited research that has been done into how
to create shared understanding is focused on team-based approaches
within organizational contexts to get everyone “on the same page” to
commit to a project through shared mental models (Aube et al. 2015;
Bittner and Leimeister 2014; Møller and Tollestrup 2013; Sandberg and
Targama 2007; Smart et al. 2009). This contrasts with the broader social-
ecological orientation of the term “shared understanding” as the toler-
ance of multiple and sometimes conflicting perspectives across a single
subject and the creative intelligence generated from these interactions
(Dyball and Newall 2014; Glaser et al. 2012; Miller 2014). The term
shared understanding has been used interchangeably as both an applied
research, communication and management approach (McConnell et al.
2019) and a theoretical research construct in human ecology research
(Dyball and Newall 2014; Glaser et al. 2012), in artificial intelligence
and information systems (da Silva et al. 2008) and in children’s formal
classroom learning (Mercer 2019).
The term shared understanding is also more empowering and of
practical relevance than the abstract notion of intersubjectivity, partic-
ularly in the current divisive climates which call for more inclusivity.
Shared understanding is becoming synonymous with inclusivity and
participatory methods such as user engagement to co-produce a shared
 1 Prologue 21

understanding of people living with health conditions and empower

a voiceless or marginalized group (Heasman and Gillespie, 2019—
autism; McConnell et al. 2019—dementia), for example bridging divides
between patients, carers, medical staff and community. Another way
shared understanding is becoming known as an inclusive approach is
through bridging divides through analysing dialogue or conversations
(Doornbosch-Akse and van Vuuren 2019). Recent psychological research
by Yeomans et al. (2020) suggests that conversational receptiveness—the
extent to which parties in disagreement can communicate their willing-
ness to engage with each other’s views—is a practical way of bridging
divides or gaps in politics, family life or work, that can encourage real
social change and shared understanding to manifest. The findings of
this study suggest that people, through their dialogues with others who
have strong opposing views and beliefs, can learn conversational recep-
tiveness. The researchers developed algorithms to identify specific words
or phrases that signal receptiveness in dialogues, such as using words of
acknowledgement, phrases to convey uncertainty to sound less dogmatic,
using positive rather than negative terms and avoiding words that sound
argumentative or condescending.
Additionally, shared understanding as an idea has faced challenges in
acceptance due to conflicting definitions within the many fields that
make reference to it. The main tension underlying the interdisciplinary
use of shared understanding as a concept and practice is its application
for, and between, the goals and values of corporate industry (business)
and the goals and values of social-ecological and sustainable develop-
ment (natural science, social sciences and humanities). Sroufe (2018)
addresses such tensions through integrated management focusing on how
shared understanding of sustainability creates value for businesses. Simi-
larly, Lindgreen et al. (2018) views shared understanding as a key enabler
of stakeholder engagement for responsible business and also for innova-
tion and sustainability (Lee and Raschke 2020). Current studies reflect
the shifts taking place away from more narrow definitions of shared
understanding within corporate teamwork, towards a broader societal
definition of shared understanding for social innovations addressing
complex or wicked problems such as public health and vaccinations
(Shen 2019), environmental management and disaster response (Prober
22 F. Miller

et al. 2011; Moore et al. 2019) and supporting females in the technology
industry (Kiely et al. 2019).
As a theoretical research construct, shared understanding and its
diverse and fragmented elements do not currently have a strongly unified
theoretical foundation. With this book, I hope to begin strengthening
a unified theoretical foundation for shared understanding. The linking
of shared understanding to digital and social innovation and associated
gaps gives shared understanding a practical purpose—to bridge divides
in societal knowledge and actions needed now and in the future.
The aim of this book is to introduce a new creative model—producing
shared understanding. This model can be applied or adapted towards
meaningful collaboration between stakeholders that share different
paradigms that may stand opposing each other. This model can be used
to lead, collaborate or bridge divides with transdisciplinary information
experience design concepts and methods, to produce transdisciplinary
knowledge in ways that are more responsible, ethical and humane.
This book also has the following objectives:

• To facilitate transdisciplinary research and projects to meaningfully

impact upon all stakeholders involved, to make a substantial, as
opposed to a perceived difference.
• To introduce unifying bridging concepts to produce and promote
shared understanding in projects which can address complex societal
problems drawing upon the expertise, evidence and experience from
several disciplines, industries and citizens’ perspectives.
• To produce more meaningful moments of shared understanding—in
our public and private lives—through digital and social innovation.
• To guide the development of innovative mindsets for new and
seasoned researchers.
• To increase meaningful research and actions by nurturing transferable
and lateral mindsets and soft skills, across every stage of the social
innovation production.
• To orient the reader to think and act like a producer, facilitator and
intermediary communicator across multiple boundaries and networks.
 1 Prologue 23

• To introduce two related concepts underpinning moments of shared

understanding: Informational Waves and Resonance (or Resonant
Waves).

With this book, I offer an accessible guide—and an open invitation to

conversations—to facilitate the overall production of transdisciplinary
knowledge from a range of innovative projects that can cross over into
different spaces, contexts and worldviews. Naturally, this is a constant
work-in-progress.

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Part I
Concepts
 2
Revealing Transdisciplinary Invisible Work

The Makings of a Transdisciplinary Producer

As a complex adaptive system, one of the main roles of universities and
academics is to provoke and provide society with empirical and crit-
ical perspectives on important current and future issues affecting the
globe. University scholars are the thinkers of society, not necessarily
the makers and doers of society. Although, research and teaching are
also active and evolving practices. Academics teach and conduct research
as evidence to strengthen and justify any changes needed in practice and
policy. The innovations from university research are mainly conceptual
innovations. These are vital to human progress and social change, but
many theories are not as easily connected and translated into industry
practice or government policies. Conceptual innovations are intuitively
and curiously emergent in nature, implementing empirical data as tools.
Researchers observe, analyse, reflect and evaluate. This process, when
understood, is often viewed by the general public in two ways: as a
luxury to have more time than the average person to engage in long-term
thinking-based activity. It is also viewed as a problem, in that academia is
still largely invisible and esoteric in society’s eyes. Because of this, much

© The Author(s) 2020 31

F. Miller, Producing Shared Understanding for Digital and Social Innovation,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7372-9_2
32 F. Miller

thinking work goes unnoticed and deemed not useful by those engaged
in more visible, short-term practical endeavours.
The world appears to be shifting towards a less intellectual and more
pragmatic, consumerist focus, as seen by trends and in some cases,
requirements such as academics developing case studies to show how
their research has impacted upon society and doctoral candidates in
industry placements. This means there is an increased need for informed,
evidence-based and critical perspectives on current and future issues,
translated for different audiences and collaborative partners (Boaz and
Huw 2019). In other words, the reflective, critical and analytical work
done in universities now also needs to be relatable to encourage trans-
disciplinary collaboration. Transdisciplinary shifts are a way to re-focus
research production so that it directly benefits the communities that need
the work done.
At the same time, paradoxically, anyone reading the public and media
discourse on academia might ask why intellectual isolation, loneliness
and emotional silos are on the rise. Is the work or lifestyle isolating by
nature or are scholars simply isolating themselves because of dissonance?
“Without this feeling of ‘sameness’, or if appeals to common experiences
go flat, then one can speak of dissonance, in which common experi-
ence and understanding is replaced by dissonant elements of uncertainty,
anonymity and atomisation” (Miller 2015, p. 10).
When I began this research a decade ago, traditional researchers who
wanted to keep the disciplinary boundaries firmly drawn, heatedly crit-
icized my vision to find common ground, sentiment and perhaps, reso-
nance across every discipline in a kind of unifying way. While I listened
to their views, I am glad that I did not allow them to reduce the emer-
gent vision they were yet unable to see. As a battleground of ideas was
in play, I became aware that this critique of my research demonstrated
resonance—balancing light and darker aspects of the issue, idealism
versus disillusionment. One look at the emotive dialogues and reactions
happening on reddit’s r/AskAcademia and Twitter’s #AcademicTwitter,
and the twists and turns between idealism and disillusionment become
amplified. This critical experience is best illustrated by a comment I
received from one of my PhD thesis reviewers, that my findings on
the experiences of early career researchers reflected and gave a voice
 2 Revealing Transdisciplinary Invisible Work 33

to the ambitious participants’ hopes and dreams, but not the darker
realities of the brutal competitiveness of universities today operating
around the corporate managerialism within, and the uncertain future of
the higher education sector globally. Nevertheless, I persevered through
several gauntlets called peer reviews, and my publication based on this
research was consistently at the top of the “most read paper” list in
Emerald’s Journal of Documentation. I am unsure exactly why the paper
still gains hundreds of new reads per day, five years after it was published,
but it is astounding. It is being cited by researchers from several disci-
plines within and outside of my own, but I see this as a clear signal that
the ideas presented hold not only an intellectual connection, but also a
human, emotional connection: “Resonance is an emotional connection
based on appeals to sameness or common human experiences” (Miller
2015, p. 10).
My own research originated from a problem identified in univer-
sity workplace practice and was motivated by my own and colleagues’
observations while working in research development and attending
conferences, that there were several disconnects between departments,
professional staff, academics and non-academics who wanted to collab-
orate. A silo mentality pervaded the entire research process. In and
around the public policy space, I began to notice many disconnects
which mainly involve different languages used—namely the gaps in
meaning, interpretation and tolerance levels between figurative, theoret-
ical language commonly used by academics and the pragmatic, real-world
direct language (or empty buzzwords and slogans), used by industry and
government.
I can trace my interest in policy research to an early love of polit-
ical and social satire in novels, television, music and films. I never
studied politics or sociology as an undergraduate, instead concentrating
on modern history, literature, film screenwriting and psychology, but
whenever I had a guilty pleasure it always involved an element of political
satire. There was always something so futile about the process that natu-
rally makes one wonder about its point and how we might do it better
in the future. When I was about twenty two, I attended a study visit at
Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, towards my Master’s degree in
information management. There I made the connection between my first
34 F. Miller

paid contract as a graduate research assistant, to the world of government

policy. My supervisors, leading Professors in vocational and higher educa-
tion and training, were actively involved in connecting their research
to public policy. Being so young and idealistic, I was excited at the
prospect of being able to combine my newly honed digital research skills
with work in policy environments which might make a real positive
difference to people’s lives. I realized that even though political interests
overshadowed much of the research, balanced information in the form
of accessible policy research briefs—which synthesize multiple perspec-
tives around a policy issue—is still a vital part of a functioning healthy
democracy.
My Master’s degree was in information management but back then
it was a course that was still very much focused on traditional librari-
anship as a career. When I came to the course it was going through a
major course review to meet the needs of students who had less library
as an institution focused trajectories such as myself who were already
working in a broader e-research context, which is where I remained for
five years. I was lucky enough to be offered an internship at the Parlia-
mentary Library and Research Branch. Their environment, along with
most parliamentary information services across the globe, is uniquely
transdisciplinary by nature as everyone who works there learns new
policy areas from each other and through experience working with politi-
cians and their advisor clients across different and merging portfolios in
a non-partisan way.
After a year, I returned to the university to complete my Masters
research project where my experience at the Australian Parliamentary
Library’s Research Branch and reading the latest on the evidence-based
policy movement inspired me to investigate academic researchers’ infor-
mation needs and source choices in formulating a research problem
with policy relevance and impact. Shortly after I graduated with my
Masters, I accepted a position as Research Grants Team Leader in the
Research Office. My mission here was to connect researchers with
research funding bodies and help them understand how to develop
their funding proposals for maximum success. It was a baptism of
fire in many ways, but especially in terms of getting to know the
Another random document with
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 As it was less than an hour since we had left the camp, it was
quite impossible that he could have been tired, and as for his
blisters, when examined they proved to consist of a single small
“brister” on his instep, which, as we were travelling over smooth
sand and he, like all the rest of us, was walking barefoot, could not
have caused him the slightest inconvenience.
I pointed this out to him and told him that if he stayed behind and
left the caravan he would be certain to die of thirst.
“Never mind,” he replied heroically. “Never mind. I will stay behind
and die. I cannot walk any more. I am tired. You go on, sir, and save
yourselves. I will stay here and die in the desert.”
We had had many scenes of this kind with Khalil, and the bedawin
never failed to enjoy them thoroughly.
“What is he saying?” asked Qway.
I translated as well as I could.
“Malaysh” (“it’s of no consequence”), replied Qway calmly. “Let
him stay behind and die if he wants to. Whack the camels, Abd er
Rahman, and let’s go. We can’t wait. We are in the desert, and short
of water.”
“I shall die,” sobbed Khalil.
“Malaysh,” repeated Qway, without even troubling to look back at
him.
I felt much inclined to tickle the aggravating brute up with my
kurbaj, but it was against my principles to beat a native, so we went
on and left him sitting alone in the desert.
“My wife will be a widow,” screamed Khalil after us—though how
he expected that contingency to appeal to our sympathies was not
quite clear. Musa shouted back some ribald remarks about the lady
in question, and the caravan proceeded cheerfully—not to say
uproariously—upon its way.
After we had gone some distance our road dipped down to a
lower level, and we lost sight of Khalil for a while. I looked back just
before we got out of sight, and saw him sitting exactly where we had
left him. We travelled a considerable distance before a rise in the
ground over which our road ran enabled us to see him again. On
looking back through my glasses, I could just distinguish him sitting
still where we had left him. I quite expected that by the time we had
gone a few hundred yards—or at any rate as soon as we were out of
sight—that Khalil would have got up and followed us. But the fellahin
of Egypt are a queer-tempered race, who when they cannot get
exactly what they want, will sometimes fall into a fit of suicidal sulks
that is rather difficult to deal with. As Khalil appeared to have got into
this sulky frame of mind I began to fear that he really intended to
carry out his threat and to stay where he was until he either died of
thirst, or had been so far left behind by the caravan that he would be
unable to rejoin us, which would have led to the same result.
Qway, when I asked him how long it would take for us to reach the
oasis, was most positive in saying that it would be all that we could
do to get across the dunes before sunset the next day. The sand
belt, though easy enough to cross in daylight, when we could see
where we were going, would have presented a very serious obstacle
in the dark. With the possibility of another day of scorching simum or,
worse still, a violent sandstorm in our teeth, before we reached
Dakhla, a delay that would cause us to camp the next night on the
wrong side of the dunes, and so entail another twelve hours in the
desert before reaching water, might have had very serious
consequences.
“If we don’t cross the sand to-morrow,” said Qway impressively,
“we may not reach Mut at all. Look at the camels. Look at our tanks.
They are nearly empty. We must go on. We can’t wait.”
I couldn’t risk sacrificing the whole caravan for the sake of one
malingerer; so I told Abd er Rahman to whack up the camels, and
we left the “delicutly nurchered” Khalil to die in the desert.
Soon afterwards we lost sight of him altogether. We had started
early in the morning and we went on throughout the day, with hardly
a halt, till eight o’clock at night, when we were compelled to stop in
order to rest the camels. We saw nothing more of Khalil and gave
him up for lost. To give him a last chance we lighted a big fire and
then composed ourselves to sleep as well as we could, on a wholly
insufficient allowance of water.
Towards morning Khalil staggered into the camp amid the jeers
and curses of the men, croaked a request for water and, having
drunk, flung himself down to sleep, too dead beat even to eat.
That little episode cured Khalil of malingering, and he gave no
further trouble on our journey to Mut. It just shows what a little tact
will do in dealing with a native. Many brutal fellows would have
beaten the poor man!
The next day luckily proved fairly cool, and we made better
progress than we expected. We consequently struck the dune belt
just after noon and, as we seemed to have found a low part of it, by
Qway’s advice I decided to tackle it at that point.
But in coming to this decision I had overlooked a most important
factor in the situation—the light. Curious as it may seem, dunes are
sometimes almost as difficult to cross in the blazing sunshine at
noon as they are in the dark. The intense glare at this time of day
makes the almost white sand of which they are composed most
painful to look at, and the total absence of any shade prevents their
shape being seen and makes even the ripples practically invisible.
In consequence of this state of affairs, Qway, while riding ahead of
the caravan to show the way, blundered without seeing where he
was going, off the flat top of a dune on to the steep face below, was
thrown, and he and his hagin only just escaped rolling down to the
bottom, a fall of some thirty feet. After that, until we reached the
farther side of the belt, he remained on foot, dragging his hagin
behind him. Once across the dunes the rest of the journey was easy
enough.
The news of affairs in Europe that we heard in Dakhla on our
return was simply heartbreaking. The revolution in Turkey that had
promised to be rather a big thing, had fizzled out entirely. The Sultan
Abdul Hamid—“Abdul the Damned”—it is true had been deposed;
but his brother, Mohammed V, had been made ruler in his stead, and
was firmly seated on the rickety Turkish throne. The disturbance had
quieted down in Turkey; there was no chance of there being a
republic, and so the threatened invasion of Egypt by the Senussi,
was not in the least likely to come off.
All the same, we felt fairly pleased with ourselves, for we had
been for eighteen days in the desert away from water, with only
seven camels, in the most trying time of the year, and had got back
again without losing a single beast. But anyone who feels inclined to
repeat this picnic is advised to take enough water and suitable food.
The Gubary road by which we travelled to Kharga followed the
foot of the cliff that forms the southern boundary of the plateau upon
which ’Ain Amur lies. It was very featureless and uninteresting. But
though it contained no natural features of any importance, the
bedawin have a number of landmarks along it to which they have
given names and by which they divide the road up into various
stages. It is curious to see how the necessity for naming places
arises as soon as a district becomes frequented.
These little landmarks are often shown in maps in a very
misleading way. One of those on the Gubary road is known as Bu el
Agul. There is another Bu el Agul, or Abu el Agul, as it is sometimes
called, on the Derb et Tawil, or “long road,” that runs from the Nile
Valley, near Assiut, across the desert to Dakhla Oasis. I have often
seen this place marked on maps in an atlas, the name being printed
in the same type as that used for big mountains, or villages in the
Nile Valley, and there was nothing whatever in the way in which it
was shown on these maps to indicate its unimportance.
Now Bu el Agul is only a grave—what is more, it is not even a real
grave, it is a bogus one. The commonest form of a native nickname
is to christen a man the father of the thing for which he is best known
among them. I was myself at one time known as “Abu Zerzura,” the
“Father of Zerzura,” because I was supposed to be looking for that
oasis, and later on as “Abu Ramal,” “the father of sand,” because I
spent so much time among the dunes.
Bu el Agul means the “father of hobbles.” One of the greatest
risks that an inexperienced Arab runs, when travelling alone in the
desert, is that of allowing his camel to break loose and escape
during the night. Then, unless he be near a well, having no beast to
carry his water-skin, his fate is probably sealed. Many lives have
been lost in this way.
With tragedies of this description constantly before their minds,
the desert guides, as a reminder to their less experienced brethren
to secure their beasts properly at night, have made an imitation
grave about half-way along each of the desert roads. This grave is
supposed to represent the last resting-place of the “father of
hobbles,” who has lost his life owing to his not having tied up his
camel securely at night. It is the custom of every traveller, who uses
the road, to throw on to the “grave” as he passes it, a worn-out
hobble or water-skin, or part of a broken water vessel, with the result
that in time a considerable pile accumulates.
It was the end of June by the time we reached Kharga again.
Anyone attempting to work in the desert at any distance away from
water after March is severely handicapped by the high temperature. I
had already experienced nearly three months of these conditions,
and the prospect of doing any good in the desert during the
remainder of the hot weather was so remote that I returned to
England for the remainder of the summer.
 CHAPTER XII

M Y first season’s work in the desert had been sufficiently

successful to warrant a second attempt, as I had carried out
one of the objects on my programme by managing to cross the
dune-field; so I determined to follow it up by another journey. The
main piece of work that I planned for my second year was to push as
far as possible along the old road to the south-west of Dakhla, that
we had already followed for about one hundred and fifty miles.
Before starting I heard rumours of a place that had not previously
been reported called Owanat, that lay upon this road and was
apparently the first point to which it went. But I was able to gather
little information on the subject. I could not even hear whether it was
inhabited or deserted. I was not even sure whether water was to be
found there.
The journey to this place seemed likely to be of great length
before water could be reached, and as the ultimate destination of the
road was quite uncertain, and nothing was known of the part into
which it led, the possibility of getting into an actively hostile district
had to be considered, and arrangements to be made to make sure of
our retreat into Egypt, in the event of our camels being taken from us
and our finding it necessary to make the return journey on foot.
The distance we should have to travel from Dakhla Oasis, along
the road, before we found water or reached an oasis could not, I
imagined, be more than fifteen days’ journey at the most. I hoped, if
we managed to cover this distance and no other difficulties arose,
that we should be able to push on still farther, and eventually get
right across the desert into the French Sudan, where the authorities
had been warned to look out for me and to give me any assistance
they could.
 This old road from its size had at one time evidently been one of
the main caravan routes across the desert. The Senussi, it was
known, paid considerable attention to the improvement of the desert
roads, and, from what the natives told me, under their able
management, Kufara Oasis had become a focus to which most of
the caravan routes of this part of the desert converged.
This road must always have been a difficult one, owing to the long
waterless stretch that had to be crossed before the first oasis could
be reached. So it seemed likely that it had been abandoned in
consequence of another road to Kufara having been made easier by
sinking of new wells.
My main object in this journey was to see if this route was still
usable for caravans or, if not, whether it could not be made so by
means of new wells, or by improving the road at difficult points.
A road running up from Wanjunga to Dakhla Oasis would have cut
right across all the caravan routes, leading up to Kufara from the
Bedayat country and the Eastern Sudan, and so might have diverted
into Egypt a great deal of the traffic then going to Kufara and Tripoli.
In addition some of the trade carried by the great north and south
road, from the Central Sudan through Tikeru to Kufara, might also
have been brought into Dakhla by reopening this old route. As the
railway from the Nile Valley into Kharga could easily have been
extended into Dakhla, that oasis might have supplanted Kufara as
the main caravan centre of the Libyan Desert, and a comparatively
large entrepôt trade might have been developed there, the
merchandise being distributed by means of the railway into Egypt.
The total value of the goods carried across this district by caravan
is not great; but still the trade is of sufficient importance to make it
worth while to attempt to secure it, especially as, if that were done, it
would give a considerable hold over the inaccessible tribes of the
interior, and at the same time be a severe blow to the Senussi, who
for some time had threatened to become rather a nuisance.
To meet the requirements of the long fifteen days’ journey to
Owanat from Dakhla, or rather of our return in the event of our
having to beat a hurried retreat on foot, I had thirty small tanks made
of galvanised iron. These were placed in wooden boxes, a couple
being in each box, and packed round with straw to keep the water
cool and prevent them from shaking about in their cases.
Each pair of tanks contained enough water for the men and
myself for one day, with a slight margin over to allow for
contingencies. During the journey, one of these boxes could be left
at the end of every day’s march, with sufficient food to carry us on to
the next depot, in the event of our finding it necessary to retrace our
steps. With a pair of tanks in each box, I felt as certain as it was
possible to be that, even if one of them should leak and lose the
whole of its contents, there would still be sufficient water in the
second tank to last us till we reached the next depot. Even if all our
zemzemias and gurbas had been lost, these tanks, even when full,
were of a weight that could easily have been carried by a man during
the day’s march. When empty they could be thrown away.
I went up to Assiut to get together a caravan for the journey,
engaged a brother of Abd er Rahman’s, named Ibrahim, and also
secured Dahab for the journey. Qway and Abd er Rahman joined me
in Assiut, putting up at a picturesque old khan in the native town, and
thus our party became complete. The attempts I had made to find a
guide who knew the parts of the desert beyond the Senussi border
had again proved fruitless.
I hesitated at first to take Ibrahim into the desert partly because—
like many young Sudanese—I found him rather a handful, who
required a good deal of licking into shape, but chiefly because he
had not had much experience with camels, owing to his having acted
for some time as a domestic servant in Kharga Oasis. What finally
decided me to take him was one of those small straws that so often
tell one the way of the wind when dealing with natives.
Once, while loading a camel, preparatory to moving camp, the
baggage began to slip off his back and Ibrahim, as is usual with
bedawin in the circumstances, immediately invoked the aid of his
patron saint by singing out, “Ya! Sidi Abd es Salem.”
The saint that a native calls upon in these cases is nearly always
the one that founded the dervish Order to which he belongs, and this
Abd es Salem ben Mashish—to give him his full name—was the
founder of the Mashishia dervishes and is perhaps still better known
to Moslems as the religious instructor of Sheykh Shadhly, one of the
most famous of all Mohammedan divines.

OLD KHAN IN ASSIUT.

The cardinal principle of the Mashishia is to abstain entirely from

politics—a most useful character to have in a servant when going
into the country of the Senussi. The same principle was adopted by
the Shadhlia order and nearly all its numerous branches, and also by
a set of dervishes which split from the Mashishia, that is known as
the Madania—the old Madania, not the new Madania, which is of a
very different character.
Ibrahim’s brother, Abd er Rahman, used to invoke Abd el Qader el
Jilany, the founder of the great Qadria order of dervishes, the
followers of which, as a rule, are about the least fanatical of
Moslems.
Qway, though he made great protestations of keenness, I soon
found to be obstructing my preparations, and he developed signs of
dishonesty that I had not noticed in him before. What was worse, I
found him secretly communicating with a member of the Senussi
zawia in Qasr Dakhla, who, for some unexplained reason, had come
to Assiut, and who seemed to be in frequent communication with
him. This all pointed to some underhand dealing with the Senussi,
who, until they were brought to their senses by being well beaten in
the great war, always opposed any attempt to enter their country—
usually by tampering with a traveller’s guides.
I concluded that I had better keep a closer watch upon the
conduct of my guide than I had done before.
Having finished all arrangements in Assiut and dispatched the
caravan by road to Kharga, I set out myself by train.
At Qara Station on the Western Oasis line, I found Nimr, Sheykh
Suleyman’s brother. He brought up to me a jet black Sudani, about
six feet three in height, who was so excessively lightly built that he
could hardly have weighed more than eight stone. He answered to
the name of “Abdullah abu Reesha”—“Abdulla the father of
feathers,” a nickname given to him on account of his extreme
thinness. He had, however, the reputation of being one of the best
guides in the desert, and was always in request whenever a caravan
went down to collect natron from Bir Natrun, where there was always
a very fair chance of a scrap with the Bedayat. Nimr suggested that I
should take him as a guide, and appeared to be greatly disappointed
when I told him I had already engaged Qway. I promised, however,
to bear him in mind, and, if I wanted another guide at any time, to
write and ask Sheykh Suleyman to send him.
 Nimr told me the rather unwelcome news that the bedawin, who
had been pasturing their camels in Dakhla Oasis, were all scuttling
back again with their beasts to the safety of the Nile Valley, as there
was a report that a famous hashish runner and brigand, known as
’Abdul ’Ati, was coming in to raid the oasis. As I had counted on
being able to hire some camels off these Arabs in the oasis, to
supplement my own caravan when starting off on our fifteen days’
journey, this threatened raid was rather a nuisance and seemed
likely somewhat to upset my plans.
This ’Abdul ’Ati was a well-known character in the desert, and if
half the reports concerning him were true, he must have been a most
formidable personage. He was rather badly wanted by the Frontier
Guard (Camel Corps), as one of his principal occupations was that of
smuggling hashish (Indian hemp), at which he had proved himself
most successful. When business of this kind was slack, he
occasionally indulged in a little brigandage, presumably just to keep
his hand in.
Ibrahim, had the usual admiration for an outlaw common to youths
of his age all over the world, and ’Abdul ’Ati was his idol, and he was
a born hero-worshipper. He declared that he was a dead shot, and
owned a rifle that carried two hours’ journey of a caravan, i.e. about
five miles, and that he had no fear of anyone—not even of the Camel
Corps.
When next I heard of ’Abdul ’Ati, he was very busy in Tripoli
fighting against the Italians, and apparently making very good
indeed. The Camel Corps shot him eventually.
My caravan reached Kharga a day or two after my arrival, having
come across the desert from Assiut by a road that enters the oasis at
its northern end.
In Kharga I met Sheykh Suleyman, and, as I was camped not far
from his tent, rode over and spent an evening with him. Qway, of
course, accompanied me in hopes of a free meal, but was most
frigidly received by the sheykh, who treated him in the most
contemptuous manner. We had supper, consisting of bread and
treacle and hard boiled eggs, followed by coffee and cigarettes. After
which we sat for a time and talked.
“You had better take me as a guide instead of Qway,” suddenly
suggested Sheykh Suleyman.
Qway looked quickly up, evidently greatly annoyed, and the social
atmosphere became distinctly electric.
I explained that I could not well do that as I had found Qway an
excellent guide the year before, and had already signed an
agreement to take him on again for the season. Qway rather hotly
added some expostulation that I could not quite catch; but the gist of
it apparently was that Sheykh Suleyman was not quite playing the
game.
The sheykh laughed. “Maleysh” (never mind), he said, “if you want
another guide, write me a letter, and I will send Abdulla abu Reesha.
He’s a good man—better than Qway.”
Qway commenced a heated reply, only to be laughed at by
Sheykh Suleyman. As the interview threatened to become distinctly
stormy, I took the earliest opportunity of returning to camp.
The sheykh insisted on providing my breakfast the next morning.
Qway, for once, effaced himself, while breakfast and the subsequent
tea were in progress. He seemed to have seen as much of Sheykh
Suleyman as he wanted for the moment.
We got off at about ten in the morning, and after a short march
pitched our camp early in the day at Qasr Lebakha, a small square
mud-built keep on a stone foundation, having circular towers at the
four corners, all in a fairly good state of preservation. The walls at
the top of the tower were built double, with a kind of parapet walk
round the top, which may originally have been a mural passage of
which the roof had fallen in.
From Qasr Lebakha we went on to ’Ain Um Debadib. Our road lay
almost due west, parallel to the cliff of the plateau on our right, and
turned out to be anything but a good one, being both hilly and very
heavy going owing to the drift sand. The camels, too, gave a lot of
trouble.
 The caravan, as a whole, turned out to be the worst I ever owned.
There was, however, one exception. He was an enormously powerful
brute from the Sudan, that it seemed almost impossible to
overburden. The proverbial “last straw” that would have broken that
camel’s back could not, I believe, have been grown. But like other
powerful camels, he was always trying to bite the other beasts and
was a confirmed “man-eater.”
’Ain Um Debadib is a considerably larger place than Qasr
Lebakha. At the time of my visit it was inhabited by two men and
their families, natives of Kharga village, to which they occasionally
returned, leaving this little oasis to look after itself. Like Qasr
Lebakha, the place was originally defended by a castle, also
apparently of Roman date. An old road runs north-west from ’Ain Um
Debadib, which leads over the cliff to the north of the oasis by what
appears from below to be a difficult pass. I intended at some later
date to come back and try to find this place; but unfortunately the
opportunity did not occur. The Spaniards have a proverb to the effect
that hell is not only paved with good intentions, but is also roofed
with lost opportunities, and probably, in omitting to find out what lay
beyond that cliff, I added a slate to the infernal regions, for I think it
extremely likely that a depression lay on the other side of it
containing the well of ’Ain Hamur—not to be confused with ’Ain Amur
—or possibly a place called ’Ain Embarres.
 CHAPTER XIII

W E reached Dakhla Oasis on 23rd January, and stayed for a day

in the scrub-covered area, through which the road runs before
entering the inhabited portion of the oasis, on the chance of getting a
shot at gazelle. While camped here the ’omda of Tenida, the nearest
village, who was notorious throughout the oasis for his meanness,
sent down over night a ghaffir (night watchman) after dark, to spy out
who we were, and, having made sure of our identity, carefully got
himself out of the way, in order to avoid having to invite us in to a
meal, according to the hospitable custom of the oasis!
As gazelle-hunting, owing to some confounded bedawin, who
were camping in the neighbourhood and wandering all over the
place, seemed likely to prove a waste of energy, I moved on the
following day to the village of Belat.
Very little barley is grown in the oasis beyond that required for the
use of the inhabitants; but as I heard that the ’omda had a large
store of it that he had been unsuccessfully trying to sell, I
endeavoured to buy some off him.
But unfortunately he “followed the Skeykh,” and Qway continuing
his obstructive tactics of Assiut, secretly got hold of him, with the
result that, when I approached him on the subject, the ’omda
declared that there was not a grain left in the village—“not one.”
A distinctly stormy scene followed, which ended in the ’omda
caving in and producing about a quarter of a ton of the absent grain,
which I bought off him at an exorbitant price.
After this I gave him a thorough good dressing down, and then
graciously forgave him and we drowned our enmity in the usual tea. I
was not altogether dissatisfied with the transaction, for I felt that I
had read the ’omda a lesson that he would not forget for some time.
In this, however, as events turned out, I was to be grievously
disappointed—my troubles with regard to the camels’ fodder had
only just begun.
On our arrival in Mut, I went at once to the post office for letters,
and finding that the upper story of the place was vacant, arranged to
rent it during my stay in the oasis. It proved to be far better quarters
than the old gloomy, scorpion-haunted store, and I found no reason
to regret the change.

UPPER FLOOR OF POST OFFICE.

The man who tended the garden of the post office was quite a
local celebrity. He was no other than the blind drummer who
officiated in the band, when there was a wedding in the district. He
was also the town crier, and I frequently met him in the streets,
where, after beating a roll on his drum to attract attention, he would
call out the news that he was engaged to spread.
Curiously, considering that he was totally blind, he had the
reputation of being the best grower of vegetables in the
neighbourhood, and his services as gardener were in great request
in consequence. He was passionately fond of flowers, and was
almost invariably seen with a rose, or a sprig of fruit blossom in his
hand, which, as he made his way about the streets, he continually
smelt. Once, when I happened to meet him, the supply of flowers
must have run short, for he was inhaling, with evident gusto, the
delicious perfume of an onion!
His sense of locality must have been wonderful, for he made his
way about the streets almost as easily as though in full possession
of perfect eyesight. Plants of all kinds seemed to be an obsession
with him. He would squat down by the side of a bed of young
vegetables he had planted, feel for the plants by running his hands
rapidly over the soil, and, having found one, would tenderly finger it
to see how it was growing. He would in this way rapidly examine
each individual plant in the bed, and occasionally comment on the
growth of some particular plant since he had last handled it. The loss
of his eyesight had evidently greatly quickened his other faculties, for
he could find any plant he wished without difficulty, and seemed to
have a perfect recollection of the state in which he had last left them,
never, I was told, making any mistake in their identity. The gratified
smile that lighted up his blind, patient face, when his charges were
doing well was quite pathetic.
While staying in the post office my camels were accommodated
about a hundred yards away, in an open space under the lea of the
high mud-built wall that surrounds the town, close to where a break
had been made in it to allow free passage to the cultivation beyond.
The choice of this site for the camping ground of the camels turned
out to be unfortunate, for the locality was haunted. A man, it was
said, had been killed near there while felling a tree, and his ghost—
or as some said a ghul—frequently appeared there.
 A night or two after our arrival, Ibrahim, who was sleeping there
alone with the camels, came up to my room, just as I was getting into
bed, and announced that he was not a bit afraid—and he did not
seem in the least perturbed—but an afrit kept throwing clods of earth
at the camels, which prevented them from sleeping, so he thought
he had better come and tell me about it.
The clods came from over the wall, and several times he had
rushed round the corner, through the gap, to try and see the afrit who
was throwing them, but he had been unable to do so, so he wanted
me to come down and attend to him.
 BLIND TOWN CRIER, MUT.

It is not often that one gets the chance of interviewing a real

ghost, so taking a candle and my revolver, I went down to the camel
yard. Ibrahim showed me a pile of clods that had been thrown that
he had collected—there must at least have been a dozen of them—
and showed me the direction from which they had come.
It certainly was rather uncanny. On the other side of the wall was
a flat open space, and there was nowhere within stone’s throw
where any human being could possibly have hidden. I waited for
some time to see if any more clods would be thrown; but as none
came, I told Ibrahim in a loud voice to shoot any afrit he saw and
gave him my revolver, and then in a lower tone told him that he was
on no account to shoot at all, but that if anyone came he might
threaten to do so.
 Ibrahim was perfectly satisfied. It was not so much the possession
of the revolver that reassured him as the fact that it was made of
iron, and afrits, as of course is well known, are afraid of iron!
No more clods were thrown that night; but they began again on
the following evening, and still Ibrahim was unable to see the culprit.
The thing was becoming a nuisance and it had to be stopped. It was
of no use going to the native officials; they would have been just as
ready to believe in the afrit or ghul yarn as any of the natives of the
oasis, so I decided to tackle the question myself.
Dahab, carrying a pot of whitewash and a brush, and I, with a
sextant and the nautical almanac, repaired to the scene of the
haunting in the afternoon. I wrote “Solomon” and “iron” in Arabic on
the wall, drew two human eyes squinting diabolically, a little devil and
the diagram of the configuration of Jupiter’s Satellites, taken from the
nautical almanac—an extremely cabalistic-looking design. I then
waved the sextant about and finally touched each of the marks I had
drawn on the wall with it in turn.
By this time a small crowd had collected, and were watching the
proceedings with considerable interest. A six-inch sextant, fitted with
Reeve’s artificial horizon, is as awe-inspiring an instrument as any
magician could show.
I told Dahab to explain to the crowd that I had just put a tulsim
(talisman) on the wall, and that if it were an afrit that had been
throwing the clods, the words, “Solomon” and “iron,” acting in
conjunction with Jupiter’s Satellites, would certainly do for him
completely. But if it were a human being who had been throwing the
clods, the little devil and the eyes would get to work upon him at
once.
The devil I explained was a particularly malignant little English imp
that I had under my control, and if anyone threw any more clods at
my camels, I had so arranged things, that the devil in the form of this
tiny little black imp would crawl up his nostrils while he slept, and
would stick the forked end of his tail into his brain and keep waggling
it about, causing him the greatest suffering, until in a few years’ time
he went mad. Then it would stamp with red-hot feet on the backs of
his eyeballs till they fell out; after which the culprit would die in
horrible agony.
Dahab, on the way back, said he thought my tulsim looked a very
good one, but he did not at all believe in the afrit theory.
“Afrit,” he said in his funny English. “Never. Ibrahim he very fine
man and women in Dakhla all bad, very bad, like pitch. One women
he want speak Ibrahim.” This was very likely the size of it.
But I laid the ghost anyway. No more clods were thrown at my
camels.