Abstract
This article describes a collaboration among a group of university faculty, undergraduate students, local governments, local residents, and U.S. Army staff to address long-standing concerns about the environmental health effects of an Army ammunition plant. The authors describe community-responsive scientific pilot studies that examined potential environmental contamination and a related undergraduate research course that documented residents’ concerns, contextualized those concerns, and developed recommendations. We make a case for the value of resource-intensive university–community partnerships that promote the production of knowledge through collaborations across disciplinary paradigms (natural/physical sciences, social sciences, health sciences, and humanities) in response to questions raised by local residents. Our experience also suggests that enacting this type of research through a university class may help promote researchers’ adoption of “epistemological pluralism”, and thereby facilitate the movement of a study from being “multidisciplinary” to “transdisciplinary”.
Highlights
In recent decades, there have been increasing calls for academics to move beyond disciplinary silos to engage in transdisciplinary research aimed at addressing the “wicked problems” [1] faced by society, such as climate change, poverty, political instability, and complex environmental health problems, such as air and water pollution [2]
Miller et al 2008 argue that achieving research that is truly transdisciplinary requires a commitment to “epistemological pluralism”, or a recognition that, “in any given research context, there may be several valuable ways of knowing, and that accommodating this plurality can lead to more successful integrated study” (p. 46, [4])
In the sections that follow, we describe a collaboration among an interdisciplinary group of university faculty who sought to address long-standing community concerns about the environmental health effects of the U.S Army’s Radford Army Ammunition Plant in southwest Virginia
Summary
There have been increasing calls for academics to move beyond disciplinary silos to engage in transdisciplinary research aimed at addressing the “wicked problems” [1] faced by society, such as climate change, poverty, political instability, and complex environmental health problems, such as air and water pollution [2]. There is a recognition that addressing such challenges requires the expertise of scholars from diverse disciplines and epistemological orientations [3]. Achieving transdisciplinary resolutions are difficult precisely because of the different epistemological orientations of various fields [4]. Miller et al 2008 argue that achieving research that is truly transdisciplinary requires a commitment to “epistemological pluralism”, or a recognition that, “in any given research context, there may be several valuable ways of knowing, and that accommodating this plurality can lead to more successful integrated study” Recognizing and unlearning our disciplinary biases can be a
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
