Abstract
Transdisciplinary researchers collaborate with diverse partners outside of academia to tackle sustainability problems. The patterns and practices of social interaction and the contextual nature of transdisciplinary research result in different performance expectations than traditional, curiosity-driven research. Documenting patterns of interaction can inform project success and affirm progress toward interim outcomes on the way to achieve sustainability impacts. Yet providing credible and robust indicators of research activity remains challenging. We provide quantitative and qualitative indicators for assessing transdisciplinary practices and patterns through social network analysis (SNA). Our assessment developed four criteria to reveal how SNA metrics provide insight into (1) diversity of participants; (2) whether and how integration and collaboration are occurring, (3) the relative degrees of network stability and fragility, and (4) how the network is structured to achieve its goals. These four key criteria can be used to help identify patterns of research activity and determine whether interim progress is occurring.
Highlights
Identifying patterns of transdisciplinary research practicePlanetary sustainability rests on the twin conceptual ideals of remaining within specific environmental boundaries, like biospheric integrity, climate limits and freshwater use, and providing social foundations for a safe and just space for humanity to thrive (Rockström et al 2009; Raworth 2012)
We demonstrate how social network analysis (SNA) can be used to provide empirical insight into the detection of patterns and practices associated with transdisciplinarity
These results suggest that Delta Dialogue Network (DDN) maintained its diversity and saw a rebalancing of proportional representation over time
Summary
Identifying patterns of transdisciplinary research practicePlanetary sustainability rests on the twin conceptual ideals of remaining within specific environmental boundaries, like biospheric integrity, climate limits and freshwater use, and providing social foundations for a safe and just space for humanity to thrive (Rockström et al 2009; Raworth 2012). A transdisciplinary project is an exercise in creating new knowledge through co-production It can be conceived as a network comprised of a variety of actors of different types—community members, industry, government representatives, academic researchers, students, non-profit organizations and so on. Each brings their own values, views, experiences and knowledge to bear on framing, designing and implementing the project. We illustrate how SNA was used with the example of the Delta Dialogue Network (DDN)—a multi-year transdisciplinary project that involved work with Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities from three inland deltas across Canada to promote knowledge co-production and address regional-scale sustainability problems
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