Abstract
Transdisciplinarity is gaining acceptance in sustainability science research as an approach to work across disparate types of knowledge and practices in order to tackle complex social-ecological problems. On paper, transdisciplinarity appears to be substantially helpful, but in practice, participants may remain voiceless and disadvantaged. In this paper, we retrospectively investigate four case studies using recent design principles for transdisciplinary research, to explore a deeper understanding of the practical successes and failures of transdisciplinary research engagement. We show that the transdisciplinary way of working is time consuming, challenging, and insists that researchers and participants contribute reflexively. Careful attention to research design and methodology is central. The acceptance that complexity renders knowledge provisional, and complete honesty about the purpose of the research are critical to building relationships between researchers and participants. Gaining an understanding of the values people hold influences the research process and the possible outcomes toward sustainable and just natural resource management. We suggest that in order to enable sustainable and just natural resource management, transdisciplinary research should include values and ethics in the design, implementation, and reporting of projects.
Highlights
Case study authors reflected on their cases to explicate their interpretation of sustainable and just natural resource management (NRM), asking how TD research contributed to sustainable and just NRM in their case, and highlighting evidence of ethics and values in the cases
The core objective of this paper was to elucidate the contribution of TD research practice to sustainable and just NRM, drawing insights from the Eastern Cape, South Africa
We suggest that consciously planned TD research alone is not sufficient to achieve sustainable and just NRM, it does contribute to a trajectory of change in that direction
Summary
Transdisciplinary (TD) research has found traction in sustainability science (Jahn et al 2012, Swilling and Annecke 2012, Dedeurwaerdere 2013). Lang et al (2012:26) define transdisciplinarity as “a reflexive, integrative, method-driven scientific principle aiming at the solution or transition of societal problems and concurrently, of related scientific problems by differentiating and integrating knowledge from various scientific and societal bodies of knowledge.” The definition forms the basis for a set of four design principles for TD research practice that offers a sequential pathway: building a team; producing cocreated, solution-oriented, transferrable knowledge; effecting integrated implementation; and activities of adaptive evaluation, mitigating conflict, and enhancing participation that cut across the previous three principles (Lang et al 2012). The definition forms the basis for a set of four design principles for TD research practice that offers a sequential pathway: building a team; producing cocreated, solution-oriented, transferrable knowledge; effecting integrated implementation; and activities of adaptive evaluation, mitigating conflict, and enhancing participation that cut across the previous three principles (Lang et al 2012). We use this definition and its associated sequential pathway as a comparative framing to interrogate research toward sustainable and just natural resource management in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Conceptual, theoretical, and design contributions are generally more evident in the TD, CSES, and learning literature, but feedback from practice is scarce
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