Supporting Institutional Transformations: Experimenting with Reflexive and Embodied Cross-Boundary Research

Gloria Giambartolomei,Jana Fried,Alexandra Franklin

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-84248-2_16

Abstract

AbstractThe sustainable management of natural resources (SMNR) is concerned with socially and environmentally just decision-making processes around the access to, and the control over, natural resources. However, SMNR is imbued of multiple (and conflictual) intersecting knowledges, practice, expertise and value systems, as well as unequal power relations. This makes achieving meaningful and inclusive collaborative practices far from straightforward, and by no means easy to guarantee. This chapter discusses some evidence from Wales, drawing from a wider cross-boundary doctoral research project (led by the first author) on collaborative forms of SMNR, co-developed by a small transdisciplinary team of academics (the two co-authors) and (cross-divisional) civil servants within Welsh Government. Specifically, this chapter discusses the first author’s experience of transdisciplinary collaboration through the methodological lens provided by blending the Formative Accompanying Research (Freeth, R. (2019). Formative Accompanying Research with Collaborative Interdisciplinary Teams. Doctoral Thesis.) and the Embodied Researcher approach (Horlings et al., 2020). We offer a critical reflection on the first-hand experience of co-experimenting alongside policy actors with alternative and more creative ways of working in the spaces in between the written publication and implementation of SMNR legislation and policy.We explore the role of creative methods such as Theory U (Scharmer, 2018) in further promoting collaborative processes of meaning-making in transdisciplinary research settings, highlighting their contribution towards enabling emotional and embodied ways of working to be forefronted. In so doing, the chapter illustrates the role of emotional labour, vulnerability and energy in such co-experimental work by emphasizing the need for the practicing of care in building relationships of trust and collaboration, especially within the context of just sustainability transformations. We conclude by stressing the importance of dedicating sufficient time and resources to enable a culture of care (Bellacasa, 2017; Tronto, 2013) such that embodied and collaborative ways of working can be more fully supported and understood within governmental institutions.

Highlights

In 2015, the Welsh Parliament introduced a ground-breaking new legislation to support an ambitious national political commitment to the principle of Sustainable Development: the ‘Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act’ (WBFGA, 2015)
Guided throughout by an understanding of policy actors “not just as rule-setting and rule-following beings, but relational agents who work out the substance of policy through interpersonal relationships and everyday transactions” (Lejano, 2020, p. 2), we offer a critical reflection on Giambartolomei’s first-hand experience of co-experimenting alongside policy actors with alternative ways of working in the spaces in between the written publication and implementation of sustainable management of the natural resources (SMNR) legislation and policy
We conclude by emphasizing the importance of dedicating sufficient time and resources to enable a culture of care (Puig de la Bellacasa, 2017; Tronto, 2013) such that embodied and collaborative ways of working can be more fully supported and understood within governmental institutions. It is only by normalizing such ways of working outside transdisciplinary research projects, or during occasional, alternative moments of experimentation, that they can truly become far more integral to, and accepted within, everyday practice. We argue, through such a process of care, through a collaborative and continuous process of aligning our heads, hearts, hands and feet, that we will be able to progress along the pathway of socially and ecologically just sustainability transformations, regardless of our personal, professional or institutional starting points

Summary

Introduction

In 2015, the Welsh Parliament introduced a ground-breaking new legislation to support an ambitious national political commitment to the principle of Sustainable Development: the ‘Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act’ (WBFGA, 2015). I wanted to avoid anyone feeling (personally) attacked or criticized, but rather feel encouraged to reflect on current policies and practices from different points of view In this initial phase, I found myself engaging in the complex balancing act of critical reflexivity, through a practice of care that would allow me to nurture the space of safe collaboration we had started building (care as maintenance work) while asking questions I profoundly care about (care as ethico-political involvement): e.g., where do we stand (as individuals, community members, citizens, policymakers, academics etc.) in the journey of Wales as a nation committed to social and ecological wellbeing for present and future generations?. When we were asked to share our prototypes with the rest of the group, and I had to admit that I could not do it, it was embarrassing, and liberating and empowering: through our shared experience and learning with, I had reached a sense of connection, safety and trust within that newly emerged ‘community’, that I felt confident and fine with being honest about my “failure”

Discussion

Conclusions