Transitions in urban water management and patterns of international, interdisciplinary and intersectoral collaboration in urban water science

Abstract

Practitioners and scientists dealing with urban water management call for a transition to adaptive regimes. Transition management theories claim that to induce transitions, new forms of research are necessary which cut across traditional disciplinary, organizational and sectoral boundaries. Are such current calls for collaboration reflected in a fundamental change in scientific practices at the international level? This paper explores whether we witness cross-boundary interactions in professional networks and changes in the knowledge production towards more collaborative patterns in urban water science. To this end, we investigate both the professional interaction network at an international congress and the development of scientific output over the last two decades, using social network and bibliometric techniques. The results suggest that the professional interactions indeed reflect the cross-boundary interactions needed for a transition. However, the emerging patterns in scientific output do not indicate an actual system level shift towards a new mode of knowledge production.