Challenges Of Transdisciplinarity Research Articles

The phenomenon of science in the challenges of transdisciplinarity: the search for paradigmatic responses to social turbulence

The article discusses the features of the transdisciplinarity of science in actively developing areas of science. The author emphasizes the dīerence between transdisciplinarity and interdisciplinarity and polydisciplinarity. In conditions of social turbulence, when the development of science and technology is ahead of changes in society, it becomes necessary to compensate for the lag with paradigm decisions. Since the Enlightenment and the positive science of Auguste Comte, science as a special kind of human intellectual activity aimed at achieving new knowledge and its dissemination has undergone signiŤcant changes. The subject of research has become so reduced that instead of clear boundaries between sciences, points of intersection appear. Future research, cognitive science, artiŤcial intelligence research, and others are considered as actively developing modern transdisciplinary studies. Jean Piaget’s contribution to the development of semantics and pragmatics of the term “transdisciplinarity” is demonstrated. In 1998, UNESCO oыcially documented the importance of addressing the issue of transdisciplinarity. In 2013, in the United States, the American Academy of Science and Culture, ARISE-2 published a report, which testiŤed to the necessity to make a transition in American science from interdisciplinarity to transdisciplinarity.

Teaching Anthropology to Artists: The Challenges of Trans-disciplinarity and Beyond

In this paper, complex issues of education are discussed in relation to research and activism in the humanities and contemporary art, cultural production and politics. The discussion is based on a re-examination of twenty years of teaching anthropology at Greek universities in light of a strengthening engagement in the practices situated between this discipline and art. The context, the content and the mode of this activity are considered, during an epistemologically composite and politically significant process of interchanging teaching and learning positions. The specificity of the conditions of one’s own education needed to be acknowledged in the introduction to this retrospective survey. Teaching anthropology to professionals and students of different disciplines is also described as a period of learning how to place emphasis on practice, re-evaluate anthropological knowledge, combine diverse perspectives and negotiate power relations. Teaching anthropology to artists, however, particularly when the teacher also happens to be an artist, poses these and other challenges. Transdisciplinarity is sought, but only as something to surpass, eventually considering what it might mean to be 'undisciplined'. In any case, it is by now established that when anthropologists meet with artists, common interests become evident and a great potential for the renewal of research and theory is revealed, but diverging priorities and conflicting relations must also be addressed. Teaching and learning in such a context becomes more than an academic habit. It develops as a demanding, research-cum-art making activity, as shown by a number of collective projects that bring together students and teachers, on the fringes of the academy and social life during the difficult period of the so-called 'Greek crisis'.

Transdisciplinarity: science for and with society in light of the university\u2019s roles and functions

The idea that universities should become entrepreneurial, commercialized, private commodities or should serve politicians and governmental agencies has been promoted by the university–industry–government relationship-based Triple Helix approach and is reality in many places. In contrast, a reemphasis on universities serving the public good has been demanded by proponents of transdisciplinary sustainability research. To better understand the tensions between public-good–oriented approaches of transdisciplinarity and entrepreneurial, market-oriented Triple Helix and third-mission approaches of science—practice collaboration, this paper takes a closer look at the history of universities’ roles and functions. We then elucidate the practice of transdisciplinary processes and discuss the “science for and with society” approach of transdisciplinary sustainable transitioning. We argue that transdisciplinarity for producing groundbreaking sociotechnical solutions has to serve (a) the public good and (b) calls for independence, academic freedom, institutionalization, and proper funding schemes. Third-mission conceptions that follow the commercialization/capitalization of scientific knowledge are in conflict with the conception of science and of transdisciplinarity serving sustainable transitioning. The development of groundbreaking ideas for sustainable transitions must acknowledge the complexity and contextualization of real-world settings. Therefore, collaboration between practice and transdisciplinarity calls for the input and cooperation of authentic practitioners, i.e., the experts of practice and real wold complexity. The challenge of transdisciplinarity is to properly relate the fundamental expertise of practice to validated academic rigor. This implies that transdisciplinary research is a critical element of the university’s research mission.

A reflection on the role, potential and challenges of transdisciplinarity at the University of Fort Hare

The world is currently grappling with a myriad of challenges such as unemployment, poverty, inequality, violent crimes and HIV and AIDS. These challenges exist on multiple levels and are viewed from different perspectives by scholars coming from diverse disciplines, hence they demand to be tackled using a transdisciplinary approach. As part of the University of Fort Hare’s radical reconstruction of its intellectual project, the Centre for Transdisciplinary Studies (CTS) was established to facilitate and promote a wider intellectual engagement and research amongst academics and students across different disciplines. This research thus seeks to reconceptualise CTS’ objectives through exploring the academics’ understanding of transdisciplinarity, its role, transformative potential and challenges at the University of Fort Hare, South Africa. The research was conducted through qualitative semi-structured interviews with the university’s academic staff members representing faculties of health, law, social sciences and humanities, management and commerce, science and agriculture, education and the Teaching and Learning Centre. Data were analysed by thematic data analysis. The findings of the study concluded that there was no consensus amongst academics on the definition of transdisciplinarity. Academics defined it as either the merging or collaboration of disciplines. Some used the term interchangeably with interdisciplinarity and multi-disciplinarity. The findings positioned the role of CTS as that of raising transdisciplinary awareness and coordinating transdisciplinary activities across different disciplines in the university. The potential of transdisciplinarity includes collaborative research, teaching and learning and dialogue across the university. Challenges of transdisciplinarity proved to be first understanding the concept itself, foundations of mono-disciplinarity which promote departmental isolations, disciplinary comfort zones, heterogeneity of the university and academics’ busy schedules. In spite of the challenges of transdisciplinarity, participants indicated a willingness to engage in transdisciplinary activities.

Managing transdisciplinary sustainability research: navigating different logics at the interface

The complex problems facing sustainability requires complex research collaborations between organisations representing multiple professions such as business, public policy, civil society and academia. But how does such research at the interface occur and what capabilities are required? This paper systematically reviews the literature on collaborative sustainability related research across organisational and professional boundaries. We refer to this as transdisciplinary research and explore the different logics (approaches, methodologies, goals and values) that are drawn together. Commonly identified logics include (among others) environmental value creation, social value creation, commercial objectives and academic knowledge generation. While there has been much research on the challenges of transdisciplinarity in sustainability, the actual processes of managing inter organisational and cross profession research and associated tensions at the interface has had less attention. This paper presents a framework that sets out how projects operating at the interface manage the tensions at each stage of the research process. The paper shows how a key competence for the transdisciplinary researcher is the ability to manage the paradox of having multiple logics at one time. The paper concludes by presenting a research agenda for managing transdisciplinarity.

Социальная оценка техники в поворотные времена: вызовы трансдисциплинарности и национального

Социальная оценка техники в поворотные времена: вызовы трансдисциплинарности и национального

Practicing the science of sustainability: the challenges of transdisciplinarity in a developing world context

Questions related to how we practice sustainability science remain salient in the face of the failure to achieve broad-scale sustainability objectives. Transdisciplinarity is an essential part of sustainability science. Transdisciplinary conceptual scholarship has been more prevalent than empirical scholarship or applications, especially in developing world contexts. In a single case study of a multiyear project addressing water security issues in HaMakuya, South Africa, we used a framework for assessing transdisciplinary objectives to facilitate more systematic learning for those who practice sustainability science. We found that defining the problem and assembling our team were easier than the co-creation of solution-oriented knowledge and the reintegration and application of this new knowledge. Our singular case study speaks to the potential challenges related to building relationships and co-creating knowledge in an epistemologically diverse setting. Other case studies appear to have negotiated these issues in developing country contexts, and this leaves room further investigation for how to practice transdisciplinarity under these conditions.

Transdisciplinary Scholarship: Integrating Boyer’s Model of Scholarship with Transdisciplinary Research

A recent article by Jahn et al. provided an excellent overview of transdisciplinarity, provided a framework for transdisciplinary research, and discussed challenges of transdisciplinarity. Some of these challenges are lessened if concepts of scholarship promoted by Earnest Boyer are incorporated into the framework of transdisciplinary research. This merger of transdisciplinary research with Boyer’s model of scholarship can be called transdisciplinary scholarship’. The goals of the current manuscript are to (1) provide a brief overview of Boyer’s Model of Scholarship, (2) integrate the Jahn et al. description of transdisciplinarity with Boyer’s Model of Scholarship, and (3) offer a strategy to address the major cognitive challenge that integration presents to transdisciplinarity. (4) I provide an example of transdisciplinary scholarship that I am conducting in Haiti. Finally, (5) the Jahn et al. definition of transdisciplinarity is tweaked by 1 word.

Climate Change, Capitalism, and the Challenge of Transdisciplinarity

A new sense of urgency has grown among many scientists for policies to address climate change, resulting in unprecedented investments by scientists in public education and, in some cases, political activism. As climate scientists have investigated future climate scenarios—and potential social responses to environmental changes—they have become, ipso facto, social scientists. This article examines these changes to reflect on how they could reshape geography, a discipline that appears well positioned to advance transdisciplinary research. In light of the intellectual and political urgency of transdisciplinary climate research, why have we seen so little substantive collaboration across the science/social science divide? The answer, I argue, stems from differences between research in natural science, on one hand, and the social sciences and humanities, on the other. These problems need not cause paralysis, but to address them they must be understood. The article attends to this challenge by reflecting on Albert Einstein's arguments concerning science and capitalism.

Education for sustainable development: the challenge of trans-disciplinarity

Education for sustainable development: the challenge of trans-disciplinarity

Trials and Tribulations: Conducting Randomized Experiments in a Socio‐legal Setting

The simplest questions can pose the greatest challenge to those tasked with answering them. This paper provides an account of a randomized control trial conducted in a socio-legal setting in England and Wales during 2005/6. It was aimed at answering the 'simple' question of whether law-related advice (debt advice in this instance) is of benefit to those who receive it. The paper explains the rationale for employing a randomized control trial in this context. It details the many technical, practical, and ethical obstacles that presented themselves during the design and implementation stages of the trial. It also suggests methods that might be adopted to improve future trials conducted in a similar context. While the paper reveals the enormous potential of randomized trials within the socio-legal field, it makes plain the importance of effective inter disciplinary collaboration, detailed technical understanding, and experience to their successful execution. In the context of the 'challenge of trans disciplinarity' detailed in the final report of the Nuffield Inquiry on Empirical Legal Research,1 and a noted 'lack of experience' of conducting social trials in the United Kingdom,2 the need to develop capacity and share such experience as currently exists is readily apparent.

Integrated coastal management: the challenge of transdisciplinarity

The Euroconference on Coastal Management Research held in San-Feliu de Guixols, Spain, in December 1997 brought together scientists from a great variety of disciplines in the natural and social sciences, in a search for modes of transdisciplinary cooperation in the context of integrated coastal management. During the conference the participants discussed which interactions among disciplines are required for different coastal issues. Discussion groups each focused on a particular type of coastal environment, characterized by a particular type and degree of development. The group discussions were inspired by background papers which were prepared for this purpose by invited speakers. A selection of these background papers were redrafted on the basis of the conference outcome, and are published in this issue of theJournal of Coastal Conservation. The reports of the discussion groups are published in a conference proceedings booklet issued by EMAPS (1998), the European Polar and Marine Sciences Secretariat. A synthesis of ideas on the challenge of transdisciplinarity, expressed during the discussion group sessions, is presented in this introduction. The statements reflect opinions or suggestions which received broad support from the participants; they should not be taken as proven knowledge.