Non-academic Actors Research Articles

A new understanding and evaluation of food sustainability in six different food systems in Kenya and Bolivia

Food systems must become more sustainable and equitable, a transformation which requires the transdisciplinary co-production of knowledge. We present a framework of food sustainability that was co-created by academic and non-academic actors and comprises five dimensions: food security, right to food, environmental performance, poverty and inequality, and social-ecological resilience. For each dimension, an interdisciplinary research team—together with actors from different food systems—defined key indicators and empirically applied them to six case studies in Kenya and Bolivia. Food sustainability scores were analysed for the food systems as a whole, for the five dimensions, and for food system activities. We then identified the indicators with the greatest influence on sustainability scores. While all food systems displayed strengths and weaknesses, local and agroecological food systems scored comparatively highly across all dimensions. Agro-industrial food systems scored lowest in environmental performance and food security, while their resilience scores were medium to high. The lowest-scoring dimensions were right to food, poverty and inequality, with particularly low scores obtained for the indicators women’s access to land and credit, agrobiodiversity, local food traditions, social protection, and remedies for violations of the right to food. This qualifies them as key levers for policy interventions towards food sustainability.

Transdisciplinary knowledge production in mainstream journals: from the perspective of the participation of social actors in Mexico

Contemporary scientific production can no longer be explained with traditional actors and procedures. We conducted a transdisciplinary bibliometric study to identify and analyze the participation of social actors in the publications in mainstream journals with a Mexican affiliation during 2015, in the Web of Science. 22,331 articles were obtained with at least one Mexican authorship. More than one hundred different social actors were identified, grouped into 49 categories. The actors were segmented into (1) academic actors (79.15%), affiliated to universities and research centers; and (2) non-academic actors (20.85%), who do not have knowledge production within their main activities. Academic actors have greater participation in the fields of life sciences, engineering, and physical sciences, while non-academics affect the field of health and life sciences. Mexico City contains the most significant number of affiliations (41.87%), which a high academic contribution (65.21%). Most of this production corresponds to articles (72.56%) written in English (81.94%) and published in scientific journals located in the first two JCR quartiles (57.85%). The results show differences when comparing academic and non-academic actors. We conclude that the participation of a broad group of social actors with different patterns of knowledge production has been identified with empirical evidence.

La evaluación en ciencia y tecnología en Argentina. Estado de situación y propuestas

La evaluación es parte fundamental de la política científica y tecnológica de un país y, dado su carácter performativo, es una herramienta que permite introducir cambios en el sector. En este trabajo presentamos una crítica al paradigma hegemónico de evaluación por productos, basado fundamentalmente en indicadores cuantitativos de papers y patentes. Con este marco discutimos las principales problemáticas de la evaluación de la ciencia y la tecnología en Argentina. Entre ellas: el sesgo excesivo hacia lo cuantitativo; el anonimato y la falta de transparencia; la primacía de la evaluación ex ante y realizada exclusivamente por pares; la falta de coherencia con políticas y planes, y el solapamiento de sistemas de evaluación. Finalmente presentamos una serie de propuestas para mejorar los procesos de evaluación en el país, destacando la necesidad de alcanzar una consistencia con las políticas de Estado y con un Plan Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología, y de incluir a los actores extra-académicos en la evaluación de la actividad científica-tecnológica.

Linking modes of research to their scientific and societal outcomes. Evidence from 81 sustainability-oriented research projects

Sustainability-oriented research has increasingly adopted “new” modes of research promoted under labels such as ‘post-normal science’, ‘mode 2 knowledge production’ or ‘transdisciplinarity’, aiming to address societally relevant problems and to produce ‘socially robust’ knowledge by involving relevant scientific disciplines and non-academic actors into the research.We present the results of a comparative quantitative analysis of 81 completed sustainability-oriented research projects, coupled with an in-depth study of six projects, to empirically investigate the assumed connections between research modes and societal and academic project outcomes.Statistical analysis suggests that contributions from practitioners in early phases of research projects positively influence certain societal and practice-relevant outcomes. By contrast, including non-academic actors and practitioner knowledge into research negatively impacts academic outputs and citations, indicating a trade-off between academic and societal impacts. Yet projects which apply structured methods of knowledge integration score generally higher on academic outputs and citations. Moreover, the funding context affects both research mode and research outcomes. Finally, practitioner involvement negatively affects completing of PhD projects.Findings from the in-depth study reinforce a trade-off between the societal and academic impact of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary sustainability-oriented research. We find that projects which had a double research objective on academic and societal outcomes but which did not specify how to realize both, neglected either the academic or the societal impact during the research process. Moreover, we find that a well-designed combination of disciplinary as well as inter- and transdisciplinary project phases helped projects to meet both demands.

Testing Analytical Frameworks in Transdisciplinary Research for Sustainable Development

This article discusses the concept and the practice of transdisciplinary research, including how it is conceived and implemented through the cooperation of different actors involved. With transdisciplinarity gaining recognition as an approach to addressing sustainable development challenges, the successful integration of various disciplines and actors in the process of knowledge generation becomes essential. Through the Cooperation and Development Center (CODEV), the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) has promoted transdisciplinary research by proposing a space where North–South partnerships integrating academic and non-academic actors enable the expansion of appropriate technologies and innovations adapted to local societal contexts. This study examines five collaborative research projects conducted at the EPFL. By using an analytical framework consisting of design principles for ideal transdisciplinary research, we conducted semi-structured interviews with academic and non-academic members of the research projects to assess the degree of transdisciplinarity. This framework proved to be a useful tool for exploring transdisciplinary dynamics and assessing the effectiveness of joint knowledge generation. We found that the transdisciplinary cooperation involving different actors is not a linear process, as it depends on the social context in which the project is carried out and on the internal and the external organizational structure established for its implementation. We provide recommendations on how transdisciplinarity could be expanded through institutional support and its results could be effectively transferred into science and practice and discuss the implications for further studies in the conclusions.

Keeping the doors open: experimenting science–policy–practice interfaces in Africa for sustainable urban development

Academics and policy-makers are increasingly being challenged to acknowledge that their knowledge is necessary but insufficient in addressing the complex challenges associated with global urbanization. But few studies offer a coherent framing of how actors from academia, policy and local communities can interface and build synergies for resolving urban sustainability challenges. This paper presents three parameters along which science–policy–practice interfaces for urban sustainability can be understood. The three parameters are: (1) co-framing research agendas; (2) co-designing methodologies; and (3) co-experimentation of scalable solutions. Co-framing research agendas speaks to the process of jointly developing research problems and questions from on a particular or interrelated set of urban sustainability challenges. Co-designing methodologies centers on the spectrum of approaches and methods for generating and sharing knowledge that is scientifically credible, relevant to policy and socially valuable. Co-experimentation refers to testing or taking to scale locally-embedded solutions that can resonate with systemic change at wider scales. To illustrate the contextual meanings and dynamics of these three parameters, case studies of interfaces amongst academic and non-academic actors are presented from cities of Durban, Stellenbosch and Kampala. The case studies demonstrate that all the parameters mean altering the positionality of local communities and policy-makers, from end-users to co-bearers of knowledge with scientists from academia. None of the case studies indicates that one parameter is a step to another, rather the emphasis is on reflexive modes of collaboration amongst the actors involved to permit the co-production of knowledge.

Knowledge co-production in protective spaces: case studies of two climate adaptation projects

Knowledge co-production, a mode of research including contributions both from academic and non-academic actors, is a promising approach for climate adaptation research in order to produce knowledge that supports the development of local and regional adaptation policies. However, such a local and practical focus may be ill-aligned with the global ambitions of academic participants. The differences between performance criteria of academic and non-academic partners make knowledge co-production unlikely to emerge and survive without protection. This paper aims to understand how different participants in knowledge co-production for climate adaptation can be protected from the norms, values, and performance criteria of their own respective organizations and communities. We found that combinations of shielding (moderating pressures from the selection environment), nurturing (supporting knowledge development), and empowerment (increasing influence over the contexts) activities lead to more successful knowledge co-production. Moreover, our analysis shows that there is no silver bullet for the protection of knowledge co-production. An effective protection strategy should be tailored to the research problem and the social network of a given program.

The relationship between interdisciplinarity and distinct modes of university-industry interaction

Interdisciplinary research (IDR) has raised increasing expectations among scholars and policymakers about its potential to produce ground-breaking scientific contributions and satisfy societal demands. While existing research highlights that novel connections across fields is beneficial for scientific contributions with high academic impact, comparatively less is known about whether IDR is positively associated to scientists’ engagement with non-academic actors. To investigate this, we examine whether there is a systematic relationship between scientists’ IDR-orientation and their interactions with industry. We conceptually distinguish four stylized modes of interaction (firm creation, technology transfer, co-production and response modes) and employ three distinct indicators of IDR. We use data on 1,170 scientists affiliated to public research organizations in Spain, bibliometric dataset of scientists’ publications, and details of scientists’ past involvement in interactions with industry. Our results show that IDR has a transversal influence on all four modes. However, IDR-oriented scientists are more strongly associated to transactional (market-mediated) compared to relational (personal-based) interaction mechanisms; while we find no evidence of a significant difference between IDR-oriented scientists and their propensity to engage in different modes of U-I interaction according to the degree of goal specificity.

Transdisciplinary Learning Communities to Involve Vulnerable Social Groups in Solving Complex Water-Related Problems in Bolivia

Bolivia has influenced the international water arenas as a pioneer of the Human Water Rights Declaration before the United Nations General Council. However, despite a positive but rather ideological evolution, the country is still facing several water challenges in practice. Water governance is extremely complex due to intricate social structures, important spatial and temporal differences in the availability of water resources, ecological fragility, and weak institutions. A Transdisciplinary Learning Community approach has been adopted by the Universidad Católica Boliviana to take into account the complexity of the water problems caused by social, hydrological, and ecological system imbalances. In this approach, researchers and non-academic actors work closely together to integrate different ways of conceiving, using, valuing, and deciding on water issues. The approach aims at co-creating resilient solutions by recovering and restoring not only the ecological system, but also the social system in which all actors are aware of their role and responsibility. We explain the challenges and concerns raised by this approach in a case study of the Katari River Basin (KRB), which is impacted by a high degree of contamination that is mainly caused while crossing El Alto city, leading to dramatic consequences for the Lake Titicaca ecosystem and its surrounding communities.

A political ecology of transdisciplinary research

Transdisciplinary research (TDR) is widely regarded as a promising, and even essential, means of addressing complex sustainability problems, whilst delivering beneficial outcomes for scientists and the non-academic actors with whom they engage. Premised on the 'ecological modernisation' of Europe, regional funding for TDR under Framework Programmes such as FP7 and more recently Horizon 2020 have sought to support academic engagement with a wide range of research stakeholders through calls for transdisciplinary research in order to better address Europe's "grand societal challenges" (EC 2013). This article, based on doctoral research, consists of an ex-post study of three European Union funded transdisciplinary projects (CREPE, EJOLT and GAP2) implemented under the Seventh Framework's (2007-2013) Science in Society program. Its focus is on how issues of power and governance permeate TDR projects, giving rise to tensions, challenges and ultimately struggles over the very meaning of official projects and their outcomes, despite the most egalitarian of intentions and underlying principles of mutual benefit. These tensions, this article argues, should be understood not merely as cultural, methodological or cognitive challenges, but as essentially political conflicts that manifest and flow across multiple scales. In light of these inherent challenges, the article argues that TDR is always conducted on a terrain of political ecology, and concludes by making recommendations for potential collaborators, as well as for European research policy makers, with the objective of enabling participants and funders alike to realise the transformative potential of this promising mode of research.<p><strong>Keywords</strong>: Political ecology of transdisciplinary research, power, governance, Science in Society, European research agenda, agro-ecology, environmental justice, fisheries </p>

Citizens of somewhere: Examining the geography of foreign and native-born academics’ engagement with external actors

This paper explores the geography of academic engagement patterns of native and foreign-born academics, contrasting how patterns of intranational and international engagement with non-academic actors differ between these two groups. We suggest that foreign-born academics will engage more internationally than their native-born colleagues, whereas native-born academics will have greater levels of intranational engagement. Drawing upon a large multi-source dataset, including a major new survey of all academics working in the UK, we find support for the idea that where people are born influences how they engage with non-academic actors. We also find that these differences are attenuated by an individual’s intranational and international experience, ethnicity and language skills. We explore the implications of these findings for policy to support intranational and international academic engagement.

LTSER platforms as a place-based transdisciplinary research infrastructure: learning landscape approach through evaluation

ContextPlace-based transdisciplinary research involves multiple academic disciplines and non-academic actors. Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research (LTSER) platform is one concept with ~ 80 initiatives globally.ObjectivesAs an exercise in learning through evaluation we audited (1) the siting, construction and maintenance of individual LTSER platforms, and (2) them as a distributed infrastructure for place-based transdisciplinary research with focus on the European continent.MethodsFirst, we defined a normative model for ideal performance at both platform and network levels. Second, four surveys were sent out to the 67 self-reported LTSER platforms officially listed at the end of 2016. Third, with a focus on the network level, we analyzed the spatial distribution of both long-term ecological monitoring sites within LTSER platforms, and LTSER platforms across the European continent. Fourth, narrative biographies of 18 platforms in different stages of development were analyzed.ResultsWhile the siting of LTSER platforms represented biogeographical regions well, variations in land use history and democratic governance were not well represented. Platform construction was based on 2.1 ecological monitoring sites, with 72% ecosystem and 28% social system research. Maintenance of a platform required three to five staff members, focused mostly on ecosystem research, was based mainly on national funding, and had 1–2 years of future funding secured. Networking with other landscape approach concepts was common.ConclusionsIndividually, and as a network, LTSER platforms have good potential for transdisciplinary knowledge production and learning about sustainability challenges. To improve the range of variation of Pan-European social–ecological systems we encourage interfacing with other landscape approach concepts.

Construyendo sentidos de utilidad. Investigadores, conocimientos científicos y problemas públicos

El artículo aborda el tema de la utilidad social de los conocimientos científicos desde una perspectiva microsociológica. El principal objetivo del trabajo es analizar los procesos de asignación subjetiva de sentidos de utilidad a conocimientos científicos por parte de investigadores en el marco de interacciones con otros actores no académicos interesados en el uso de esos conocimientos. Se presta especial atención a las variaciones temporales de estos procesos de construcción de significados de utilidad como resultado de la reflexividad de los actores. El análisis se realiza a partir de un estudio de caso sobre un grupo de investigación académico cuyas investigaciones son potencialmente útiles para la producción local de una vacuna para una enfermedad considerada reemergente en Argentina. Como resultado, se muestran las modificaciones en las prácticas del grupo producto de su ingreso en un sistema de interacciones con actores no científicos así como los límites de estos cambios.

Being there in the flex: humanities and social science collaborations with nonacademic actors

ABSTRACTIn the face of reduced public funding of science and increased demands for ‘value for money’, academic researchers find themselves hard pressed to produce relevant research and demonstrate their utility to society. These pressures are particularly prominent in the humanities and social sciences (HSS) where practical value is frequently questioned. This article investigates how HSS can be made ‘relevant’ through the qualitative case study of a funding instrument fostering immersive collaboration between HSS researchers and non-academic actors. The research is a qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews with the funded researchers and representatives of the funding agency. The paper provides insights into the motivations and experiences of HSS researchers embarking on the quest for relevance and the difficulties they encounter. In particular, the study finds that the key challenge for HSS researchers lies in balancing the level of engagement required to be relevant with the requirements of an academic career.

The guiding logics and principles for designing emergent transdisciplinary research processes: learning experiences and reflections from a transdisciplinary urban case study in Enkanini informal settlement, South Africa

Transdisciplinarity is not a new science per se, but a new methodology for doing science with society. A particular challenge in doing science with society is the engagement with non-academic actors to enable joint problem formulation, analysis and transformation. How this is achieved differs between contexts. The premise of this paper is that transdisciplinary research (TDR) methodologies designed for developed world contexts cannot merely be replicated and transferred to developing world contexts. Thus a new approach is needed for conducting TDR in contexts characterised by high levels of complexity, conflict and social fluidity. To that end, this paper introduces a new approach to TDR titled emergent transdisciplinary design research (ETDR). A core element of this approach is that the research process is designed as it unfolds, that is, it transforms as it emerges from and within the fluid context. The ETDR outlined in this paper emerged through a case study in the informal settlement (slum) of Enkanini in Stellenbosch, South Africa. This case study demonstrates the context from and within which the ETDR approach and identifies a set of guiding logics that can be used to guide ETDR approaches in other contexts. The study demonstrates that the new logics and guiding principles were not simply derived from the TDR literature, but rather emerged from constant interacting dynamics between theory and practice. Learning how to co-design the research process through co-producing transformative knowledge and then implementing strategic interventions to bring about incremental social change is key to theory development in ways that are informed by local contextual dynamics. There are, however, risks when undertaking such TDR processes such as under-valuing disciplinary knowledge, transferring risks onto a society, and suppressing ‘truth-to-power’.

Transdisciplinary Sustainability Research and Citizen Science: Options for Mutual Learning

Both citizen science and transdisciplinary sustainability research involve nonacademic actors in the production of knowledge while seeking to contribute to sustainability transitions, albeit in different ways. From citizen science, transdisciplinary researchers can learn about the multiple ways of engaging knowledge holders, and producing and sharing knowledge.

Ecología, tecnología e innovación para la sustentabilidad: retos y perspectivas en México

In Mexico and in the world, the incorporation of the scientific community (among them ecologists) to the generation of knowledge that contributes to solving the serious environmental problems, and advancing towards the sustainability, requires a different research vision. Moreover, innovative tools are needed to couple the work of the scientific community with the rest of the society. Ecologists are challenged to become innovators and creators of new models, collaborative processes, methods and research tools, basic and applied, in topics such as agriculture, forestry, livestock and the use of natural resources. To meet this challenge, ecologists in Mexico need to amalgamate their work with other academic and non-academic actors to jointly promote environmental improvement processes with social benefits. This contribution examines challenges and perspectives of ecotechnological innovation in Mexico. We suggest to foster the research work in this field in laboratories without walls, in which flexible groups of actors design, test, and evaluate ecotechnological innovations that respond to specific local and regional socio-ecological and environmental problems.

Exploring preferences for impact versus publications among UK business and management academics

Academics are under increasing pressure to demonstrate the impact of their research with external actors. Some national research assessment systems have mandated academics to document their impact on non-academic actors, and linked research funding to assessments of these impacts. Although there has been considerable debate around the design of these systems, little is known about how academics perceive the value of impact against more conventional academic outputs, such as publications. Using multisource data, including a large-scale survey of UK business and management academics, this paper explores the individual and institutional factors that explain an individual’s preference for impact versus publication. The results show that academics display a preference for impact over publications, even when that impact is not associated with requirements of the assessment system in terms of rigour of the underpinning research. The preference for impact over publications is heightened by organization tenure, non-academic work experience, intrinsic career motivations and research-intensive contexts, while it is weakened by academic influence, extrinsic career motives and academic rank. We explore the implications of these findings for the design of research assessment systems and academics’ reactions to them.

¿Hacia una nueva definición de utilidad del conocimiento científico? Primer análisis de los proyectos de desarrollo tecnológico y social (PDTS) en Argentina

¿Qué definición de utilidad del conocimiento científico producido por las humanidades se desprende de la política en ciencia y tecnología para las ciencias sociales y humanidades? ¿Qué mecanismos llevan adelante los investigadores en lo que respecta a instrumentos de investigación orientada?
 En el presente trabajo se presentan los primeros resultados del trabajo de campo de relevamiento de los primeros Proyectos de Desarrollo Tecnológico y Social (PDTS) del área de ciencias sociales y humanidades. Los PDTS son proyectos de investigación orientada que introducen elementos novedosos en lo que respecta a la evaluación de los académicos como así también respecto de la vinculación con actores no académicos.
 El artículo se ocupará de describir la política pública a la que hacemos referencia haciendo hincapié en los elementos novedosos que en la misma se identifican contextualizando su surgimiento y las tensiones que en ella se expresan en relación a relación ciencia-sociedad-universidad; presentar la estrategia de análisis cualitativo llevada a cabo junto con un análisis de los insumos provenientes de la primera etapa de trabajo de campo y finalmente esbozar las primeras conclusiones que se desprenden del análisis del trabajo de campo y la revisión bibliográfica y documental.

Maturation of sustainability in engineering faculties – From emerging issue to strategy?

Although higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have seen a blossoming of sustainability initiatives of various kinds in recent years, the variety of institutional and socio-economic contexts brings about an equally plural interpretation and implementation of these sustainability change processes. This study focuses on the organizational change processes in six different universities across five countries (Belgium, Chile, Finland, Sweden & the United States of America), by way of a qualitative analysis of in-depth expert interviews. We apply the social issue maturation framework to identify, describe and assess patterns of change across HEIs, with a focus on engineering schools as the inherent inter-disciplinarity of engineering provides a promising entry point for sustainability reflection and action. Our findings indicate that sustainability processes often begin as ad hoc processes which grow and mature over time as a range of different actors join in. The commitment of a small team of ‘sustainability champions’ is a key factor for success, as is at least a tacit support from the institution’s hierarchy. Sustainability in HEIs is increasingly connected with sustainability in the private sector and with other public actors. Moreover there is a growing acknowledgement of the interactions between society, industry and academic engineering programs and projects. Ideally, sustainability change processes are gradually up-scaled from isolated efforts to coordinated actions, involving both academic and non-academic actors within and outside the institution.