Transdisciplinary Research Approach Research Articles

Indigenous-Amazonian Traditional Medicine's Usage of the Tobacco Plant: A Transdisciplinary Ethnopsychological Mixed-Methods Case Study.

Harmful usage of tobacco is a global public health problem associated with adverse health effects and addiction. Yet, in the Peruvian Amazon, the native region of Nicotiana rustica L., this plant is used in remarkably different manners: it is considered a potent medicinal plant, applied in liquid form for oral ingestion to treat mental health problems, a common and ancient healing practice in this region. Using a transdisciplinary field research approach with mixed ethnopsychological methods, this work aimed to report for the first time a case study in this context. The intervention took place in the Peruvian Amazon (Loreto) and involved ritual tobacco ingestion in a weeklong retreat-like frame, administered by a specialized traditional Amazonian healer. The patient was a 37-year-old woman with diagnosed mood, anxiety, and attention deficit disorders, as well as a chronic somatic condition. We applied qualitative experience-sampling during and quantitative symptom assessments pre- and post-treatment. Our findings offer a detailed description of the experiential therapeutic process during the treatment week and suggest clinically relevant improvements in patient well-being. This work is significant in view of the globally prevalent harmful uses of tobacco and the current scientific trend of revisiting herbal psychoactives (e.g., cannabis, psilocybin) for their therapeutic potentials.

Water as a metaphorical marker in Setswana and Afrikaans poetry

The finding of this article is that water in poetry serves specifically as a marker of metaphorical information in the sense that it accentuates, continues and establishes relationships between elements of metaphorical constructions. To Raditladi and the Batswana in general, rain is compared to cattle, which provide and sustain life for the people. To Marais and the Afrikaner tradition in general, the wedding day is the beginning of a new life; the rain brings new life to the land. This article examines two poems in Setswana and Afrikaans. The aim is to analyse water images in the poems and make comparisons. This research study is informed by the multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary (MIT) research approach cutting across subjects, themes, concepts, ideologies, races and languages. This is a textual study with textual analysis as the methodology. It also employs critical discourse analysis and intertextuality as theoretical frameworks to analyse and interpret the data gathered.

Students’ Voices on How to Educate Communities about the Prevention of COVID-19 Using Robotics and Technological Innovation: A Transdisciplinary Research Approach

Students’ Voices on How to Educate Communities about the Prevention of COVID-19 Using Robotics and Technological Innovation: A Transdisciplinary Research Approach

A Secure Big Data Storage Framework Based on Blockchain Consensus Mechanism With Flexible Finality

Data security and integrity are becoming increasingly important as the volume of data being created and stored grows. A controlled third party that provides most of the existing big data security systems makes them susceptible to several security risks. By resolving current technology challenges, including scalability, non-tampering, trustworthiness, data governance, and transparency, blockchain technology plays a vital role and has a significant potential to safeguard personal information. Therefore, this work focuses on addressing real-time big data storage issues based on a transdisciplinary research approach. This study introduces a brand-new approach to big data storage security that leverages blockchain technology and applies highway protocol to generate new blocks. The proposed highway protocol works based on the flexible finality condition to overcome issues of baseline models. The highway allows blocks to run the consensus mechanism to configure security thresholds more freely. The proposed protocol also allows blocks with lower thresholds to reach finality more quickly than blocks requiring greater degrees of confidence. Therefore, the proposed big data framework can dynamically control data manipulation and continuously support individuals to participate in the data-sharing process. A comparison was performed with the number of data requests in terms of hit ratio, and a highway protocol provides better results than baseline models. The proposed model provides a data processing period of 13 to 30 ms and an energy consumption of 32 to 41 mJ.

Bio-futures for transplanetary habitats

How can biotechnologies and biomaterials shape and sustain habitats in extreme and space environments? Biotechnologies and biomaterials have been considered essential to the design of habitats in extreme environments such as outer space. Recent advancements in biotechnological research present novel ways in which materials, artefacts and architectural systems can be designed and developed to support life in extreme environments in space and on Earth. Different bioaspects are also researched to address the increasingly extreme environments on Earth due to climate change. Some of these innovations include the use of microbial ecologies and mycelium-based materials to grow radiation-resistant, self-healing and adaptable space architecture. Designing for extreme environments is a complex activity and benefits from an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research approach. We invite a diverse range of research contributions that explore, critically evaluate, and shape potential biotechnological futures in extreme and space environments. This includes innovative biomaterials and biodesign ranging from artefacts to habitats and systems that shape and sustain interactions between biological systems to enable advancement of space exploration.

The plastic-scape: Applying seascape ecology to marine plastic pollution

Marine plastic pollution (MPP) has emerged as a global sustainability challenge with environmental, social, and economic consequences. This has inspired action at every scale of governance—from the local level to international institutions. However, policy and management efforts have been reactive and ad hoc, resulting in concerns about their efficacy, cost, and unintended consequences. To adequately address MPP and its global impacts, a systematic, evidence-based approach is needed. Seascape ecology, a subdiscipline of landscape ecology, is an interdisciplinary system science focused on the reciprocal relationship between the patterns and processes that shape seascapes. In this paper, we define the plastic-scape as all the social-ecological systems that interact with plastic (as a product and pollutant), the drivers and pathways of MPP, and the natural and human environments impacted by MPP. We then demonstrate the ways in which principles, methods, tools, and transdisciplinary research approaches from seascape ecology can be applied to better understand the plastic-scape, inform future MPP research and improve management strategies.

A proposed framework for product-service system business model design

Manufacturing companies still struggle to change their business models to offer product-service systems (PSS). The business model provides an integrating concept that allows the analysis of key dimensions involved in PSS development. However, less attention has been paid to how to plan PSS business models and their implementation. To overcome these challenges, this work proposes a framework for designing a PSS business model, considering the concurrent design of sustainable operations and business models. This work adopts a set of transdisciplinary research approaches, namely: (i) literature reviews; (ii) construction of the proposed framework adopting a concept-based approach; (iii) empirical studies involving two small PSS developers; (iv) assessment of the proposal; and (v) further improvement of the framework based on feedbacks, interactions with PSS developers, and literature reviews. The framework can represent a PSS business model by enabling the joint visualization of the components of the business model and their alignment. It integrates the PSS ‘value network’ based on ‘value proposition’, and includes ‘value drivers’ or sources of value creation, namely: novelty, effectiveness, complementarities, and loyalty. As a result, this paper contributes to offer a framework that adds to the PSS business model research, enabling the development of more sustainable PSS. In particular, it extends the identification of challenges concerning the PSS business model design. Finally, PSS business models should be designed to taken into account value-in-use, co-creation, and integration of the sustainable principles to generate superior value for the ‘value network’.

Strategies to Promote Sustainable Development: The Gendered Importance of Addressing Diminishing African Locust Bean (Parkia biglobosa) Resources in Northern Ghana’s Agro-Ecological Landscape

As the topic of gender and forests gains international attention through programs related to addressing the Sustainable Development Goals, we focus on a case study of the African Locust Bean (Parkia biglobosa) in the savannah landscape of northern Ghana. Although this tree holds high cultural significance for Dagomba women, it is unfortunately becoming scarcer in our study area near Tamale. We investigate the reasons for this decline in relation to the agricultural, ecological, and cultural landscape and discuss the gendered impacts of these changes. Research in these communities was conducted between 2018 and 2021 as part of a transdisciplinary action research approach to process underutilized species with women’s groups. The research started with a survey that included 27 women’s groups in 13 communities with 524 women participants. Out of a selected number of groups, our research team has worked more intensively with three women’s groups near Nyankpala, which selected for their processing focus the African Locust Bean, locally known as dawadawa. More than 45 group sessions were organized with seven groups in a collaborative learning process in 2019. Additionally, the three groups in Kpachi who chose to process the African Locust Bean sustained facilitation of group activities until the end of 2021. Specifically, on the topic of the decline of this tree, 19 semistructured interviews were conducted in August 2020 with 8 female farmers, 7 male farmers and 4 chiefs in the local governance system. Our results show the cultural significance of the African Locust Bean for women in the Dagomba culture as well as practical uses of all parts of the tree. Specifically, the seeds are used for making a fermented condiment and tea. Although seeds of the African Locust Bean are considered a women’s crop, their access to this tree is mediated by the local chiefs and often male land-users. Most farmers interviewed reported a reduction in trees in their fields. The reasons for the decrease can be summarized in six different categories, (1) aging tree populations, (2) challenge caring for saplings until maturity, (3) agricultural changes with increased mechanization and pesticide use, (4) over-use as a firewood resource, (5) usufruct rights between traditional chiefs, male land-owners, and women who should be granted access to the trees according to Dagomba cultural values, and (6) reduced water availability inhibits seed yield. In conclusion, there is an urgent need for action to protect and restore the African Locust Bean within northern Ghana’s savannah landscape to ensure continued access and benefits of the tree to women in the region.

Overcoming obstacles to accessibility and inclusivity in an Australian regional city: A transdisciplinary research approach

ABSTRACT This paper describes research asking what is required to overcome entrenched obstacles to accessibility and inclusivity in an Australia regional city, in particular for those living with disability. A transdisciplinary, systems thinking approach allowed a range of stakeholders, including many with lived experiences of disability, to create a collective plan of action. This plan included interdependent interventions, independent and ahead of national governance, connecting urban planning policy to education, public transport, housing provision, co-design of public buildings, community infrastructure and inclusive employment practices. Interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity within regional planning research was seen as impacting the process and outcomes.

Community participation in a low-income neighborhood: The salience of sociodemographic characteristics, perceptions and experience of violence, and neighborhood attachment.

While community participation may serve as a vehicle to improve health and socioeconomic outcomes for residents in poor communities, little research exists on the individual factors that influence community participation, particularly in contexts where violence is exceptionally high. This study examined the relationship between sociodemographic characteristics, perceptions, and experiences of violence, neighborhood attachment, and community participation in a low-income, under-resourced neighborhood in Johannesburg South Africa. The study used baseline data from 300 randomly selected households and multiple linear regression to assess the relationship between individual factors and community participation. The results suggest a high level of community participation, with religious organizational membership the most common. Being female, employed, and fear of violent crime were positively associated with community participation. Future research should include mixed methods and transdisciplinary research approaches for building our understandings of social justice and transformation-oriented community participation.

When to Use Transdisciplinary Approaches for Environmental Research

Transdisciplinary research (TDR) can help generate solutions to environmental challenges and enhance the uptake of research outputs, thus contributing to advance sustainability in social-ecological systems. Our aim is to support investment decisions in TDR; more specifically, to help funders, researchers, and research users to decide when and why it is most likely to be worth investing in TDR approaches. To achieve our aim, we: 1) define TDR and use a decision tree comparing it with alternative modes of research (i.e., basic, applied, disciplinary, multi-disciplinary, and interdisciplinary research) to help researchers and funders distinguish TDR from other research modes; 2) identify features of the research problem and context (complexity, diverse knowledge systems, contestation, power imbalance, and disagreement on the need for transformative change) where a TDR approach could be more appropriate than the alternative research modes; and 3) explore the idea that the intensity of the contextual features in (2), together with the problem at hand, will help determine where a research project stands in a continuum from low- to high-TDR. We present five studies exemplifying lower- to higher-TDR approaches that are distinguished by: 1) the number and variety of research participants engaged; 2) the strength of involvement of non-academic actors; and 3) the number and variety of disciplines and knowledge systems involved in the research.

Women’s professional sport leagues: a systematic review and future directions for research

ABSTRACT Women’s professional sport has grown over the last decade and so has academic scholarship investigating it. It is timely to review and consolidate extant scholarship to identify patterns and gaps in research and future directions for research to support continued advancement in women’s professional sport knowledge and practice. This paper presents a systematic quantitative literature review (SQLR) of 57 academic peer-reviewed journal articles researching women’s professional sport leagues and published between 2000 and 2019. We provide bibliographic findings, extend the typical SQLR approach and provide an inductive thematic analysis of article findings to synthesise the knowledge base present in the extant research. Based on our SQLR findings, we highlight four key research directions, including the need for (1) diversity in inquiry and reflexivity by researchers, (2) innovative and enabling theories and conceptual frameworks, (3) transdisciplinary research approaches and (4) sustainable business models for women’s professional sport. We emphasise that to advance our theoretical understandings and sport management practices in women’s professional sport, academics must commit to exploring women’s sport in new and different ways, to achieve new and different knowledge and outcomes.

Transdisciplinary Research: Can Citizen Science Support Effective Decision-Making for Coastal Infrastructure Management?

Stakeholder engagement is increasingly recognised as imperative for developing effective climate change adaptation policy within the EU, particularly for delivering sustainable coastal infrastructure. This perspective discusses how current transdisciplinary research (TDR) approaches concerning ecoengineering solutions for artificial coastal structures are insufficient in ensuring adequate stakeholder engagement to facilitate coherent and enduring decision-making and policy development processes. Socio-cultural analysis focussing on how people view and feel about artificial coastal infrastructure within coastal infrastructure research has been recognised as a large knowledge gap. We suggest that citizen science (CS) methodologies as part of a cultural ecosystem services (CES) research approach can adequately inform and support the implementation of ecoengineering solutions for hard artificial coastal structures whilst addressing existing barriers associated with stakeholder engagement in current TDR approaches.

Advancing Food System Transformation and Addressing Conflicts Through Transdisciplinary Methodologies: Strengths and Limitations of the Community Voice Method, T-Labs, Film-Making and the Miracle Question

Food systems are changing through various socioeconomic and policy processes. For example, in France, following concerns over the effects of pesticides on ecosystems and health, the French government launched the “Ecophyto II+” plan in 2019 that aims for a 50% reduction in the use of pesticides by 2025. This top-down food system transformation is leading to conflicts between stakeholders over how to enact such a policy, and its implications for farmers and their practices. By adopting a transdisciplinary research approach, we explore conflicts linked to food system transformations in the context of three case studies in France. The case studies revolve around conflicts over pesticide use and reduction in three agricultural settings in Bourgogne Franche-Comté, namely (a) water management near Auxerre, (b) apiculture-agriculture relations in the Jura, and (c) viticulture-local resident relationships near Macon. We use four innovative transdisciplinary techniques to integrate inclusively the viewpoints of diverse stakeholders with the aim of generating actionable responses to transform food systems. First, the Community Voice Method (CVM) includes filmed semi-structured interviews and integrates a number of opportunities for participation and successive rounds of data analysis. Second, the interviewees were asked a “miracle question” that encouraged them to step back from conflicts and practices toward their ideal vision of agriculture and food systems. Third, the CVM resulted in the production of four films that relate the visions and perception of each case study interviewees in their own words and in their own setting. Finally, Transformation Labs (T-Labs) conveyed the main results of the CVM knowledge synthesis through the films produced and opened a dialogue toward the development of solutions. We review the four techniques, how they were implemented in the three case studies, and with which outcomes. Thus the aim of this paper is to offer reflections and lessons learnt from different transdisciplinary processes as a means of strengthening their application in other contexts. We argue that such methodologies, whilst resource-consuming, are essential to fully understand the complexity of food system transformations from the often-conflictual perspectives and competing knowledge claims of the multiple actors involved. In addition, we highlight the role of these techniques in building long-term trust between researchers and other stakeholders, and the benefits in terms of opening up dialogue and developing long-term solutions, as determined by the stakeholders themselves.

Innovative Multi-Actor Collaborations as Collective Actors and Institutionalized Spaces. The Case of Food Governance Transformation in Leuven (Belgium)

The sustainable transformation of food systems is a particularly prolific field in which innovative multi-actor collaborations (IMACs) are being tested. Despite the growing literature on food governance and transformation of food systems, and on the principles of alternative food networks and local food strategies, little is known about how these are implemented and how multi-actor networks are coordinated and governed. Taking food as a lens, our objectives are to identify (1) how IMACs are established, (2) how collaboration is enacted within them, and (3) how governance innovations in these fields affect and are affected by broader urban governance innovation. Methodologically, we take a transdisciplinary action research approach, combining different groups of researchers with stakeholders involved in two on-going and interacting IMAC trajectories in Leuven (Belgium), i.e., the non-profit governmental organization Leuven2030 aiming to achieve climate-neutrality and the parallel collective development and implementation of the local food strategy “Food Connects.” After reconstructing the trajectory of these IMACs from a governance perspective and discussing their current limitations, we realize that these IMACs perform both as collective actors and as institutionalized spaces for experimentation and transformative change. Our findings demonstrate that IMACs can be an empowering tool for local actors to challenge supra-local and systemic power imbalance and injustice; that networking and supra-local connections of urban actors can increase the legitimacy and outreach of transition processes, mobilization of resources and peer-learning; and that the consolidation of IMACs builds on previous sedimentations of experimentation and benefits from the impulse of political will in specific windows of opportunity. We conclude that the institutionalization of common objectives set within IMACs requires a parallel institutionalization of governance structures that enabled reaching them, which entails defining specific roles and responsibilities among actors and ensuring stable spaces for conflict, deliberation, and negotiation.

The significance of disadvantaged crop species to improve food systems and security in the changing climate: Learning from Motheo District, South Africa

Emerging evidence indorse shifts in food production, reduction in yield due to climate variability and change. An increase in food production is a requirement to respond to the demands of the growing population worldwide. As many studies focus on underutilised and/or neglected crops. The questions are, underutilised by who? Or neglected by who? These are the indigenous ancient crop species utilised from generations to generations, which are used by most in rural areas mostly across all African countries. These crop species are utilised for consumption and medicinal purposes within localities, needs to be acknowledged, supported and not grouped as food for the “poor” or “weeds”. Besides, its promotion as a food of choice is the best climate change adaptation strategy. A huge variety of crops avails rather than relying on few crop species. Utilisation of selected few crops leaves the abundance of genetic resources for food security and nutrition. Focusing on the promotion of disadvantaged crops would provide a diversified agricultural system and food resources. Such crop species play an integral role for income generation and nutritional balance. The crop species have a great prospective to enhance crop diversity, food variety and nutrition. Field management systems plays a significant role on when to introduce weeding control mechanisms, when to harvest and which types of these crops to expect per season. With the use of transdisciplinary research approach, we provide a list of disadvantaged crop species and evidence to improve food and nutrition security, increase agricultural diversification, minimise environmental and its physiological response show resilience in the changing climate.

Characterising the transdisciplinary research approach

Despite increasing attention and calls for transdisciplinary (TD) working in engineering, a lack of clarity surrounding what constitutes a TD research approach persists. This paper aims to reduce ambiguity by characterising TD and identifying when the TD approach should or should not be used. Specifically, the research answers the question: when might it be beneficial to take a TD rather than a single, multi or interdisciplinary research approach? Survey responses from twenty-eight authors (50%) who presented papers at the 28th ISTE International Conference on Transdisciplinary Engineering (TE2021) were qualitatively analysed. Findings show a TD approach to research is beneficial for complex problem-solving. New understanding reveals that TD could be used to evidence scientific and social impact, and that context determines the appropriateness of TD adoption. However, even where TD adoption is deemed appropriate, institutional barriers to adoption may exist. In other words, the work environment (culture) in which we do our research, may determine if any meaningful benefits from TD are, or are not realised. Lessons from engineering education are used to discuss how to institutionalise TD, future transdisciplinary engineers and researchers might be taught and socialised in the competencies needed for transdisciplinary research.

Academics for sustainable development: Exploring consequences and dilemmas of transdisciplinary research approaches

Sustainable DevelopmentVolume 30, Issue 2 p. 289-292 EDITORIAL Academics for sustainable development: Exploring consequences and dilemmas of transdisciplinary research approaches Sjors Witjes, Corresponding Author Sjors Witjes [email protected] Institute for Management Research, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands Correspondence Sjors Witjes, Institute for Management Research, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Email: [email protected]Search for more papers by this authorHanna Ahlström, Hanna Ahlström Global Economic Dynamics and the Biosphere, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, SwedenSearch for more papers by this authorSigurd Vildåsen, Sigurd Vildåsen Sintef Manufacturing and Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, NorwaySearch for more papers by this authorMonica Ramos-Mejia, Monica Ramos-Mejia Department of Business Administration, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, ColombiaSearch for more papers by this author Sjors Witjes, Corresponding Author Sjors Witjes [email protected] Institute for Management Research, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands Correspondence Sjors Witjes, Institute for Management Research, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Email: [email protected]Search for more papers by this authorHanna Ahlström, Hanna Ahlström Global Economic Dynamics and the Biosphere, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, SwedenSearch for more papers by this authorSigurd Vildåsen, Sigurd Vildåsen Sintef Manufacturing and Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, NorwaySearch for more papers by this authorMonica Ramos-Mejia, Monica Ramos-Mejia Department of Business Administration, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, ColombiaSearch for more papers by this author First published: 29 November 2021 https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.2254Citations: 3 Special issue of the Wiley Sustainable Development journal Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Citing Literature Volume30, Issue2Special Issue: Academics for sustainable development; exploring consequences and dilemmas of transdisciplinary research approachesApril 2022Pages 289-292 RelatedInformation

Telecoupled Groundwaters: New Ways to Investigate Increasingly De-Localized Resources

Groundwater is essential for drinking water provision and food production while hosting unique biodiversity and delivering key ecosystem services. However, overexploitation and contamination are prevailing threats in many regions worldwide. Even integrated governance schemes like the European Union Water Framework Directive often fail to ensure good quality and quantity conditions of groundwater bodies. Contributing factors are knowledge gaps on groundwater characteristics, limited financial, staff and land resources, as well as policy incoherencies. In this paper, we go further and argue that current groundwater challenges cannot be understood when considering the local situation within hydrologic boundaries only. New long-distance processes are at stake—so called telecouplings—that transgress watershed and administrative boundaries and significantly influence the state of local groundwater bodies. We provide three literature-based examples of European groundwater systems that are impacted by telecouplings, and we show how research and solution perspectives may change when acknowledging the de-localization of groundwater(s). We elaborate on virtual water trade, remote water supply, and seasonal tourist flows that connect sending, receiving and spillover systems. These processes can induce groundwater depletion and contamination but may also help to conserve the resource. Our hypothesis calls for a new spatial paradigm to groundwater management and highlights the need for transdisciplinary research approaches as envisioned in socio-hydrogeology.

Enacting a just and sustainable blue economy through transdisciplinary action research

AbstractTo enact a just and sustainable blue economy, one must consider all the actors involved in its shaping. This paper argues that a quintuple helix approach to stakeholder engagement – involving government, academia, the business community, and civil society – and an inclusive transdisciplinary action research (TAR) methodology are promising avenues with which to do so. Embracing critical pragmatism as a foundational framework, key ideas from three strands of research are consolidated: (1) the recent work on the geographical dimension of socio‐technical sustainability transitions; (2) the literature on just sustainabilities and just transition; and (3) action research and transdisciplinary approaches to problem solving. This allows for the reimagination of a common future for the blue economy that is developed through a different kind of democratic process driven and informed by co‐learning, and shared experiences. By adopting a transdisciplinary action research approach, actors from different disciplines and spheres of experience can gain a better mutual understanding and find commonality through the open door of collaboration. The theoretical argument presented in this paper is illustrated by a vignette of an ongoing TAR project at Southern Connecticut State University, which outlines the challenges and opportunities inherent to implementing a TAR approach.