Transdisciplinary Concepts Research Articles

Primate conservation: A public issue?

Nonhuman primates (primates) are one of the most endangered mammalian taxa in the world. In the Global North, primates are considered exotic species and, as such, humans' impact on primate conservation and responsibility to protect primates is often ignored. This view differs from the spectrum of relations and attitudes of humans that live in connection to primates, which can include viewing these animals as culturally/religiously significant, cohabitors of forests, nuisances, or sources of protein. While conservationists argue that primates deserve our protection, the conservation crisis facing primates is rarely framed as a public issue, in contrast to other global crises, such as climate change. However, over half of the world's human population lives within 100 km of primate habitat. Thus, humans and primates share the same environments. We suggest leveraging a holistic approach, such as One Health, that considers the interconnectedness of primates, humans, and their shared environments, through the lens of public anthropology. By approaching primate conservation as an intersectional issue that affects and is affected by humans, researchers and conservationists can identify strategies that simultaneously protect primates and address global inequities that frequently affect people in primate range countries. Reflexive research practices further allow academics to consider the broader impact of their ecological research through means such as publicly accessible dissemination of results, equitable capacity-building of high-quality personnel in primate range countries, and social activism. The use of inter-, multi-, and transdisciplinary concepts and methodology can address the intersectional challenges associated with implementing ethical and sustainable primate conservation measures.

Pojęcia transdyscyplinarne w świetle teorii amalgamatów pojęciowych

Transdisciplinary concepts have a particular cognitive value: they enable us to cross disciplinary boundaries and to establish new categories of the explored reality. This paper attempts to analyse conceptual relationships within the transdisciplinary concept attractors of self-evaluation which emerged at the intersection of social psychology and systems theory The analysis is based on the Conceptual Blending Theory. The genesis of the concept as well as salient relationships and cross-space mappings have been presented. Furthermore, explicative cross-space connectors in transdisciplinary knowledge transfer have been identified and described.

Methodology for Nexus Approach Toward Sustainable Use of Geothermal Hot Spring Resources

This study has developed a methodology for the nexus approach by integrating interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary concepts and qualitative and quantitative mixed methods into the process of the systems thinking approach. The nexus approach was institutionalized in two projects using the location specific case study of Beppu, Japan where a set of interconnected issues in using geothermal hot spring resources have emerged due to the promotion of geothermal energy development under low-carbon policies at global and national levels. The interlinkages among geothermal hot spring resources, including heat, steam, nutrients, and drainage between land and coastal systems were analyzed to improve decision- and policy-making. This study discusses (1) how different discipline-oriented methods and data are integrated, (2) how much of the targeted water-energy-food nexus systems are understood using the nexus approach, and (3) how far does the nexus approach influence changes in the policy agenda and human behavior regarding sustainable geothermal hot spring resources use. The nexus approach facilitated the sequential integration of individual methods and data to better explain the causal linkages focusing on water-energy-food resources in the human-nature systems in Beppu. The proposed policy recommendations are based on the local government initiative for continuing to conduct citizen participatory surveys on geothermal hot spring resources. Transferring the developed methodology will help to effectively develop geothermal hot spring resources and compliment the current national renewable energy and natural resource policies and management.

The one health landscape in Sub-Saharan African countries

ObjectivesOne Health is transiting from multidisciplinary to transdisciplinary concepts and its viewpoints should move from ‘proxy for zoonoses’, to include other topics (climate change, nutrition and food safety, policy and planning, welfare and well-being, antimicrobial resistance (AMR), vector-borne diseases, toxicosis and pesticides issues) and thematic fields (social sciences, geography and economics). This work was conducted to map the One Health landscape in Africa. MethodsAn assessment of existing One Health initiatives in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries was conducted among selected stakeholders using a multi-method approach. Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to One Health initiatives were identified, and their influence, interest and impacts were semi-quantitatively evaluated using literature reviews, questionnaire survey and statistical analysis. ResultsOne Health Networks and identified initiatives were spatiotemporally spread across SSA and identified stakeholders were classified into four quadrants. It was observed that imbalance in stakeholders' representations led to hesitation in buying-in into One Health approach by stakeholders who are outside the main networks like stakeholders from the policy, budgeting, geography and sometimes, the environment sectors. ConclusionInclusion of theory of change, monitoring and evaluation frameworks, and tools for standardized evaluation of One Health policies are needed for a sustained future of One Health and future engagements should be outputs- and outcomes-driven and not activity-driven. National roadmaps for One Health implementation and institutionalization are necessary, and proofs of concepts in One Health should be validated and scaled-up. Dependence on external funding is unsustainable and must be addressed in the medium to long-term. Necessary policy and legal instruments to support One Health nationally and sub-nationally should be implemented taking cognizance of contemporary issues like urbanization, endemic poverty and other emerging issues. The utilization of current technologies and One Health approach in addressing the ongoing pandemic of COVID-19 and other emerging diseases are desirable. Finally, One Health implementation should be anticipatory and preemptive, and not reactive in containing disease outbreaks, especially those from the animal sources or the environment before the risk of spillover to human.

Translation-Oriented Transdisciplinary Practices: From Organisms to Augmented Data and Translation Sculptures

While today’s digital technologies support social movements towards democratization and civilisation of the individual, they also increase data-based inequalities. With the transition to the network society, we are witnessing translation practices and translator identities reconstructed around digital networks today. However, transdisciplinary concepts and approaches gain importance as a result of the “edge effects” that translation establishes with the fields of science, art and technology (Demirel and Görgüler, 2020). With this in mind, translation is considered a new media practice within the scope of the relevant research. In this context, translation-based microscope performances produced in the bioart movement, which are shaped as a new media art type, are discussed within the framework of the mentioned transdisciplinary concepts and approaches. In the first stage, the augmented data and translation sculptures produced by the new media artist Ayşegül Süter based on the microscopic movements of cell tissues are analyzed in the focus of source and target content. In this context, the sculptures Microspheres, Flight Above Cells and Cryztallization and their biological data constitute the fieldwork of the research. Later, in the conversation with the relevant media artist, or in other words, the translator, regarding the production tactics and performance styles she adopted, the projections of the transdisciplinary concepts and approaches mentioned above are sought. Questioning translation practice and translator identity around the bio-art movement brings together different perceptions of the data reality. As a result, grasping bio-art-oriented production forms as a transdisciplinary translation practice and process also sheds light on the social movements towards democratization shaped around the facts of the data.

Enhancing student learning through trans-disciplinary project-based assessment in bioengineering

The Bioengineering Systems major offered at the University of Melbourne aims to enable students to rigorously integrate mathematics and modelling concepts with the fundamental sciences of biology, physics, and chemistry in order to solve biomedical engineering problems. This requires mastery of core concepts in engineering design, programming, mechanics, and electrical circuits. Historically, these concepts have been sequestered into separate subjects, with minimal cross-curricular references. This has resulted in the compartmentalisation of these concepts, with students often failing to appreciate that these seemingly disparate ideas can be synergistically combined to engineer larger, more capable systems. Building the capability of students to integrate these trans-disciplinary concepts is a unique aspect of the major that seeks to prepare students to solve real-world problems in the digital age (Burnett, 2011).
 
 We previously implemented trans-disciplinary design in the second-year subject Biomechanical Physics and Computation by integrating the teaching of mechanics and programming (typically covered in separate subjects in standard engineering degrees). This integration was explored largely through assessment redesign that focuses upon authentic learning (Bozalek et al., 2014). In these assessments, students have to model real-world mechanical systems using programming, for example, the construction of an animated physics-based model for a bicep curl. Here, an understanding of either the mechanics or programming component is insufficient to properly complete these assessments – students necessarily have to master both in order to perform well. Student feedback surveys have indicated that student learning has benefited from this redesign, as they have helped put programming concepts in a real-world context by demonstrating their utility in solving complex physics problems. Quantitatively, trans-disciplinary design has contributed to improvements in the following survey scores from 2017 (pre-redesign) to 2019: “I found the assessment tasks useful in guiding my study”: 3.85 to 4.43, “I learnt new ideas, approaches, and/or skills”: 3.88 to 4.32, “I learnt to apply knowledge to practice”: 3.63 to 4.13 (averages, maximum: 5).
 
 To further model trans-disciplinary design, we have established a collaborative curriculum design team (Laurillard, 2012) to develop a coordinated set of learning activities and assessments centred around the design, construction, and control of a bionic limb. Using design-based research (McKenney & Reeves, 2019), our team will model a design-based research approach within the curriculum over a two-year project timeline. By integrating these learning activities across four core subjects in the Bioengineering Systems major, students will be involved in an authentic learning project that integrates the concepts taught in the context of a larger system. The project involves hands-on design and fabrication of a bionic limb facilitated by a learner-centric ecology of resources (Luckin, 2008), including an ePortfolio consisting of Jupyter Notebook, GitLab, MS Teams and Adobe Spark. The intended learning outcomes are to enhance students’ capacity to integrate trans-disciplinary knowledge by providing continuity in assessments and learning objectives across our curriculum.
 The presentation will outline the methodology behind the collaborative trans-disciplinary curriculum design project and will also explore how the team is navigating the impact of COVID-19 on a traditionally lab-based project in a hybrid mode.

Fundamental concepts of Southeast Asian studies: The interaction between ideologies of essentialism and cosmopolitanism, defining the intellectual landscape

The objective of this research is to explain the development of fundamental concepts relating to Southeast Asian studies. The research found that the concepts are justified by essentialism and cosmopolitanism where they are adapted in accordance with the context of knowledge that changes overtime. The conceptual frameworks originating from oriental studies to area studies are used to define the intellectual landscape. It is derived from genealogy of intellectual traditions and essential principles. These have created new concepts of Southeast Asian studies in two aspects; 1) neighbour studies through the theory of Asia as method; and 2) regional studies through the comparative area studies (CAS). Both studies lead to trans-disciplinary concepts which are important to the new discipline Southeast Asian studies that is engaged with the current ASEAN community context.

What is What? Focus on Transdisciplinary Concepts and Terminology in Neuroaesthetics, Cognition and Poetics

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Functional Somatic Symptoms and Somatization: Person-centered Approach to Understanding their Relationships

Background: Despite the visible points of overlapping between the psychopathologic concepts of "somatization" and "somatoform disorders" with those of "functional symptoms" and "somatic syndromes" of general medicine, there is little literature which clarifies their relationships, making it difficult to formulate common grounds for work between psychiatry and the rest of medicine. Objectives: The purpose of this article is to review and critically analyze current knowledge on the subject, in search for conceptual links between different paradigms involving the underlying phenomena, proposing present and future lines of work according to the basic concepts of the Person Centered Medicine. Methodology: A wide ranging review and critical analysis of the literature on these subjects was conducted, trying to explore the relationship and integration of different paradigms according to the MCP framework and an outline of the author´s current research. Results: A need was found to establish transdisciplinary concepts which leave aside the particular visions of each paradigm, in search for links which may integrate different insights, considering the person as a whole. Therefore, it is essential to analyze carefully the phenomenon from various points of view to elucidate wider conceptualizations so as to reformulate this spectrum of phenomena from an integrative perspective. The possibility of the existence of a “general factor”, both present in the so-called “functional” disorder of general medicine, and in those that in psychopathology are grouped as somatization, is suggested. This general factor could be represented by certain personality dimensions and psychic representations encompassed by complex context variables. Conclusions: It would be valuable to continue with research of this phenomena structure as well as to look for strategies to benefit from the theoretical findings in the health care field, according to the proposals of Person Centered Medicine.

Case-based flipped classroom approach to teach sustainable infrastructure and decision-making

ABSTRACTDesign, engineering, and construction for more sustainable infrastructure involve complex decisions with considerable risk and uncertainty. To prepare students for such challenges, agencies and organizations like the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, American Council for Construction Education, and American Society of Civil Engineers are placing more emphasis on complex engineering problems. The case-based module in this study aims to address such needs through a constructivism framework, integrating problem-based learning, a flipped classroom, and transdisciplinary content on behavioral science. The module presents a case about a wastewater project. Team-based learning involves proposing the placement of holding-tanks, first based on cost and later for an extreme flood. Three decision-making concepts (risk aversion, regulatory focus, take-the-best heuristic) are then taught. Students wrote individual reflections relating these concepts to the case. Initially, students perceived cost as the biggest barrier. After the module, students broadened their consideration to include risk aversion and regulatory focus theory. Students were more likely to consider resilience in their design and reflect on how their design would influence the community. The implications of these results are that teaching transdisciplinary concepts that bridge engineering and behavioral science can broaden students’ understanding of sustainability and change perceptions of the barriers for more sustainable infrastructure. The module is available through the Center for Sustainable Engineering repository.

Strength and Microstructural Study of Recycled Asphalt Pavement: Slag Geopolymer as a Pavement Base Material

AbstractThe integrated transdisciplinary concepts and technologies for greener and more sustainable innovations for recycling waste materials through geopolymer technique into construction material...

Linguoecological approach to capturing concepts: a case study of transparency

Adopting a linguoecological approach to the study of transdisciplinary concepts, we argue that they may take different shape and/or structure, and even change their nature, in agreement with the environment of their functioning, or their scientific landscape (Yu. S. Stepanov), which comprises the event horizon, or the plane of immanence (G. Deleuze, F. Guattari), and the creator of the concept, or the conceptual persona/aesthetic figure (G. Deleuze, F. Guattari). Different types of concepts are differentiated according to the type of their creator (social vs. personal); they are arranged along the scale 'universal–group-specific–personal'. After that a more granular classification of concept types is carried out according to the sphere of their creator's activities (scientific/logical – everyday – philosophical –cultural/aesthetic).Taking the concept transparency as a case, we demonstrate the difference between everyday, scientific, philosophical, and cultural concepts, drawing a distinction 'concepts vs. prospects' as well as 'concepts vs. percepts/affects'.

Integrated transdisciplinary technologies for greener and more sustainable innovations and applications of Cleaner Production in the Asia–Pacific region

In the last decade, the integrated transdisciplinary concepts and technologies for greener and more sustainable innovations and applications of Cleaner Production in the Asia–Pacific region have been developed and implemented extensively. The endeavor to develop more precise, reliable, and cost-effective tools and methods to assess the sustainability of the desired products and processes from Cleaner Production have been achieved. Regarding the two conferences, the International Conference on Green and Sustainable Innovation (ICGSI) and the International Thai Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry Conference (ITIChE2015), these conferences were co-organized to bring experts and researchers together from within and outside the Asia–Pacific region to foster development of new research ideas on green and sustainable innovation. The selected articles from these events are included within this Special Volume together with articles from the Cleaner Production community outside these events. The papers cover a wide range of topics relevant to the Cleaner Production concepts and applications, especially for greener and more sustainable innovations and of applications of life cycle assessment, ecological footprint, and other environmental and ecological assessment tools for making improvements in agricultural products, biodiesel and biogas production, CO2 reduction and utilization, and expansion of usage of alternative and renewable energies. The examples of life cycle thinking-based assessment techniques, together with progress in innovative technologies and their applications, strongly reflected the improvements made in practical applications of Cleaner Production in the Asia–Pacific region, in recent years.

Life Sciences—Life Writing: PTSD as a Transdisciplinary Entity between Biomedical Explanation and Lived Experience

Since the second half of the 20th century, the life sciences have become one of the dominant explanatory models for almost every aspect of human life. Hand in hand with biomedical developments and technologies, the life sciences are constantly shaping and reshaping human lives and changing human biographies in manifold ways. The orientation towards life sciences and biomedicine from the very beginning to the end of human life is driven by the utopian notion that all forms of contingency could be technologically and medically controlled. This paper addresses the interrelatedness of life sciences and human biographies in a field where contingency and risk become essential and existential parts of lived experience: post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). On the one hand, this diagnostic entity is related to (neuro-)biological underpinnings of (a lack of) psychic resilience as well as to those of contemporary pharmacotherapy. On the other hand, PTSD is also understood as based on a traumatic life event, which can be accessed through and addressed by talk therapy, particularly narrative exposure therapy (NET). We argue that a novel focus on concepts of narrativity will generate pathways for an interdisciplinary understanding of PTSD by linking biological underpinnings from neurobiological findings, to brain metabolism and pharmacotherapy via the interface of psychotherapy and the specific role of narratives to the lived experience of patients and vice versa. The goal of our study is to demonstrate why therapies such as psychotherapy or pharmacotherapy are successful in controlling the disease burden of PTSD to some extent, but the restitutio ad integrum, the reestablishing of the bodily and psychic integrity remains out of reach for most PTSD patients. As a test case, we discuss the complementary methods of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and the established procedures of talk therapy (NET) to show how a methodological focus on narratives enhanced by notions of narrativity from the humanities grants access to therapeutically meaningful, enriched notions of PTSD. We focus on TCM because trauma therapy has long since become an intrinsic part of this complementary medical concept which are more widely accessible and accepted than other complementary medical practices, such as Ayurveda or homeopathy. Looking at the individual that suffers from a traumatic life event and also acknowledging the contemporary concepts of resilience, transdisciplinary concepts become particularly relevant for the medical treatment of and social reintegration of patients such as war veterans. We emphasize the necessity of a new dialogue between the life sciences and the humanities by introducing the concepts of corporeality, capability and temporality as boundary objects crucial for both the biomedical explanation, the narrative understanding and the lived experience of trauma.

Logics of Generalization: Derrida, Grammatology and Transdisciplinarity

This article seeks to explore some issues regarding the different modes of generality at stake in the formation of transdisciplinary concepts within the production of ‘theory’ in the humanities and social sciences. Focused around Jacques Derrida’s seminal account of ‘writing’ in his 1967 book Of Grammatology, the article outlines what it defines as a logic of generalization at stake in Derrida’s elaborations of a quasi-transcendental ‘inscription in general’. Starting out from the questions thereby raised about the relationship between such forms of generality and those historically ascribed to philosophy, the article concludes by contrasting Derrida’s generalized writing with more recent returns to ‘metaphysics’ in the work of Bruno Latour and others. Against the immediately ‘ontological’ orientation of much recent ‘new materialist’ or ‘object-oriented’ thought, the article argues for the necessity of ‘different levels of writing in general’ through a continual folding back of absolute generalization into historically specific disciplinary crossings and exchanges; something suggested by but never really developed in Derrida’s own work.

A multi-perspective approach to knowledge production

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to discuss a Multi-perspective approach to knowledge production in terms of a set of cybernetic concepts relevant to the approach; to describe a software system that computationally embodies the approach; and to articulate a research project that pragmatically employs the approach.Design/methodology/approach– A definition is provided. The paper uses a survey methodology, exploring relevant cybernetic and contemporary technological concepts. An operational software mechanism (The Insight Engine) is discussed that enables the bridging of transdisciplinary concepts by a user in the service of accretive research –Recombinant Informatics.Findings– Many cybernetic concepts are relevant to contemporary research into cognition andNeosentienceresearch. More study needs to be undertaken related to historical BCL projects in terms of articulating relevance to contemporary research.Research limitations/implications– Future research seeks to extend the computational functionality of “The insight engine”, as well as uncover relevant BCL/cybernetic materials.Practical implications– The software is unique in the field and already there is interest in its use by differing research communities including the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, and at Stanford, research under Ian Hodder.Social implications– The Insight Engine has potential to be used as a multi-perspective tool for many different fields enabling different forms of distributed, transdisciplinary team-based research.Originality/value– This text is valuable to researchers interested in new forms of interface, augmentation of thought and learning via computational approaches; and the development of bridges between novel research areas, including contemporary, historical BCL, and other cybernetic inquiry.

La urgencia de una concepción transdisciplinaria en la construcción del conocimiento

El presente artículo plantea la urgencia de una concepción transdisciplinaria que posibilite un trabajo de integración y comprensión del mundo más acorde con su funcionamiento cotidiano, a partir un paradigma de distinción, conjunción, implicación y multidimensionalización, el cual posibilite proponer cambios para beneficio de la humanidad, que promueva un pensamiento crítico y reflexivo en la relación de los seres humanos con los otros, con ellos mismos, con los objetos y en general con el mundo. Para ello, se busca hacer un breve recorrido por los tipos de pensamiento, desde el mítico hasta el científico, por los paradigmas empírico – analítico, sistémico y complejo y su relación con los conceptos pluridisciplina, multidisciplina, interdisciplina y transdiciplina. Este artículo es una revisión de tema que corresponde a una investigación de enfoque cualitativo, de tipo documental, que invita a construir proyectos educativos portadores de nuevos sentidos, ante todo transdisciplinares, que recojan desde esta perspectiva epistemológica la comprensión de las disciplinas y encaucen la construcción del conocimiento de una manera más integrada, más humilde e interconectada con la realidad y la vida misma, donde sea posible la solidaridad, la aceptación de la diversidad, la multiplicidad de concepciones y creencias, para la gestación de un mundo más humano.

Addressing Urban Health Challenges by Transdisciplinary Research and Practice

Professionals and policy makers have difficulty in explaining and measuring constancy, change and differences in health, built environments and ecological conditions in cities. This is not surprising given that these are complex and multidimensional. Hence they cannot be understood only in terms of the compartmentalized knowledge of disciplinary and professional concepts and methods. The traditional roles and responsibilities of scientists, policy makers and professional practitioners ought to be reconsidered because shortcomings in both empirical research and professional practice need correcting. In contrast to conventional disciplinary approaches, inter- and trans-disciplinary contributions offer a broader intersectoral approach. These innovative approaches have been applied but they are still not mainstream in either people-environment studies, or the practice of architecture and urban planning. The contributors will share their tangible experience. They have overcome obstacles to effective implementation in the following ways: 1. By action research that transgresses conventional disciplinary silos and professional borders in order to implement inter- and trans-disciplinary contributions that tackle the complexities of urban health. 2. By participatory design processes that involve stakeholders from both the public and private sectors as well as representatives of local communities. 3. By employing innovative decision making and communication tools that promote dialogue processes that enable consensus building. This paper presents several ways and means of overcoming the barriers to applying inter- and trans-disciplinary concepts and methods that are still not mainstream. The author refers to innovative contributions in the EU-FP7 project PHENOTYPE (Positive Health Effects of the Natural Outdoor Environment in Typical Populations in Different Regions of Europe) which is being funded from January 2012 to December 2015.

Le difficile essor des échanges transdisciplinaires en France

The history of cybernetics in France, as it emerges at least provisionally from a preliminary study of its first two decades, not only casts the light of cultural erudition on the disciplines concerned by the development of modelling or the emblematic archetype of “communication science”, but also raises questions on the conditions that govern the circulation of knowledge and cause research communities to renew their intellectual toolkits as they come into contact with these flows of transdisciplinary concepts.

A Systematic Consideration of Observational Design Decisions in the Theory Construction Process

The aim of this paper is to develop an explicit protocol for gaining the use of new concepts from external and transdisciplinary sources during the theory construction process. We are concerned with Churchman's ‘sweeping in’ of alternative perspectives and with inductive research. The potential for innovation that concepts from external disciplines bring is balanced by the risks of working outside a researcher's area of expertise. There is potential for researcher bias when gathering new ideas as well as when filtering possible new theory, and a protocol might help minimize such problems. For example, few business researchers are fully versed in ecology, and vice versa. This applies to the authors here, but we look at the issue from our respective sides and bring our respective expertise. Hierarchy theory is fundamentally a theory of observation. Here it helps us to define how the perspective of the researcher affects theory construction and the use of transdisciplinary concepts. It introduces a precision about the use of levels and brings out the dualism that arises in movement between levels. We use this to develop a theoretical model of the theory‐building process that avoids bias whilst making best use of the researcher's preconceptions. We illustrate our protocol using the business ecosystem metaphor, which is common in the business literature. Our special case that straddles business and ecology might offer guidance in other transdisciplinary efforts. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.