Transdisciplinary Practice Research Articles

Cultivating trans-disciplinarity: transcending and transgressing research methods

Transdisciplinarity is creative human agency including cognitive, intellectual and behavioural activities of individuals and groups. These activities define and are mutually defined by beliefs and ideas, knowledge and know-how, language and meanings, norms and rules, and opinions and values. The cultivation of transdisciplinary projects should embrace these cultural, social and psychological predispositions because they are core constituents of a trans-anthropo-logic. This requires transcending common research methods used in scientific studies and using scaffolding that facilitates agency, and positioning individuals and groups. However, scientists are rarely trained to pilot projects involving multiple stakeholders with different positions. This article explains why trained facilitators are needed to pilot transdisciplinary projects. They can cultivate transcendence and transgression – both analysed by the late Julie Thompson Klein – beyond the scope and purpose of common research methods. In essence, transdisciplinary practices respect different ontologies and epistemologies while incorporating ethical principles and moral values. The cultivation of transdisciplinary projects should accommodate and reduce asymmetries of power between politicians, public administrators, property owners, researchers and laypeople that are shaped by extant historical and societal variables in specific situations. Transdisciplinary projects should also apply multiple sources of quantitative data and qualitative information that represent the complexity, diversity and perhaps incommensurability of intentions, meanings, perceptions and values about specific subjects or situations. This is being achieved by innovative projects that should become beacons for change.

Transdisciplinary Skills for AI Ecosystems: Using Future Visioning to Collaboratively Unpack Skills in UK Health and Emergency Response Scenarios

Transdisciplinary practices in artificial intelligence (AI) requires good methodological techniques to bring researchers together from diverse disciplines. Different fields and traditions each may have an impact on the greater AI ecosystem, however, to properly gauge this impact, and include diverse voices, research methodologies must evolve to adopt new methods and techniques. To understand the shifting demands for new skills, we conducted a transdisciplinary workshop, bringing together stakeholders from industry, government and academia, by engaging with scenarios in healthcare and emergency response, using future visioning to imagine new skill requirements across job roles. We found that future visioning was a useful methodology to help frame discussions in a manner conducive to eliciting qualitative evidence of different policy approaches. Beyond individual skills, we propose the Human-AI Synergy Matrix as a collaborative competency framework, which integrates technical, professional, and strategic skills with levels of engagement such as awareness, communication, synergy, governance, and transformation. The matrix aims to facilitate evaluation and understanding of skills and critical issues in human-AI collaboration within AI ecosystems, emphasizing the need to address broader challenges in an interconnected manner.

От гибридизации жизненного мира к гибридности научных проблем

The convergence of social, technological, and scientific domains in modern society has given rise to novel interdisciplinary approaches and problem-solving methodologies. This article addresses the specificity of modern technicization of the lifeworld, giving rise to transdisciplinary practices. The author adopts a socio-phenomenological interpretation of the lifeworld but deems it necessary to consider the technical and technological component within its structure. In the lifeworld, the social and the digital merge in the logic of hybridization, transforming into a unified cybersocio-physical environment. Hybrid digital-social phenomena emerge as a result of adapting high technologies to personalized human needs. The relevant agent of such adaptation becomes science, hybridizing scientific problems through transdisciplinary practices that involve non-scientists in scientific research and traverse traditional institutional boundaries. The primary experimental space for hybridizing technologies in the lifeworld becomes medicine, which seeks not only means to combat diseases but also tools to enhance the quality of life for patients, enabling them to maintain an active social life and their own personality. In conclusion, the hybridization of the lifeworld and scientific problems represents a significant paradigm shift in modern society. By recognizing and embracing the interplay between social, technological, and scientific domains, scientists can foster innovation and address complex challenges more effectively. Transdisciplinary practices serve as a bridge between different disciplines, enabling collaboration and synergy in the pursuit of knowledge and progress.

Performing the self: the construction of Casa Malaparte as living images

The paper discusses architectural design as a transdisciplinary practice that interlinks architecture, performance, and the moving image through a building example: the Casa Malaparte, the house of Italian writer Curzio Malaparte (1898–1957) built in Capri, Italy, between 1938 and 1942. Malaparte stated many times that he considered his house the best portrait of himself and he called the Casa Malaparte ‘A House Like Me’. Through theoretical, archival, and fieldwork research, the paper argues that the house performs Malaparte's autobiography. Unlike the conventional architectural design process, the Casa Malaparte was built by its owner Curzio Malaparte in collaboration with a master builder in an improvisational manner that incorporated methods of cinematic framing, material collage, and assemblage. The house is discussed as a self-portrait of its inhabitant questioning what could be architecture's role in mirroring the self and theorises Casa Malaparte's creation as a practice that works in between architecture, performance, and the visual arts. By drawing on Bertolt Brecht's ‘alienation effect’, Antonin Artaud's ‘theatre of cruelty’, and Denis Diderot discussion of the ‘tableau vivant’ which literally means ‘living pictures’, the paper provides theoretical frameworks that bring together spatial and performance theories. The Casa Malaparte as a tableau vivant is discussed as an alternative performative device that can potentially expand architectural design and render it as a living practice.

ALEXANDER BOGDANOV’S “ORGANIZATIONAL POINT OF VIEW” AND ITS DEVELOPMENT BY THE MOSCOW METHODOLOGICAL CIRCLE IN THE CONTEXT OF V. S. STEPIN’S TYPOLOGY OF RATIONALITY

This paper is a continuation of our presentation at the First Stepin’s Readings, which was devoted to the view on V. S. Stepin’s typology of scientific rationality from the standpoint of a contemporary systems approach. In the context of this view, we reconstruct the content and show the meaning of the “organizational point of view” as a methodological principle of Bogdanov's Tektology, which introduces a systemic dimension into scientific thinking and opens the way to overcoming the disciplinary division of sciences and restoring the systemic unity of knowledge. Further, we show the development of the “organizational point of view” as a methodological principle of systems thinking in the Moscow Methodological Circle (MMC) and the transdisciplinary practices of collective problem-solving based on it.

Amplifying weak signals: a method-building approach for inclusive climate resilience strategy making

Socio-ecological inclusion and the impacts of climate change on the built environment are two shared concerns central to the design and planning of the just transition in cities. The just transition leans heavily on inclusive convergence processes that are grounded in knowledge integration and transdisciplinary practice. However, there is a paucity of effective methods for the inclusion of so-called weak signals from actors situated at the periphery of these convergence processes. Building on the concept of structured flexibility, we introduce a building-blocks approach as a modular architecture for constructing methods for distributed engagement and knowledge integration beyond conventional small-group settings. By engaging in research through design, the Amplifying Weak Signals approach was prototyped with students in the context of dealing with heatwaves in The Hague and tested with expert users from the region who facilitate resilience strategy-making processes. Out of 900 possible building block combinations, 18 methods were created during prototyping. The resulting heatwave strategies that were drafted based on the collected peripheral knowledge showed the integration of new socio-ecological issues rather than a drastic departure from the baseline resilience strategy of the city. We discuss the research findings and their use in the production of guidelines for the construction of methods to integrate peripheral knowledge in convergence processes. Ongoing work to develop the guidelines in the form of an open-access, interactive repository of knowledge elicitation methods for urban resilience spatial planning will also be described. Recommendations for scaling the approach are provided.

Walking borders, risk and belonging: the walking interview as biographical method and doing mobility justice

ABSTRACT This paper engages with the long history of work in Mobilities research and makes a contribution from a different angle, by introducing and discussing creative applications of biographical research using the walking interview as biographical method (WIBM), that captures the sensory, embodied, affective aspects of lived lives and lived experiences, the intersecting oppressions and possibilities for praxis, focusing upon research on borders, risk and belonging, funded by the Leverhulme Trust. It argues that applying the WIBM opens up possibilities for doing “mobility justice”, through a relational, cultural and socio-spatial examination and analysis of lived lives, in the context of geo-political, cultural worlds (and scales). In doing so, the paper examines, through two short examples, creative applications of walking as an arts-based practice through the walking interview as biographical method (WIBM) to contribute to doing “mobility justice” as a transdisciplinary practice, as an “ethical and just” process and practice. Methodologically, the paper opens a space for dialogue on the transformative role of walking, listening as partial understanding, (partial understanding because although incredibly powerful, the biographical method can never give us total knowledge/understanding of the lives of others and this is not its aim) “resonance” and the potential for solidarity, as part of an ethics of listening, including possible impact on policy and practice, especially in diverse research and social contexts.

Designing an Interdisciplinary Health Course: A Qualitative Study of Undergraduate Students' Experience of Interdisciplinary Curriculum Design and Learning Experiences.

Research into interdisciplinary education, where concrete examples and empirical evidence of interdisciplinary teaching is explored, is limited. Furthermore, there are no standardized guidelines on best practices for designing and implementing an interdisciplinary curriculum. Recently, in healthcare settings there has been a drive to adopt interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary practices, creating a need for training individuals capable of working across discipline-specific boundaries, or to even adopt a transdisciplinary practice. This is partially attributed to recognizing that local and global complex health challenges are interlinked and share common factors and often require a new integrated approach to management. In response, a new interdisciplinary course using a modified snowflake model of interdisciplinary course design was launched at a medical school. The course aimed to provide a broad foundation for lifelong learning with a strong emphasis on the development of knowledge, skills, and professional values essential for interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary practice in applied health promotion for individuals and society. A semi-structured focus group with students (n = 15% of the inaugural cohort) having completed at least 1 year of the course was undertaken to investigate student perspectives on best approaches for the development and delivery of interdisciplinary learning and teaching. Results highlighted the importance of providing training and opportunity for students to practice integration within the curriculum. Additionally, it was noted that including a module to introduce students to different disciplines and guiding students to explore their inherent interconnectedness is essential in helping them develop interdisciplinary thinking and skills. Crucially, the role of integrated assessments was also recognized as fundamental for demonstrating and practicing interdisciplinarity. Overall, this study provides valuable insights and recommendations for educators with the objective of developing interdisciplinary learning in new or existing higher education courses or those seeking to prepare learners for contemporary and emergent societal challenges more generally.

Towards a practice framework for transdisciplinary collaboration in planetary health

Abstract Non-Technical Summary Despite growing recognition of the importance of transdisciplinary research in addressing complex sustainability challenges, in practice it has been much hampered by persistent inequities, power disparities, and epistemological disconnect. Planetary health as an emerging field offers a unique lens highlighting the need for knowledge integration across the environment, health, and development (EHD) nexus. Drawing upon extensive analyses, including a meta-analysis of existing transdisciplinary frameworks, a literature review of practices in these fields, and a case study of a planetary health action research project in Indonesia and Fiji, we propose a framework to guide the design and implementation of transdisciplinary research. Technical Summary The proposed framework was iteratively designed, starting with existing frameworks, complemented by findings and practice recommendations from a literature review of 36 publications of recent transdisciplinary practices in the EHD fields and an in-depth case study of a planetary health research from Indonesian perspectives. The practice framework focuses on the stakeholder collaboration process, and emphasizes reflexivity and co-learning throughout all research phases: initiation (co-design); implementation (adaptive co-management), and monitoring and refinement (co-monitoring). Foundational considerations for stakeholder engagement could inform process design by reflecting on stakeholder contributions, interactions, integration, and expected outcomes. As suggested by development studies, and implicitly agreed upon but insufficiently elaborated within environment and health, attention to the local context of the research, mapping of power dynamics, and the values of equity and inclusivity are pertinent if research is to produce credible, relevant, and legitimate knowledge and outcomes. A renewed focus on addressing power equities can help ensure stakeholders' perspectives and interests are equally valued and potential solutions are not inadvertently excluded as a legacy of systemic power imbalance. The practice framework is most effectively applied in the initial process co-design, by process initiators and funders assessing proposals for international transdisciplinary research in power-diverse settings or resource-poor contexts. Social Media Summary How can researchers across diverse fields collaborate with renewed focus on power inequities to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals?

Leading innovation in transdisciplinary care.

BackgroundBenefits of effective team-based working in healthcare settings are well established, with the ultimate form being transdisciplinary teams. Achieving transdisciplinary teams at the large organisation or system level has not been extensively studied.PurposeTo examine and describe exemplar organisations where transdisciplinary working was enabled and that can be reproduced in other organisations.MethodsAn expert panel reached consensus on three healthcare organisations in the USA that exemplified transdisciplinary working. Available public information about each organisation was reviewed and site visits with direct observation and interviews were conducted with two of the three exemplar sites (the third completed remotely due to the onset of COVID-19). The process of immersion-crystallisation was used to review the collated material and to identify key themes that were then repeatedly checked with the expert panel.ResultsConsistent themes were identified across all three organisations, although they each arrived at these commonalities via distinctly different routes. All had a clear and shared creation story as to how they came about as an entity, which was supported by consistent longitudinal leadership. This enabled an environment whereby each organisation created its own language that reflected their culture as an organisation, thus continually reinforcing the uniqueness of their organisation.ConclusionsLarge healthcare organisations can achieve the concepts of transdisciplinary practice. While no single achievement pathway was identified, common themes noted were a clear creation story, consistent leadership, and building a language that reflected the organisation.

Specialised langages in French higher education : towards a transdisciplinary practice

Specialised langages in French higher education : towards a transdisciplinary practice

A conceptual framework for assessing transdisciplinary STEM practices

ABSTRACT Background Integrated STEM education has attracted increasing attention in global educational reforms. While transdisciplinary approaches are deemed useful pedagogy for integrated STEM curriculum design, few assessment instruments are available for appraising the efficacy of teaching and learning in transdisciplinary settings. Purpose This study proposes a framework to conceptualize the meaning of transdisciplinary STEM practices and demonstrates how the framework can be used to develop an assessment for transdisciplinary practices. Sources of evidence The conceptual framework is contextualized in design context. The concepts of need-to-do and need-to-know are used to illustrate how design engages students in transdisciplinary practices. The need-to-do cycle includes the four design phases, whereas the need-to-know part concerns the relevant STEM knowledge applied in these phases. Knowledge-based reasoning is identified as the focused practice in transdisciplinary STEM assessments. Based on the conceptual framework, we formulate the assessment template and scoring rubrics following the four steps suggested in the principled assessment design approach. Two dimensions – the types of disciplinary knowledge and the levels of reasoning – are examined to describe students’ transdisciplinary STEM practices in a design context. An exemplary STEM assessment task on a mini-wire-controlled car is presented. Main argument The conceptual framework proposed in this study presents one possible solution to align the goals of integrated STEM programs and their evaluation instruments. Conclusions The assessment of transdisciplinary STEM practices can contribute to our understanding of how students apply and reason with disciplinary knowledge in transdisciplinary settings.

Community-based care for autistic youth: community providers' reported use of treatment practices in the United States.

To illustrate the landscape of community-based care for autistic youth in the United States, we identified transdisciplinary psychosocial intervention practice sets that community providers report utilizing to care for this population, and examined characteristics associated with provider-reported utilization. The Usual Care for Autism Study (UCAS) Survey assessed provider demographics and provider-reported use of transdisciplinary practices for common ASD co-occurring problems: social difficulties, externalizing behaviors, and anxiety. Community practitioners (N = 701) from allied health, behavioral, education, medical, mental health and other disciplines who treat or work with autistic youth (7-22 years) participated. Exploratory factor analysis yielded four factors: Consequence-Based Strategies (CBS), Cognitive-Behavioral and Therapy Strategies (CBTS), Antecedent-Based Strategies (ABS), and Teaching Strategies (TS). Providers across disciplines reported utilizing ABS more often than other sets. Providers from behavioral disciplines, with less than 4-year or Master degrees, or with more experience reported the most use of ABS, CBS and CBTS. Medical and behavioral providers reported the most use of TS. Setting and child characteristics were associated with practice set use, indicating variability by disability and client socioeconomic status. Findings reflect the complexity and inconsistency of the service landscape for autistic youth across the U.S. Only by understanding the service landscape and predictors of practice utilization, can researchers, policymakers, provider groups, and the autistic community facilitate effective implementation strategy development and use to ultimately improve community-based care.

Hippotherapy concepts: A scoping review to inform transdisciplinary practice guidelines

Background Hippotherapy, an equine-assisted service, uses the movement of the horse as a treatment tool. Hippotherapy is often used by occupational therapists, physiotherapists, and speech and language pathologists. To optimise hippotherapy and facilitate the development of transdisciplinary hippotherapy practise guidelines, this scoping review identified novel hippotherapy concepts used during hippotherapy interventions for clients with spastic cerebral palsy. Aim To explore, identify, and describe concepts that constitute hippotherapy practices for clients with spastic cerebral palsy. Methods An exploratory descriptive qualitative research design, using Arksey and O’Malley’s five stages of scoping review. Results We identified and tabulated 19 hippotherapy concepts. Conclusions Hippotherapy is a complex intervention with multiple concepts. This review contributed to the development of hippotherapy practice guidelines for clients with spastic cerebral palsy. Significance Including hippotherapy concepts into hippotherapy practice will inform therapists, benefit clients, and contribute to future research.

The REHAB-LAB model for individualized assistive device co-creation and production

ABSTRACT Assistive devices are designed to enhance individuals with disabilities’ functional abilities. The rise of 3D printing technology enabled the production of individualized assistive devices (IADs). A REHAB-LAB is intended for IAD provision involving technical referents and occupational therapists. This study aimed to develop the REHAB-LAB logic model; to explore its fidelity and desirability; and to explore the characteristics of arising initiatives of IAD production. The REHAB-LAB logic model development involved stakeholders throughout the research process. A pragmatic multimethod approach followed two phases 1) logic model development and 2) exploration of its fidelity and desirability. The REHAB-LAB logic model presented the resources (equipment, space, human) required to implement IAD provision in a rehabilitation center, and the expected deliverables (activities and outputs). The REHAB-LAB logic model highlights the interdisciplinarity of IAD provision including occupational therapists, doctors, engineers, managers, and technical referents and places the users at the center of the IAD production. Results confirmed the fidelity and desirability of the REHAB-LAB logic model. The REHAB-LAB logic model can be used as a reference for future healthcare organizations wishing to implement an IAD provision. This research highlighted the interest of IAD provision based on the REHAB-LAB model involving users and transdisciplinary practices

Towards developing a decolonial transdisciplinary praxis that supports a socially-transformative occupational science: Emergent insights from an educational project in South Africa

ABSTRACT As occupational science develops its socially transformative agenda, the discipline must learn how to ‘do’ a science that responds to complex social issues. Developing occupational science as a ‘transdisciplinary science’ has been indicated as a potential tool to do so. As such, this paper presents the emergent insights generated through attempting to engage a decolonial transdisciplinary praxis within health and rehabilitation sciences, as a contribution to the conceptual development of transdisciplinarity within the discipline. Reflections on the authors’ experiences of engaging in a project that intentionally brought undergraduate occupational therapy, speech-language pathology, audiology, and physiotherapy students together to collectively respond to justice and equity-related needs at a low-income school in Cape Town, South Africa, were used to generate these insights. Engaging in a context shaped by coloniality and apartheid, our reflections revealed three key notions that supported the decolonial enactment of a transdisciplinary practice: ‘Exploring how to un-discipline ourselves’; ‘Embracing the vulnerability of decolonising the self’; and ‘Intentionally occupying a liminal space’. Our further interpretation of what these notions meant for our practice culminated in what we saw as critical for the enactment of transdisciplinarity: How to conceptualise and work with a ‘praxis of uncertainty’. We discuss the potential value of the praxis of uncertainty in decolonial transdisciplinary work and offer impetus for its continued conceptual development, arguing that developing such knowledge could contribute to moving occupational science towards becoming a socially transformative discipline.

Gestures for interdependence: Expanding regenerative design through spatial dramaturgies for the unseen, the unheard, and the unfelt

The reality of the Anthropocene performs on us through various esthetic spatial experiences. To undo the consequences of modernity, spatial designers are moving toward a regenerative (restorative and non-extractivist) way of thinking, doing, and being. Situated in the growing field of spatial dramaturgy, this article focuses on how esthetic experience can contribute to attitudes toward regenerative spatial design through collaborations with more-than-human entities. If spatial design moves towards a pluriversality based on relationships of interdependence, how can spatial design generate esthetic experiences of regeneration accordingly? How do we design experiences of interdependence? In this paper, we discuss the experimental practice of the TAAT arts collective, a transdisciplinary practice aimed at developing performative installations. The fieldwork (situated in Lithuania and the Netherlands) covers processes in which rivers — as more-than-human entities — are taking up a leading role as cocreators. In every location, the spatial dramaturgical development is based on methods of embodied experiences, scoring, cocreation, and written reflections. These methods are implemented to prototype “gestures of interdependence”. We will treat these as design gestures (attitudes and approaches) aimed at foregrounding unseen places (sites of extraction and exploitation) and unheard bodies (more-than-human entities that are silenced) in the field of regenerative spatial design. By revealing the agency of the unseen and the unheard in spatial design processes, we will broaden our understanding of “designing the unfelt”. In conclusion, a design score will summarize our findings. This score can be implemented in spatial design practices (ranging from scenography, installation art, architecture, and social practice) focused on generating embodied esthetic experiences of regeneration.

Engaging diverse experts in the global science-policy interface: Learning experiences from the process of the IPBES Values Assessment

This longitudinal study explores evidence of learning and reflexivity among experts involved in the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Values Assessment from 2018 to 2022. As part of an online survey administered at yearly intervals, experts self-reported their views on: i) the aims they attributed to the Values Assessment, ii) their epistemic worldviews, iii) the definition of the multiple values of nature, and iv) their personal learning experiences in the assessment process. The represented epistemic worldviews corresponded to Constructivist, Transformative, Pragmatist, and Post-positivist. Across the three surveys, 59% of the respondents shifted their epistemic worldviews. However, these same experts did not change their core perspectives regarding the motivation behind the Values Assessment. At the same time, experts holding a Post-positivist worldview came to express more engagement-inclined themes and openness to dialogue with diverse knowledge systems. While enhanced reflexivity stimulated overall learning, cutting across all learning dimensions, it was itself a multilayered learning outcome. This study illustrates how diverse experts critically reflected and changed their own underlying assumptions during the inter- and transdisciplinary process of the Values Assessment. It further reveals that learning experiences in the Values Assessment were embedded in epistemic worldviews and connected to cognitive, relational, and transformative dimensions of learning. Our findings have broader implications for the design of inclusive and reflexive learning processes in future work of organisations aiming to facilitate inter- and transdisciplinary practices at the science-policy interface.

Transdisciplinarity 101: Short-Term Training in Knowledge CoProduction to Face Global Environmental Change

The Belmont Forum and the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI) organized an online training workshop on transdisciplinary (TD) approaches at the Sustainability, Research, and Innovation Congress (SRI) in 2022. The IAI is an intergovernmental organization that brings together 19 countries from the Americas to support adaptation to the world’s changing environment. The Belmont Forum is a consortium of major funders and international science councils to promote knowledge about sustainability science. The workshop aimed to create a safe environment for participants to share their impressions of and experiences about transdisciplinary research, using the Americas (IAI mandate) as a launching point for TD approaches globally. The workshop consisted of two online sessions: Transdisciplinary Approach 101 and Transdisciplinary Case Studies. The objectives of the current workshop report are: 1) to identify the key takeaways regarding common challenges and opportunities for transdisciplinary practice among workshop participants’ experiences, upon which to base recommendations for best practices, e.g., managing power imbalances, conflicting priorities and timeframes, enhancing communication and consolidating contextual awareness. 2) to offer insights to build better strategies for “train the trainers'' processes around transdisciplinarity, especially in congresses and short-term events, including using an experience-based approach, offering specific tools and increasing the participation of non-academic partners. This report encourages the implementation of other training processes by experienced transdisciplinary researchers, practitioners, and funders, in order to build capacities for collaborative approaches in diverse scientific communities.

Building a Transdisciplinary Team to Prevent Intimate Partner Homicide: A Research Note.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) and intimate partner homicide (IPH) are complex global problems. Transdisciplinary research approaches offer the potential to increase the understanding of these events and inform best practices for prevention. To encourage scholars to adopt transdisciplinary practices when investigating multifaceted problems, this note employs a case study approach to detail one such effort-The Preventing and Assessing Intimate Partner Homicide Risk (PAIR) Studies. The goal of the PAIR Studies is to improve the understanding of IPH to inform the development of best practices for prevention. The note concludes with a discussion of the benefits of transdisciplinary approaches.