Knowledge co‐production and researcher roles in transdisciplinary environmental management projects

Abstract

Calls for transformative change and participatory modes of knowledge production demand researchers to assume new roles. This paper synthesizes the literature on knowledge co-production and researcher roles to explore challenges for researchers involved in transdisciplinary environmental management projects. Our research methods combine a scoping review and reflections on personal experiences with three transdisciplinary projects. To conceptualize researcher roles in transdisciplinary knowledge co-production, we distinguish between three spaces: knowledge, formal policy, and stakeholder. Knowledge co-production requires collaboration between actors from different spaces and integration of diverse knowledge sources and types.Depending on whether researchers adopt knowledge-oriented, change-oriented or intermediating roles, they will experience different challenges. When researchers combine knowledge development with change-oriented and/or intermediating roles, they encounter new challenges, such as, maintaining independence or objectivity. To assist researchers in transdisciplinary projects, we conclude with a checklist of four elements to reflect upon: orientation, norms and values, expectations and resources.

Understanding resilience in sustainable development: Rallying call or siren song?

“…Much in the way that the concept of institutions has been shared across social studies (e.g., economics, history, politics, sociology), resilience opens a path for disciplinary cross‐pollination. This especially resonates with parallel calls on the need for transdisciplinary approaches to sustainable development (Biswas & Miller, 2022; Cockburn, 2022; Kruijf et al, 2022). Once again, it is thanks to its lack of paradigmatic status that this resilience consensus can span multiple disciplines.…”

“…This especially resonates with parallel calls on the need for transdisciplinary approaches to sustainable development (Biswas & Miller, 2022;Cockburn, 2022;Kruijf et al, 2022). Once again, it is thanks to its lack of paradigmatic status that this resilience consensus can span multiple disciplines.…”

Epochal turns: Uncomfortable insights, uncertain outlooks

“…Sustainable development addressing all the challenges named and supporting transformative change requires participatory modes of knowledge production—which in turn demands researchers to assume new roles (Kruijf et al, 2022). Science supporting the adaptation of societies to the new era emerging from the epochal turn will have to be strong on social sciences and humanities, sociology seeking for solutions in social practices and their evolution, psychology in determinants of motivation, political science in the opportunities to establish care centred societies, and so forth.…”

Knowledge coproduction to improve assessments of nature's contributions to people

“…Addressing the urgent environmental challenges of biodiversity erosion, natural resource depletion, and climate change requires new approaches to produce, share, and use knowledge, across disciplines and sectors. Transdisciplinary and sustainability scholars propose an inclusive and interactive approach, knowledge coproduction, to integrate academic and nonacademic actors’ knowledge to address problem‐oriented decision making (Plummer et al., 2022; Vinke‐de‐Kruijf et al., 2022). Knowledge coproduction is promoted by international science‐policy processes, such as the Intergovernmental Science‐Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and Future Earth; networks such as the Indigenous Peoples' Biocultural Climate Change Assessment Initiative (IPCCA) (https://ipcca.info); and national to local initiatives and actors (Brondízio et al., 2021; Hill et al., 2020; McElwee et al., 2020).…”