Research as a Transdisciplinary Networked Process: A Metaphor for Difference-Making Research

The Frontier Myth in U.S. Offshore Wind Energy Communication

“…As noted by Ceccarelli (2013b), RoS scholars have tended to prefer a passive role in the study of science. On the other hand, along with other scholars (Sprain et al, 2010;Cozen et al, 2018), we follow Cox's (2007) claim that environmental communication research demands that we risk neutrality by suggesting potential applications to, in this case, energy transitions. Learning that offshore wind professionals attending professional conferences saw themselves as frontier heroes in the stewardship model led us to imagine opportunities for building a sense of community with people who are alienated from science and technology.…”

“…However, as Ceccarelli notes, many RoS scholars have consciously chosen a "somewhat passive" (Ceccarelli, 2013b, p. 2) role in the study of science, reserving politically relevant action to teaching and extra-academic activities. Environmental communication scholars (Endres et al, 2008;Sprain et al, 2010;Sprain and Feldpausch-Parker, 2018) and energy communication scholars (Cozen et al, 2018), on the other hand, argue that their sub-discipline's status as a crisis discipline (Cox, 2007) requires a more active orientation that seeks to apply heuristic contributions to policy, activism, or other forms of response to ongoing crises.…”

Creating a Place for Environmental Communication Research in Sustainability Science

“…Sustainability science requires unprecedented levels of collaboration across disciplines and with stakeholders. This work is both transdisciplinary (Sprain et al, 2010) in that it reaches beyond the institutional walls of higher education, and interdisciplinary (Amey & Brown, 2004) in that it requires diverse disciplines to come together in novel ways. Interdisciplinarity requires that diverse constituents who often have different reward systems and conflicting values navigate the often unruly and*for many university researchers*frightening territory of working together.…”

“…This culture of merging basic and applied communication work acknowledges the messiness of situational complexities. Sprain, Endres, and Petersen (2010) argue that communication that seeks to affect public communication practices should move to a model of transdisciplinary, networked research and engagement approaches. Transdisciplinarity, which refers here to a research strategy that moves both across academic disciplines and beyond the university walls, parallels many of the tenets that sustainability science implies with its concept of K l A.…”

Editorial: A Research Agenda for Energy Democracy

“…In response to this upheaval, scholars of science, technology and society (STS), communication, and interdisciplinary energy studies have an opportunity to develop new research pathways for discovering how and when energy system change draws upon democratic principles and how its discourses may, in turn, contribute to a deeper understanding of participatory democracy. Research on energy democracy seeks to (1) understand, critique, and theorize energy system transition from a lens of democratic engagement; (2) articulate energy democracy as a "transdisciplinary network" of engaged research that blends scholarly inquiry with practical action toward making a difference (Sprain et al, 2010); and (3) advocate for research-informed models and practices that contribute to making energy transitions and decisions as democratic as possible within a nexus of global patterns of energy extraction, production, and consumption.…”