Societal effects of transdisciplinary sustainability research—How can they be strengthened during the research process?

Lux, Alexandra; Schäfer, Martina; Bergmann, Matthias; Jähn, Thomas; Marg, Oskar; Nagy, Emilia; Ransiek, Anna-Christin; Theiler, Lena

doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2019.08.012

Cited by 81 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…The traditional notion of transfer in the HEIs' context as unidirectional top-down process from university into practice and business regarding technology transfer is problematic. Analyses of transdisciplinary research show that the process of co-design and co-production is crucial when addressing real-world problems and having societal impact [45]. For this reason, it might be productive to speak of a fourth mission of co-creation for sustainability [6].…”

Section: Discussion and Outlook: What Does Sustainability Transfer Mementioning

confidence: 99%

Transfer for Sustainable Development at Higher Education Institutions—Untapped Potential for Education for Sustainable Development and for Societal Transformation

et al. 2020

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Higher education institutions (HEIs) are increasingly confronted with societal needs beyond research and teaching. These include sustainable development and technology transfer as well as the practical application of knowledge and ideas. Several HEIs already put sustainable development and transfer into practice. These practitioner-university partnerships comprise a broad range of actors, disciplines, topics, and formats. However, transfer activities that contribute to sustainable development in society still make up only a very small part of HEIs' activities. In response to calls from society as a whole, HEIs could combine transfer and sustainable development more systematically. In this article, we suggest a concept of transfer for sustainable development. The focus is on sustainability transfer in teaching. We used mixed methods for this conceptual work: exploratory workshops, expert interviews, and a case study of transfer in teaching. One of the results presented in this article is a working definition of sustainability transfer at HEIs. In addition, six characteristics for describing sustainability transfer in its various forms are formulated. This conceptualization makes it possible to analyze the diversity of HEIs' sustainability transfer activities, it helps to identify and encourage potential transfer actors at HEIs as well as practitioners, and, thus, tap the full potential of sustainability transfer.

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Section: Discussion and Outlook: What Does Sustainability Transfer Mementioning

confidence: 99%

Transfer for Sustainable Development at Higher Education Institutions—Untapped Potential for Education for Sustainable Development and for Societal Transformation

et al. 2020

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“…Since research projects (usually) lack the capacity to directly transform land use practices (cf. Lux et al 2019), the mental model incorporates intermediate actors as transmitters that are proactive in both directions. Besides building a bridge from the research project to land use decision arenas or decision makers, they fuel and enrich the research process by feeding knowledge (e.g.…”

Section: Tandi Strategic Policy Pathways In Slmmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, they may be a part of the research Fig. 13.3 Strategic conceptual model of T&I in SLM (own source) project itself (bound by contract), as this increases the likelihood that research results will be adopted after the end of the project cycle (Lux et al 2019). Numerous studies on transdisciplinary research indicate that an early and continuous involvement of practitioners in the research process (e.g.…”

Section: Tandi Strategic Policy Pathways In Slmmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Transcending the Loading Dock Paradigm—Rethinking Science-Practice Transfer and Implementation in Sustainable Land Management

Rogga

2020

Human-Environment Interactions

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Modern science is increasingly called on to produce societally relevant and usable knowledge to tackle global challenges. Academics respond by conducting research projects that transcend the boundaries of single disciplines and institutions by actively engaging with non-academic actors. Such institutional arrangements open up entirely new perspectives for science communication and the problem-solving of real-world issues. However, they also call for elaborate management tasks and demand learning processes on the part of all those involved. This chapter introduces transfer and implementation (T&I) as a conceptual pair of terms to grasp the challenges, without compromising the opportunities of this new research mode. In doing so, this chapter discusses contemporary approaches of science knowledge transfer, and promotes a notion that prioritises knowledge transfer over information transfer through artefacts. After reframing T&I as a management area in research projects, I present three strategic policy pathways for sustainable land management.

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“…However, with increasingly wicked societal problems which engage diverse and numerous stakeholder groups, often with different mandates and power differentials, evaluation becomes far more challenging. In particular, the link between co-productive research processes and societal change is difficult to establish (Hansson and Polk 2018;Lux et al 2019) on account of process properties, inherent time lags, multiple influences and related problems of the counterfactual (Spaapen and Van Drooge 2011;Wiek et al 2014;Hellström 2015). This also reflects the specific complexity of such processes and problems areas, as well as the greater unpredictability and use of the intended results (Walter et al 2007;Bornmann 2013;Koier and Horlings 2015;Belcher et al 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluative and enabling infrastructures: supporting the ability of urban co-production processes to contribute to societal change

et al. 2020

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As widely attested in the literature, the evaluation of co-production is complex and unsuited to the use of conventional quality, monitoring and evaluation indicators. This reflects the uncertainties, co-contributory factors and time lags involved, particularly when seeking to assess institutional and wider societal effects of multistakeholder participatory processes and deliberative fora. The most widely assessed effects include the immediate outputs and outcomes of a project or activity (socalled first order effects) while wider societal or third order effects continue to be the most difficult to capture and, consequently, are the least well studied. Because of this difficulty, the intermediate, second order effects of organisational transformation and policy implementation constitute a growing challenge for evaluation. This is our focus here. After 10 years of transdisciplinary co-productive research practice, Mistra Urban Futures, as an interstitial research space bridging academia and practice working through city-based institutional partnerships called platforms, has reached a phase where some of these effects are becoming distinguishable. Accordingly, we discuss the prerequisites for co-production practitioners, including policy makers, to engage their respective organisations in transitional and incremental experimentation in order to achieve relevant institutional changes. This requires enabling infrastructures that support training, facilitation and the creation of 'safe' spaces to promote trust and legitimacy. These are needed to underpin the longlasting personal and organisational commitments which are crucial to achieve transformative organisational effects.

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Societal effects of transdisciplinary sustainability research—How can they be strengthened during the research process?

Cited by 81 publications

References 36 publications

Transfer for Sustainable Development at Higher Education Institutions—Untapped Potential for Education for Sustainable Development and for Societal Transformation

Transfer for Sustainable Development at Higher Education Institutions—Untapped Potential for Education for Sustainable Development and for Societal Transformation

Transcending the Loading Dock Paradigm—Rethinking Science-Practice Transfer and Implementation in Sustainable Land Management

Evaluative and enabling infrastructures: supporting the ability of urban co-production processes to contribute to societal change

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