The Adoption and Implementation of Transdisciplinary Research in the Field of Land-Use Science—A Comparative Case Study

Abstract

Transdisciplinary research (TDR) is discussed as a promising approach in land-use science and spatial research to address complex multifaceted "real-world problems" and to design strategies and solutions for sustainable development. TDR has become a widespread research approach in sustainability science and is increasingly promoted by research programmes and agencies (e.g., Future Earth and Horizon 2020). Against this backdrop, TDR can be considered a (social) innovation in the academic system, which is currently in the midst of an up-scaling diffusion process from a rather small TDR-advocating expert community to a broader science-practice community. We argue that this up-scaling phase also places TDR in a critical state as the concept potentially risks a type of "rhetorical mainstreaming". The objectives of this study were to analyse how the challenging approach of TDR is currently adopted and implemented in the field of land-use research and to identify potential influencing factors. We studied 13 transdisciplinary research projects from Germany by performing qualitative interviews with coordinators, document analysis and participatory observation during meetings over a period of five years. Results show that the adoption level of the TDR concept varied widely among the studied projects, as did the adoption of the TDR indicators used in our analysis. In many of the investigated projects, we identified a clear lack of conceptual knowledge of TDR. In addition, we found that current academic structures limit the ability of researchers to thoroughly adapt to the requirements of TDR. We conclude that further communication and educational efforts that promote TDR are required. In addition, we advocate for the development of suitable funding instruments that support sustained research structures.

Governance strategy for sustainable land management and water reuse: Challenges for transdisciplinary research

“…On the one hand, the project successfully developed a guiding framework for governance through a mutual learning process; on the other, it was confronted with a range of shortcomings typical for transdisciplinary projects (Lang et al, ; Pohl & Hirsch Hadorn, ; Zscheischler et al, ; for an overview see Mann & Schäfer, ). The four governance challenges that we have identified from the literature helped us to systematically address crucial aspects in the strategy development and have been discussed here with regard to findings from transdisciplinary research.…”

“…The guiding idea of this coproduction approach was that collective engagement between researchers and practitioners should take place as an interactive process in which actors, institutions and biophysical as well as technological system conditions mutually shape each other. As minimum standards for such a transdisciplinary research design, collaborative problem‐framing was required as well as integration of knowledge from different disciplines and research–practice collaboration, as previously identified with regard to sustainable land management (Zscheischler, Rogga, & Busse, , pp. 4–6).…”

Lessons Learned from Co-Design and Co-Production in a Portable Health Clinic Research Project in Jaipur District, India (2016–2018)

“…Incorporating the natural and social sciences to solve global environmental issues [10], Future Earth has "pioneered approaches to the co-design and co-production of solutions-oriented, transdisciplinary research for global sustainable development" [11].However, transdisciplinary research remains hampered in a number of ways. First, the most recent reviews of transdisciplinary case studies have concluded that the methods and concepts of co-design and co-production processes lack clarity [1,2,4,12]. Second, the majority of extant transdisciplinary research only describes the early stages of co-design, rather than its actual implementation and application [2,7].…”

“…Second, the majority of extant transdisciplinary research only describes the early stages of co-design, rather than its actual implementation and application [2,7]. Indeed, which studies include key components of early co-design-such as the "framing of problems" [4,12,13], "social capital and partnerships with mutual trust" [14-16], "scaling" [17], "accountability" [9,18], "ownership" [18], as well as "priorities and needs" [1,9]-few have used case studies to discuss both co-design and co-production in a comprehensive, bottom-up manner [4]. Third, in comparison to Europe and North America, markedly few transdisciplinary case studies have been conducted in low-middle income countries in Asia-particularly in terms of health issues [2].…”

“…Based on commonalities between extant studies in this field [1,3,5,7,8,[18][19][20], this paper defines transdisciplinary research as "real-world, solutions-oriented research for a sustainable society, involving both academic and non-academic stakeholders such as governments, industries, and civil society organizations." Co-design is "a process of joint development and mutual learning with all stakeholders regarding the research plan and protocols including research objectives, design, and methods" [5,12]. Co-production is "a process of generating collaborative knowledge including implementation, analysis, capacity-building, and empowerment activities, engaging with both academic and non-academic stakeholders" [3,9].…”