The guiding logics and principles for designing emergent transdisciplinary research processes: learning experiences and reflections from a transdisciplinary urban case study in Enkanini informal settlement, South Africa

Abstract

Transdisciplinarity is not a new science per se, but a new methodology for doing science with society. A particular challenge in doing science with society is the engagement with non-academic actors to enable joint problem formulation, analysis and transformation. How this is achieved differs between contexts. The premise of this paper is that transdisciplinary research (TDR) methodologies designed for developed world contexts cannot merely be replicated and transferred to developing world contexts. Thus a new approach is needed for conducting TDR in contexts characterised by high levels of complexity, conflict and social fluidity. To that end, this paper introduces a new approach to TDR titled emergent transdisciplinary design research (ETDR). A core element of this approach is that the research process is designed as it unfolds, that is, it transforms as it emerges from and within the fluid context. The ETDR outlined in this paper emerged through a case study in the informal settlement (slum) of Enkanini in Stellenbosch, South Africa. This case study demonstrates the context from and within which the ETDR approach and identifies a set of guiding logics that can be used to guide ETDR approaches in other contexts. The study demonstrates that the new logics and guiding principles were not simply derived from the TDR literature, but rather emerged from constant interacting dynamics between theory and practice. Learning how to co-design the research process through co-producing transformative knowledge and then implementing strategic interventions to bring about incremental social change is key to theory development in ways that are informed by local contextual dynamics. There are, however, risks when undertaking such TDR processes such as under-valuing disciplinary knowledge, transferring risks onto a society, and suppressing 'truth-to-power'.

Navigating Multiple Tensions for Engaged Praxis in a Complex Social-Ecological System

“…With budgets, it is not only large amounts of money that are important but also the flexibility to be able to respond nimbly to emergence, whether in the form of new opportunities or new insights. Van Breda and Swilling [65] make a somewhat similar point, about the need to find resources that give research and development teams the flexibility to respond to emergence as they work in complex systems.…”

“…Dynamic, messy and difficult to navigate, CSES require researchers and managers to proceed through adaptive approaches that recognize and work with the complexity [57,65] and seek out collaboration and learning. Collaboration in management and governance is necessary because of the difficulty of problems, the wide range of stakeholders, the large landscape-scale of initiatives, and the collective sense-making and responses required [53,58,66].…”

Imagining the post-fossil city: why is it so difficult to think of new possible worlds?

“…Inhabitants saw the solar panels on the shack next door, then wanted one as well and immediately saved money because of it. The research team from the University of Stellenbosch did and does regular empirical work and publishes about it (van Breda & Swilling, 2018), but it also initiated, organized, monitored and improved the intervention. 2 Here, academic researchers took on an interesting new role, not only in initiating the intervention but also in their commitment to stabilizing it.…”

A Systemic-Relational Ethical Framework for Aquatic Ecosystem Health Research and Management in Social–Ecological Systems

“…Transdisciplinarity emerged in the academic literature in response to calls to do science with and for society in addressing inherently complex, potentially intractable, and wicked problems [51]. Lange et al define TD as a "reflexive, integrative, method-driven scientific principle aiming at the solution or transition of societal problems and concurrently of related scientific problems by differentiating and integrating knowledge from various scientific and societal bodies of knowledge" [52].…”