Transdisciplinarity within South Africa’s global change research: How (well?) are we doing?

Dhansay, Taufeeq; Serper, Alon; Linol, Bastien; Ndluvo, Sphumelele; Perumal, Lavinia; Wit, Maarten J. de

doi:10.17159/sajs.2015/a0107

Cited by 5 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…17 The response to these awakenings has been a growing demand for and engagement in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary science. 16,[18][19][20][21] This growth has been attributed to four drivers: (1) the need to solve societal problems; (2) the intrinsic complexity of social-ecological systems; (3) a desire to investigate issues beyond disciplinary boundaries; and (4) the capabilities of new technologies. 19 The first two are particularly relevant to South Africa while the second two can be seen as factors that should facilitate a shift towards interdisciplinary approaches.…”

Section: What Research Priorities Are Required To Serve Society?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The difficulty of breaking down the prevailing dominance of reductive, disciplinary-based thinking is not limited to South Africa and remains a global problem, but internationally there has been significant progress towards a greater role for holistic, interdisciplinary science in the scientific agenda. 16,19,20,33 For South Africa to ensure that our science is both relevant to the needs of the country and competitive with the latest and best of scientific practices internationally, we recommend:…”

Section: Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Science in the service of society: Is marine and coastal science addressing South Africa’s needs?

Cochrane¹,

Sauer²,

Aswani³

2019

S. Afr. J. Sci.

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The modern world is confronted with many and diverse social and environmental challenges of high complexity. In South Africa, rapid and sustainable development is needed to address high levels of poverty and unemployment but this development has to take place in the context of an environment that is already severely impacted by human activities. Sound and relevant scientific input and advice, covering the full scope of each challenge, is essential for effective decisions and actions to address the needs. South Africa has the benefit of strong scientific capacity but the country’s National Development Plan reported that national research priorities were not always consistent with South Africa’s needs. We investigate the validity of that conclusion in the coastal and marine sciences by examining presentations made at the 2017 South African Marine Science Symposium on the theme of ‘Unlocking the ocean’s economic potential whilst maintaining social and ecological resilience’. Despite the theme, only 21% of the presentations were judged to be actionable and directly relevant to societal needs, as defined by the criteria used. Less than 7% were evaluated as being interdisciplinary within the natural sciences and approximately 10% were found to include both natural and human sciences. Poor representation by the human sciences was also noteworthy. This preliminary assessment highlights the need for an urgent review of the disciplinary representation and approaches in marine and coastal science in South Africa in the context of the priority practical needs of the country now and into the future. Significance: • Despite the urgent need for integrated scientific input and advice to guide responsible and sustainable national development, a preliminary snapshot of marine and coastal science in South Africa demonstrated a low regard for direct relevance and inter- and multidisciplinarity. • If these general results are verified by a more comprehensive review, urgent realignment of funding and incentives for marine and coastal science, and probably environmental science in general, is likely to be required to ensure science provides a greater service to society, which is the source of much of the country’s research funding.

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Section: What Research Priorities Are Required To Serve Society?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Science in the service of society: Is marine and coastal science addressing South Africa’s needs?

Cochrane¹,

Sauer²,

Aswani³

2019

S. Afr. J. Sci.

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“…Cross-disciplinary studies, collectively referred to as 'earth stewardship science', are key to understanding the evolving interconnections between fauna, flora, water, soils, landscapes and our ecological role as humans. Such research requires larger multi-sourced datasets with the involvement of many more people with different backgrounds to address complex problems in an integrated manner [3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Earth Stewardship Science—Transdisciplinary Contributions to Quantifying Natural and Cultural Heritage of Southernmost Africa

et al. 2020

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Evaluating anthropogenic changes to natural systems demand greater quantification through innovative transdisciplinary research focused on adaptation and mitigation across a wide range of thematic sciences. Southernmost Africa is a unique field laboratory to conduct such research linked to earth stewardship, with ‘earth’ as in our Commons. One main focus of the AEON’s Earth Stewardship Science Research Institute (ESSRI) is to quantify the region’s natural and cultural heritage at various scales across land and its flanking oceans, as well as its time-scales ranging from the early Phanerozoic (some 540 million years) to the evolution of the Anthropocene (changes) following the emergence of the first human-culture on the planet some 200 thousand years ago. Here we illustrate the value of this linked research through a number of examples, including: (i) geological field mapping with the aid of drone, satellite and geophysical methods, and geochemical fingerprinting; (ii) regional ground and surface water interaction studies; (iii) monitoring soil erosion, mine tailing dam stability and farming practices linked to food security and development; (iv) ecosystem services through specific biodiversity changes based on spatial logging of marine (oysters and whales) and terrestrial (termites, frogs and monkeys) animals. We find that the history of this margin is highly episodic and complex by, for example, the successful application of ambient noise and groundwater monitoring to assess human-impacted ecosystems. This is also being explored with local Khoisan representatives and rural communities through Citizen Science. Our goal is to publicly share and disseminate the scientific and cultural data, through initiatives like the Africa Alive Corridor 10: ‘Homo Sapiens’ that embraces storytelling along the entire southern coast. It is envisioned that this approach will begin to develop the requisite integrated technological and societal practices that can contribute toward the needs of an ever-evolving and changing global ‘village’.

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“…For example, the setting of criteria is heavily influenced by the background of those involved in their creation; field of expertise, experience in different sectors, and demographics of decision makers all place frames on the criteria setting process. Particularly for broad-scale, societal objectives typical of mission-led research, projects that can act in a truly transdisciplinary way will have a greater chance of fulfilling their objectives (Dhansay, Serper, Linol, Ndluvo, Perumal, & De Wit, 2015).…”

Section: Criteria and Fundingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enabling the potential of Mission-led Research in New Zealand: Conceptualisations, Structures, and Relationships in the National Science Challenges

Brathwaite¹

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<p>Addressing the Grand Challenges of the world requires a mode of research that can mirror their scale and complexity. Traditional investigator- and industry-led research frameworks, although useful in their own right, fail to capture the collaborative, transdisciplinary approach that can both generate the necessary knowledge and apply research outcomes on the scale needed to resolve the ‘big picture’ problems. Mission-led research provides a framework that attempts to strike that balance of knowledge generation and application; and New Zealand’s National Science Challenges (NSCs) provide a representation of missionled research that may exemplify the relationships and processes needed to enact it. This thesis aims to understand how the relationships and processes designed to facilitate mission-led research in the NSCs impacts their ability to achieve their missions. Research was undertaken through semi-structured interviews with participants from two NSCs, representing four of the key stakeholder perspectives: Management, Researchers, Industry, and Māori. These interviews sought to understand how different stakeholder groups conceptualised mission-led research itself, the processes within it, and their relationships with other stakeholder groups. The results demonstrated that stakeholders perceived mission-led research in four interdependent ways, driven by a core concept of ‘Big Picture’ problems. These problems were seen to necessitate ‘Transdisciplinarity’ in their resolution, that research would be ‘Long-term/Strategic’, and that research outcomes would have a ‘Collective Benefit’. Alignment between conceptualisations of mission-led research and how closely processes and stakeholder groups adhered to those conceptualisations was central to positive engagement and collaboration. Alignment between stakeholders was seen to occur through three modes: Conceptual, Structural, and Relational. Conceptual alignment promoted a common understanding of the mission; Structural alignment ensured research practices reflected mission-led values; and Relational alignment improved stakeholder understanding of diverse expectations and motivations amongst other worldviews. Successful NSCs used the three modes of alignment to improve transdisciplinary collaboration while maintaining diversity of worldviews and skillsets, enabling them to more effectively address their missions.</p>

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Transdisciplinarity within South Africa’s global change research: How (well?) are we doing?

Cited by 5 publications

References 14 publications

Science in the service of society: Is marine and coastal science addressing South Africa’s needs?

Science in the service of society: Is marine and coastal science addressing South Africa’s needs?

Earth Stewardship Science—Transdisciplinary Contributions to Quantifying Natural and Cultural Heritage of Southernmost Africa

Enabling the potential of Mission-led Research in New Zealand: Conceptualisations, Structures, and Relationships in the National Science Challenges

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