Transdisciplinary research in support of land and water management in China and Southeast Asia: evaluation of four research projects

Abstract

Transdisciplinary research (TDR) aims at identifying implementable solutions to difficult sustainability problems and at fostering social learning. It requires a well-managed collaboration among multidisciplinary scientists and multisectoral stakeholders. Performing TDR is challenging, particularly for foreign researchers working in countries with different institutional and socio-cultural conditions. There is a need to synthesize and share experience among researchers as well as practitioners regarding how TDR can be conducted under specific contexts. In this paper, we aim to evaluate and synthesize our unique experience in conducting TDR projects in Asia. We applied guiding principles of TDR to conduct a formative evaluation of four consortium projects on sustainable land and water management in China, the Philippines, and Vietnam. In all projects, local political conditions restricted the set of stakeholders that could be involved in the research processes. The set of involved stakeholders was also affected by the fact that stakeholders in most cases only participate if they belong to the personal network of the project leaders. Language barriers hampered effective communication between foreign researchers and stakeholders in all projects and thus knowledge integration. The TDR approach and its specific methods were adapted to respond to the specific cultural, social, and political conditions in the research areas, also with the aim to promote trust and interest of the stakeholders throughout the project. Additionally, various measures were implemented to promote collaboration among disciplinary scientists. Based on lessons learned, we provide specific recommendations for the design and implementation of TDR projects in particular in Asia.

Sustainability science as if the world mattered: sketching an art contribution by comparison

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Tidal river management in the south west Ganges-Brahmaputra delta in Bangladesh: Moving towards a transdisciplinary approach?

“…According to Lang et al (2012), a typical transdisciplinary process can be conceptualised as structured around three building blocks: collaboratively framing the problem and building a collaborative team; co-producing solution-oriented and transferable knowledge through research; and (re-)integrating and applying the produced knowledge through iterative learning. Lang et al (2012) developed guiding questions to support the implementation of 'building blocks'; further tested by Siew et al (2016) to evaluate four projects on sustainable land and water management in Asia. A modified version of these guiding questions is presented in Table 6.…”

Doing what with whom? Stakeholder analysis in a large transdisciplinary research project in South-East Asia

“…This is true even in Scandinavian countries famous for their participatory habits (Huttunen 2015), and more so in large parts of Asia (Siew et al 2016). As a result, farmers often feel that the measures taken or suggested are incoherent with their goals and practices.…”