Transdisciplinary research on environmental governance: A view from the inside

Mattor, Katherine M.; Betsill, Michele M.; Huayhuaca, Ch'aska; Huber-Stearns, Heidi; Jedd, Theresa; Sternlieb, Faith; Bixler, Patrick; Luizza, Matthew W.; Cheng, Antony S.

doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2014.06.002

Cited by 86 publications

(70 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…However, knowledge integration across ecological/natural and social sciences is challenging because these fields apply very different concepts and languages (within and across disciplines) and may focus on contrasting types of interactions (Stirling 2014). Such differences can prevent shared and/or comprehensive understandings of the range of factors inf luencing social-ecological systems (Mattor et al 2013). Considerable epistemological and ontological tensions will need to be negotiated to avoid the risk of theoretical incoherence or contradiction.…”

Section: The Nexus and Disciplinary Boundary Crossingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tracing the Water–Energy–Food Nexus: Description, Theory and Practice

Leck¹,

Conway²,

et al. 2015

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The 'nexus' between water, energy and food (WEF) has gained increasing attention globally in research, business and policy spheres. We review the premise of recent initiatives framed around the nexus, examine the challenge of achieving the type of disciplinary boundary crossing promoted by the nexus agenda and consider how to operationalise what has to date been a largely paper exercise. The WEF nexus has been promoted through international meetings and calls for new research agendas. It is clear from the literature that many aims of nexus approaches pre-date the recent nexus agenda; these have encountered significant barriers to progress, including challenges to cross-disciplinary collaboration, complexity, political economy (often perceived to be under-represented in nexus research) and incompatibility of current institutional structures. Indeed, the ambitious aims of the nexus-the desire to capture multiple interdependencies across three major sectors, across disciplines and across scales-could become its downfall. However, greater recognition of interdependencies across state and non-state actors, more sophisticated modelling systems to assess and quantify WEF linkages and the sheer scale of WEF resource use globally, could create enough momentum to overcome historical barriers and establish nexus approaches as part of a wider repertoire of responses to global environmental change.

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Section: The Nexus and Disciplinary Boundary Crossingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tracing the Water–Energy–Food Nexus: Description, Theory and Practice

Leck¹,

Conway²,

et al. 2015

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“…Although TSS research practices and outcomes are increasingly being studied (e.g., Cundill et al 2005, Tötzer et al 2011, Beland Lindahl and Westholm 2014, Mattor et al 2014, the German SÖF context has only been marginally explored (e.g., Nölting et al 2004, Luks andSiebenhüner 2007). We aim to fill this gap by analyzing the various practices of the 12 early career research groups within the second phase of SÖF, which comprised 81 early career scientists (Table 1).…”

Section: Biofuel As Social Fuelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…First, the inclusion of nonscientists in the research process is needed, not only to provide necessary data and to open doors for empirical research, but also to act as carriers of knowledge to be included in the generation of new knowledge. This requires a recursive research process with continuous translation and integration work (Lang et al 2012, Mattor et al 2014. Second, the required openness of methods and theories demands flexible work across different disciplinary fields.…”

Section: Decisions About Trade-offs Must Be Made Because the Achievemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characteristics, emerging needs, and challenges of transdisciplinary sustainability science: experiences from the German Social-Ecological Research Program

Ruppert-Winkel¹,

Arlinghaus²,

Deppisch³

et al. 2015

E&S

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ABSTRACT. Transdisciplinary sustainability science (TSS) is a prominent way of scientifically contributing to the solution of sustainability problems. Little is known, however, about the practice of scientists in TSS, especially those early in their career. Our objectives were to identify these practices and to outline the needs and challenges for early career scientists in TSS. To that end, we compiled 10 key characteristics of TSS based on a literature survey. We then analyzed research groups with 81 early career scientists against these characteristics. All of these research groups are funded by an ongoing federally funded German program for socialecological research whose main feature is to promote sustainability-oriented inter-and transdisciplinary research. We found that the practices of the 12 groups generally correspond with the characteristics for TSS, although there is ample variation in how they were addressed. Three major challenges were identified: (1) TSS demands openness to a plurality of research designs, theories, and methods, while also requiring shared, explicit, and recursive use of TSS characteristics; (2) researchers in TSS teams must make decisions about trade-offs between achievements of societal and scientific impact, acknowledging that focusing on the time-consuming former aspect is difficult to integrate into a scientific career path; and (3) although generalist researchers are increasingly becoming involved in such TSS research projects, supporting the integration of social, natural, and engineering sciences, specialized knowledge is also required.

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“…In so doing, JKP can help to unearth contextual, phenomenological, and/or tacit knowledge and include it in the scientific discourse (Wickson et al 2006, Regeer and Bunders 2009, Enengel et al 2012) and hence lead to more grounded scholarship. JKP is also said to apply a dynamic, responsive methodology and to be more action-oriented, contributing to new research practices complementing mode 1 research ([H3]; Wickson et al 2006, Mattor et al 2014). …”

Section: Changes In Producing Knowledgementioning

confidence: 99%

Joint knowledge production for climate change adaptation: what is in it for science?

Hegger¹,

Dieperink²

2015

E&S

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ABSTRACT. Both in literature and in practice, it is claimed that joint knowledge production (JKP) by researchers, policy makers, and other societal actors is necessary to make science relevant for addressing climate adaptation. Although recent assessments of JKP projects have provided some arguments in favor of their societal merit, much less is known about their scientific merit. We explored the latter by developing a conceptual framework addressing characteristics of doing JKP as well as hypotheses on potential merits and pitfalls in terms of its process, output, and impact for science. Semistructured interviews with six environmental science research leaders as well as discussions with five researchers involved in past JKP projects were used to start operationalizing the framework into criteria and compiling a survey. This survey was filled out by 144 researchers involved in Knowledge for Climate, a large Dutch multiactor research program. The findings suggest that, at least in the context of recently carried out Dutch climate adaptation projects, JKP contributes to a broader empirical knowledge base; more reflexivity on the part of researchers; and more publications for policy makers. We conclude this paper by formulating next research steps, including evaluating what would be a proper balance between more versus less participatory forms of scientific knowledge production.

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Transdisciplinary research on environmental governance: A view from the inside

Cited by 86 publications

References 28 publications

Tracing the Water–Energy–Food Nexus: Description, Theory and Practice

Tracing the Water–Energy–Food Nexus: Description, Theory and Practice

Characteristics, emerging needs, and challenges of transdisciplinary sustainability science: experiences from the German Social-Ecological Research Program

Joint knowledge production for climate change adaptation: what is in it for science?

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