Deconstructing a 2-year long transdisciplinary sustainability project in Northern universities: is rhetorical nobility obscuring procedural and political discords?

Publikation: Beiträge in ZeitschriftenZeitschriftenaufsätzeForschungbegutachtet

Authors

Transdisciplinary sustainability research (TSR) is essential to better understand and tackle wicked problems such as climate change and realisation of sustainable development goals (SDGs). However, despite the normative nobility, a significant share of these initiatives seems to remain merely rhetorical that fail to address both local level socio-environmental crises and global catastrophes such as rising emissions. To better understand structural and procedural barriers within a TSR project, this study conducted “research on (a transdisciplinary sustainability) research”. It locates two critical reasons why TSR is not able to deliver on its promises in offering effective guidance in addressing global sustainability crisis and discusses how it can be more equitable in knowledge generation in particular and science in general. Firstly, it necessitates TSR to challenge the neo-colonial regime and the hegemonic processes of a dominant Northern episteme around the concept of sustainability, as it otherwise threatens to reinforce and perpetuate the status quo that produces unsustainability from the top. Findings also reveal key procedural shortcomings (often connected to the hegemony itself) that include constricted temporal allowance, insecure scientists and nexus of techno-science markets, Northern academia, funding agencies and governments. This not only seems to affect universality and reflexivity of the TSR project, but also undermines justice and equity by reinforcing prevailing power orders. It seems essential to theoretically shift from domination to partnership, allying with multiple realities, legitimising diverse ontologies and validating epistemic plurality to help TSR gain greater credibility. Procedurally, reforms in institutional research and funding processes including extended temporal spaces and helping scientists to have better collaboration across scales seem critical to enable TSR projects realise their true potential.

OriginalspracheEnglisch
ZeitschriftSustainability Science
Jahrgang15
Ausgabenummer4
Seiten (von - bis)1111-1127
Anzahl der Seiten17
ISSN1862-4065
DOIs
PublikationsstatusErschienen - 01.07.2020

Zugehörige Projekte

  • Beförderung von transformativem Wandel durch das Verbinden von Hochleistungsmodellierung und Transformationsexperimenten - Beiträge zur Überbrückung der Diskrepanz in den Nachhaltigkeitswissenschaften

    Projekt: Forschung

DOI

Zuletzt angesehen

Forschende

  1. Robert W. Jahn

Publikationen

  1. T&T Clark Handbook of Christian Eschatology
  2. Science education meets inclusion
  3. Was ist Personalentwicklung wert?
  4. Götzen, Mächte und Gewalten
  5. Spatial distribution of polyfluoroalkyl compounds in seawater of the German Bight
  6. Examat
  7. Rethinking Measurement Equivalence in Comparative Political Research
  8. Finanzierung des Atomausstiegs
  9. Objekttheater begegnet digitalen Welten
  10. § 30
  11. Foreign Ownership and the Extensive Margins of Exports
  12. Atomausstieg geht in die nächste Phase
  13. Becoming a (Better) Language Teacher
  14. Age and gender composition of the workforce, productivity and profits
  15. Evaluation of Magnesium Die-Casting Alloys for Elevated Temperature Applications
  16. Institutional Logics as orchestras' strategic dilemma
  17. Korrkete Antwort, Erklärung oder Hint & Try again — Welches Feedback präferieren Lernende?
  18. Vom Abfall zum Einfall
  19. Biodegradable magnesium-hydroxyapatite metal matrix composites
  20. Forecasting European interest rates in times of financial crisis – What insights do we get from international survey forecasts?
  21. De-minimis-Beihilfen (VO (EG) Nr. 1998/2006)
  22. Linked Data-driven Resilience Research 2023
  23. Einleitung
  24. Szenarien und Narrative
  25. Beamtenrechtliche Kontinuität oder Wechsel bei einer politischen Wende
  26. Natürliche Waldentwicklung in norddeutschen Laubwaldgesellschaften
  27. Capital asset substitution as a coping strategy
  28. The insurance value of biodiversity in the provision of ecosystem services
  29. Fiktionen, Mythen, Realitäten
  30. Competence-Building in Sustainability
  31. In-situ synchrotron investigation of the phasesand their morphology-development in Mg-Nd-Zn alloys
  32. Die Theorie der "local data" - dogmatische Bruchstelle im klassischen IPR
  33. Von Zahlenmustern zur vollständigen Induktion
  34. Sustainable software engineering