TY - JOUR

T1 - Towards a caring transdisciplinary research practice

T2 - navigating science, society and self

AU - Sellberg, My M.

AU - Cockburn, Jessica

AU - Holden, Petra B.

AU - Lam, David P.M.

N1 - Funding Information: We are very grateful for the participants at our session at the Leverage Points conference in Lüneburg, Germany, who were important discussion partners and part of a broader community of practice. We thank the visual artist Liezl Kruger who joined in our discussions and created the graphics presented in this paper ( https://www.behance.net/liezlkrugersa/ ). This really helped us capture and share our vision for Transdisciplinary Research Practice. We would like to thank Megan Davies for contributing to the blog post series and exchanging experiences in a community of practice. We would like to thank Professor Eureta Rosenberg from Rhodes University for pointing us toward these resources and for providing useful advice and guidance on how to facilitate a theory of change process. This work was supported by the Swedish Research Council Formas under Grant [number 2012-1058 and 2019-02026]. JC was supported by a Rhodes University Postdoctoral Fellowship and a Rhodes University Council Research Grant. DPML was supported by the project “tdAcademy - Platform for Transdisciplinary Research and Studies”, funded by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (Grant number Fkz 01UV2070A), and a research fellowship granted by the Foundation of German Business (sdw). This research contributes to the Program on Ecosystem Change and Society ( www.pecs-science.org ). Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

PY - 2021/6/23

Y1 - 2021/6/23

N2 - Transdisciplinary research that bridges science and society is needed to address the complex social-ecological sustainability challenges we are facing. However, many transdisciplinary researchers grapple with balancing the competing demands of scientific rigour and excellence, societal impact and engagement, and self-care. This is especially evident in the growing literature by early-career researchers describing the challenges of pursuing a transdisciplinary research career in social-ecological sustainability research. To guide discussion and reflection towards a flourishing transdisciplinary research practice, we synthesized our own and other researchers’ experiences of using a transdisciplinary approach and formulated the heuristic of the ‘Triple-S’: caring for Science, Society and Self. This heuristic adds the frequently overlooked personal aspects of transdisciplinary research. Current dominant academic structures, cultures and metrics of success are not supporting a balanced and flourishing transdisciplinary research practice, but rather creating and exacerbating the trade-offs between these three aspects. As an example of a solutions-oriented approach, we developed a theory of change to address the changes we see are necessary to enable a transdisciplinary research practice in line with the Triple-S. We hope that this will foster academic environments where transdisciplinary research practice can flourish and the next generation of researchers are not burnt-out, but empowered.

AB - Transdisciplinary research that bridges science and society is needed to address the complex social-ecological sustainability challenges we are facing. However, many transdisciplinary researchers grapple with balancing the competing demands of scientific rigour and excellence, societal impact and engagement, and self-care. This is especially evident in the growing literature by early-career researchers describing the challenges of pursuing a transdisciplinary research career in social-ecological sustainability research. To guide discussion and reflection towards a flourishing transdisciplinary research practice, we synthesized our own and other researchers’ experiences of using a transdisciplinary approach and formulated the heuristic of the ‘Triple-S’: caring for Science, Society and Self. This heuristic adds the frequently overlooked personal aspects of transdisciplinary research. Current dominant academic structures, cultures and metrics of success are not supporting a balanced and flourishing transdisciplinary research practice, but rather creating and exacerbating the trade-offs between these three aspects. As an example of a solutions-oriented approach, we developed a theory of change to address the changes we see are necessary to enable a transdisciplinary research practice in line with the Triple-S. We hope that this will foster academic environments where transdisciplinary research practice can flourish and the next generation of researchers are not burnt-out, but empowered.

KW - Early-career researchers

KW - Odirilwe Selomane

KW - place-based research

KW - reflexivity

KW - social-ecological systems

KW - sustainability science

KW - transdisciplinary

KW - transformation

KW - Transdisciplinary studies

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85108786602&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1080/26395916.2021.1931452

DO - 10.1080/26395916.2021.1931452

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85108786602

VL - 17

SP - 292

EP - 305

JO - Ecosystems and People

JF - Ecosystems and People

SN - 2639-5908

IS - 1

ER -