TY - JOUR

T1 - How context affects transdisciplinary research

T2 - insights from Asia, Africa and Latin America

AU - Schneider, Flurina

AU - Llanque-Zonta, Aymara

AU - Andriamihaja, Onintsoa Ravaka

AU - Andriatsitohaina, R. Ntsiva N.

AU - Tun, Aung Myin

AU - Boniface, Kiteme

AU - Jacobi, Johanna

AU - Celio, Enrico

AU - Diebold, Clara Léonie

AU - Patrick, Laby

AU - Latthachack, Phokham

AU - Llopis, Jorge Claudio

AU - Lundsgaard-Hansen, Lara

AU - Messerli, Peter

AU - Mukhovi, Stellah

AU - Tun, Nwenwe

AU - Rabemananjara, Zo Hasina

AU - Ramamonjisoa, Bruno Salomon

AU - Thongmanivong, Sithong

AU - Vongvisouk, Thoumthone

AU - Thongphanh, Daovorn

AU - Myint, Win

AU - Zaehringer, Julie Gwendolin

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s). We acknowledge the support of the Swiss Programme for Research on Global Issues for Development (r4d programme), funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) (Grant no. 152167). JCL was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation under grant P2BEP2_191790. We wish to thank all the participants who contributed to our study, including local authorities, village leaders, smallholders, companies, and NGO/CSO representatives. We also wish to thank Stefanie Burkhart for research assistance and Anu Lannen for editing.

PY - 2022/11/1

Y1 - 2022/11/1

N2 - Transdisciplinary research (TDR) has been developed to generate knowledge that effectively fosters the capabilities of various societal actors to realize sustainability transformations. The development of TDR theories, principles, and methods has been largely governed by researchers from the global North and has reflected their contextual conditions. To enable more context-sensitive TDR framing, we sought to identify which contextual characteristics affect the design and implementation of TDR in six case studies in Asia, Latin America, and Africa, and what this means for TDR as a scientific approach. To this end, we distinguished four TDR process elements and identified several associated context dimensions that appeared to influence them. Our analysis showed that contextual characteristics prevalent in many Southern research sites—such as highly volatile socio-political situations and relatively weak support infrastructure—can make TDR a challenging endeavour. However, we also observed a high degree of variation in the contextual characteristics of our sites in the global South, including regarding group deliberation, research freedom, and dominant perceptions of the appropriate relationship between science, society, and policy. We argue that TDR in these contexts requires pragmatic adaptations as well as more fundamental reflection on underlying epistemological concepts around what it means to conduct “good science”, as certain contextual characteristics may influence core epistemological values of TDR.

AB - Transdisciplinary research (TDR) has been developed to generate knowledge that effectively fosters the capabilities of various societal actors to realize sustainability transformations. The development of TDR theories, principles, and methods has been largely governed by researchers from the global North and has reflected their contextual conditions. To enable more context-sensitive TDR framing, we sought to identify which contextual characteristics affect the design and implementation of TDR in six case studies in Asia, Latin America, and Africa, and what this means for TDR as a scientific approach. To this end, we distinguished four TDR process elements and identified several associated context dimensions that appeared to influence them. Our analysis showed that contextual characteristics prevalent in many Southern research sites—such as highly volatile socio-political situations and relatively weak support infrastructure—can make TDR a challenging endeavour. However, we also observed a high degree of variation in the contextual characteristics of our sites in the global South, including regarding group deliberation, research freedom, and dominant perceptions of the appropriate relationship between science, society, and policy. We argue that TDR in these contexts requires pragmatic adaptations as well as more fundamental reflection on underlying epistemological concepts around what it means to conduct “good science”, as certain contextual characteristics may influence core epistemological values of TDR.

KW - Context

KW - Epistemology

KW - Global South

KW - Transdisciplinarity

KW - Sustainability Governance

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85136554088&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/c019b5ed-2a12-3a1c-bd99-5a783fa5c80f/

U2 - 10.1007/s11625-022-01201-3

DO - 10.1007/s11625-022-01201-3

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 36439030

AN - SCOPUS:85136554088

VL - 17

SP - 2331

EP - 2345

JO - Sustainability Science

JF - Sustainability Science

SN - 1862-4065

IS - 6

ER -