Responsivity, the related term responsiveness and adjective use of responsive are applied in multiple disciplines and specialised knowledge fields, where they have different meanings and functions. What they have in common is a general understanding of responsiveness as a specific state, responsivity as a measure or characteristic, while responsive signifies a property. In knowledge fields that deal with complex problems, responsivity is mobilised to grasp, analyse, interpret, organise and practise complex, interwoven interrelationships and co-dependencies. It is often used to describe an orientation of science towards society to respond to societal needs. Responsive research incorporates this orientation in different dimensions, as responsive epistemology, methodology and attitude. Recently, the concepts have been mobilised in the discourse and research into inter- and transdisciplinarity. Building on a responsive phenomenology, responsivity has been conceptualised as a principle of inter- and transdisciplinarity and, as an analytical category, responsivity serves to capture and characterise communication relationships between collaborators.