Session 3.2
Community resilience as a guiding mechanism for the execution of an intercultural transdisciplinary project in Guatemala
Ana Isabella González 1, Ana Isabel García 1, Michael Heinrich 2, Mónica Berger-González 1
1 Center for Health Studies, Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, Guatemala; 2 School of Ethnopharmacology, University College London, London
We understand the TD research process as an attempt to link two processes of knowledge production: 1. a societal process, in which actors try to understand and tackle a particular societal issue, 2. a scientific process, in which scientists design and conduct research on the societal issue (Bergmann et al. 2005, Jahn et al. 2012). The challenge is to provide links between “science” and “practice”. This is necessary because researchers and practitioners typically perceive and handle sustainability issues by different rationalities – in the words of Ludwik Fleck (1979), by different “thought styles”, with additional layers of emic and etic interpretations to the same issue. The Green Health project is executed in collaboration with the Unit of Medical Anthropology of Universidad del Valle de Guatemala (UVG), the ACGERS Council of Elders at Poptún, Petén, and UCL’s School of Pharmacy at London. Since 2019, it has been conducting a transdisciplinary (TD) research project with predesigned methodologies in the north-east region of Guatemala to document plant species relevant in ethnomedical practices.
However, on March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and two tropical storms (ETA & IOTA), the food and nutritional security of the Q´eqchi´ families was threatened, along with the research mechanisms outlined from the beginning of the project. This presented an opportunity to create synergies between urgent income generation (covering a year's supply of food staples for local partners) and the adaptation of the pre-established research methodology by empowering local leaders to supervise and systematize data collection about biodiversity, food insecurity strategies and the use of forest, instead of academic partners. This TD orientation during the emergency response installed capacity among Q´eqchi´men and women to conduct complex and systematic research by fostering community resilience and flexibility, which would not have been possible without a trust relationship between stakeholders that allowed addressing all interests, while accounting for complexity. The project directly benefited 80-90 families participating in the conservation and research activities of the Green Health project, encompassing a total of about 990 people, since each family has 10-11 members on average (Zinsstag et al, 2018). Gender equity has been monitored from the start, understanding the local needs of women and creating more spaces where they could collaborate. At least 15% of these families are single-parent households led by women, which means that more female household heads were benefited through this project.
In this presentation, through a collection of photos, we will demonstrate how we reshape the original TD methodology to empower Q´eqchi´ participants in order to achieve the research goals by training them for data collection, set rules for equal participation and decision-making processes, and promote culturally appropriate activities for men and women.
Bergmann, M. et al. 2005. Quality criteria for transdisciplinary research. A guide for the formative evaluation of research projects. Frankfurt am Main: Institute for Social-Ecological Research (ISOE).
Fleck, L. 1979. Genesis and development of a scientific fact. Chicago:University of Chicago Press.
Jahn, T., M. Bergmann, F. Keil. 2012. Transdisciplinarity: Between mainstreaming and marginalization. Ecological Economics 79: 1–10.
Zinsstag, J., Berger-Gonzalez M, et al. 2018. One Health Poptun Final Report. R4D Programme/ Swiss TPH/ Universidad del Valle de Guatemala.
Co-production of Knowledge and Sustainability Transformations: A Strategic Compass for Global Research Networks
Flurina Schneider 1 & 2, Theresa Tribaldos 3
1 ISOE– Institute for Social-Ecological Research, Germany; 2 Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany; 3 CDE - Centre for Development and Environment, Switzerland
An increasing number of voices highlight the need for science to engage in the transdisciplinary co-production of knowledge and action, in order to enable the fundamental transformations needed to advance towards sustainable futures. But how can global sustainability-oriented research networks engage in transdisciplinary co-production of knowledge and action? We developed a heuristic tool called the “network compass”, which highlights four generic, interrelated fields of action through which networks can strive to foster transdisciplinary co-production:
Connecting actors and scales to enable co-production
Supporting the network community in co-production
Fostering co-production to leverage the network community’s transformative power
Innovating the network to strengthen co-production
The network compass is based on the networks’ particular functionalities and how these can be engaged for co-production processes. This tool aims to foster self-reflection and learning within and between networks in the process of (re)developing strategies and activity plans and effectively contributing to sustainability transformations.
Further contributors: Carolina Adler, Oonsie Biggs, Ariane de Bremond, Tobias Buser, Cornelia Krug, Marie-France Loutre, Sarah Moore, Albert Norström, Katsia Paulavets, Davnah Payne, Eva Spehn, Gabriela Wülser, Ruben Zondervan
Research Atlas: a digital tool to reline discussions between different players
Wiebke Hahn, Melanie Kryst
Berlin University Alliance
Ideally, a transdisciplinary research process would include all different players from the very beginning – scientists as well as stakeholders (non-certified experts). Naturally, this kind of participation is not always given, as is the case with the first research line of the so-called “Grand Challenges” of the excellence network Berlin University Alliance (BUA). Therefore, we aimed for a way to include knowledge from different stakeholders and support td-research later on in the process. To do so, we developed a tool which would allow us to start the discussion about a rather complex topic such as “Social Cohesion” with non-academic stakeholders and without having events in presence – briefly: a new digital tool for knowledge exchange.
We came up with a complex but appealing visualization, we named “Research Atlas” based on the idea of connecting information items through a root-like branch system. This visualization allows us to show the complexity of a research topic (in our case “Social Cohesion”) while demonstrating the breadth of subtopics which are being processed in Berlin – the local research landscape of this field. We combined topics and research projects with questions and themes raised by stakeholders of different societal groups.
Research projects as well as research-questions communicated by (a) the society and (b) the scientific community itself are located at one main topic branch and linked to multiple other topics as well. To all topics, subtopics, research-questions from society and research projects a side bar provides further information. The topic branches are not aiming to be exhaustive, but a convergence towards these topics, which are playing an important role in the local Berlin research community.
Furthermore, we want the Atlas to be a “living document”, where later additions are possible. Intended use cases of the Atlas are laying in various aspects of knowledge exchange, e.g. getting inspiration, exploring new connections and contexts, highlighting boundaries and communicating to a broad public.
The data basis for the Atlas lies in the given topics of the short (Pre-Call) and long (Main-Call) exploration projects of BUA’s first “Grand Challenge Social Cohesion”. Findings from qualitative interviews with scientists and individuals from organised civil society, politics, administration and business are included in the visualization. The concept and visualization of the Atlas were developed by the Humboldt-Viadrina Governance Platform (HVGP).
The Atlas will be published during summer 2021. The first feedback we got from the scientific community (especially the Principle Investigators of the BUA-Exploration Projects of Social Cohesion) was overall very positive. We also used the Atlas to get in contact with and have a basis to enter into debate with societal stakeholders, which has worked well. We will test the Atlas in a wider context with an event (so called “Trialog”) in autumn 2021, where different players from scientific and non-scientific communities will discuss a subtopic of Social Cohesion in a deliberative manner.
Besides presenting the Atlas, we are looking forward to getting feedback and critical questions by other TDR-experts as well as discussing the potential for further development of this digital tool.
