Network for Transdisciplinary Research td-net

Our contribution to address complex societal challenges: We link scientific communities, support transdisciplinary careers and promote the development of competencies and methods. More

tdAcademy – a new interactive (online) platform for the transdisciplinary research community

Josefa Kny 1, David P. M. Lam 2, Matthias Bergmann 3, Bettina Brohmann 4, Maria Freund 2, Daniel J. Lang 2, Oskar Marg 3, Melanie Mbah 4, Martina Schäfer 1, Lena Theiler 3

1 Center for Technology and Society (ZTG), Technische Universität Berlin, Germany; 2 Leuphana University, Germany; 3 ISOE - Institute for Social-Ecological Research, Germany; 4 Oeko-Institut, Germany

 

Researchers from the global South and North have contributed to a sophisticated understanding of the concepts, methods, and practices of transdisciplinary research, while often coming from different fields of research and institutions. Transdisciplinary researchers with their expertise, skills and experiences, however, still remain somewhat scattered around the globe, which limits exchange and strengthening of individual researchers as well as the overall community. In recent years, several local, national, and international initiatives have emerged to connect researchers and create spaces for the transdisciplinary research community, such as the Global Alliance for Inter- and Transdisciplinary Research and Education (ITD), the International Network for the Science of Team Science (INSciTS), and the Network for Transdisciplinary Research (TD-net). They all use various formats such as conferences, working groups, newsletters, workshops, and blogs to connect the community and enable discussions. In addition to these comprehensive efforts, tdAcademy seeks to provide a dynamic online platform for the global community to network, initiate collaborations, exchange experiences and ideas, pool capacity-building opportunities, and reflect on the further development of current concepts, practices, and methods.

In this short animated video, we introduce the new tdAcademy website and invite transdisciplinary researchers to participate. First, we present the idea of the tdAcademy, which is a platform for transdisciplinary research and studies. Second, we explain the community area on the tdAcademy website with its functions. For example, researchers can create individual user profiles, search for researchers with similar interests, and identify online events relevant for their work. Third, we highlight the potential benefits of this new website and invite transdisciplinary researchers with different levels of experience to participate and further develop the platform.

The online platform has been developed by the project "tdAcademy – Platform for transdisciplinary research and studies", which also conducts research on four issues relevant for transdisciplinary research: context-dependencies, new formats, societal and scientific effects. The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in their funding scheme Social-Ecological Research. Founding partners are the ISOE - Institute for Social-Ecological Research, Leuphana University, the Center for Technology and Society (ZTG) at the Technische Universität Berlin and the Oeko-Institut. tdAcademy is supported by more than 30 leading institutions from the international research community that jointly conduct, promote, and shape transdisciplinary research.

Liberating research and education: transdisciplinary methodologies based on Paulo Freire

Gerald Faschingeder 1, Loni Hensler 2, Juliana Merçon 3, Ulli Vilsmaier 1

1 Paulo Freire Center Austria, Austria; 2 UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico); 3 Universidad Veracruzana, Instituto de Investigaciones en Educación

 

The Brazilian pedagogue Paulo Freire has developed an approach to literacy and liberation in the second half of the 20th century that incorporates ground-breaking principles for individual and social transformation. The idea of learning to ‘read and to write the world’ embraces the appropriation and understanding of the world, and a belonging to a world that we transform by inscribing ourselves to it. His work had an outstanding influence on educational reform processes around the world and strongly informed the emergence of Participatory Action Research. His approach to research and learning can contribute significantly to foster transformation through transdisciplinary research and education.

The short video presentation introduces the methodological learnings out of a series of research projects, workshops and publications, conducted and published in Latin America and Europe, on how principles of research and learning developed by Paulo Freire can inform transdisciplinary research methodologies. It aims at creating sensitivity for the liberating and transforming potential of different approaches. The research projects in the background include cases of conceptual work in interdisciplinary sustainability science, learning journeys by stewards of protected areas, systematization of collaborative experiences with peasants, generative picturing with high school pupils and theatre of the oppressed processes.

The video presentation itself will focus on the outcomes that are relevant for the development of transdisciplinary methodologies. It addresses methodological questions and will provide an overview on how the principles of research and learning are incorporated in methods that contribute to transformative inter- and transdisciplinary research in heterogeneous fields and team constellations. It aims to inspire transdisciplinary research communities and open space in order to discuss the transformative potential of different methodological approaches. Within a Freirean approach, power relations need to be subject of continuous reflection and negotiation, requiring methodological strategies to tackle existing quality criteria of research and mechanisms of legitimation.

Further, the research cases present bridges between discourses of Participatory Action Research and transdisciplinarity, and seek to support the exploration of overlaps and mutual learning between the two approaches. Both target at envisioning and co-producing alternative futures. Paulo Freire was not only the pedagogue of oppression, but also a representative of a pedagogy of hope. This is true not only for a pedagogical perspective, but also for transdisciplinary methodologies based on Paulo Freire.

The authors are the coordinators of a series of events on the subject and the editors of a Special Issue on ‘Methods for inter- and transdisciplinary research and learning based on Paulo Freire’, published in the Journal of Development Studies (vol. XXXV 3-2020) and a book on ‘Aprendiendo de Paulo Freire: Métodos para la investigación inter- y transdisciplinaria’ that will be published by the end of 2021 in the series ‘Constuyendo lo Común’, Copit ArXives, National Autonomous University of Mexico.

The short video presentation will introduce core principles of Paulo Freire’s approach to research and learning and will provide snapshots with insights into how these can be incorporated in transdisciplinary research methodologies. It will be built on videos and images from the underlying research processes.

Moving from interdisciplinarity to transdisciplinarity: A case study of boundary crossing among students participating in virtual international and interdisciplinary community service-learning module

Sarju Sing Rai, Evert M. van Grol, Marjolein B.M. Zweekhorst

Athena Institute, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands

 

Moving from interdisciplinarity to transdisciplinarity entails not only crossing boundaries between disciplines, but also between science and society. The complexity further intensifies when international collaborations are sought, which require crossing cultural boundaries. With the current state of pandemic, as all works have moved to virtual platforms, an additional layer of complexity has been introduced to such boundary crossing initiatives.

 

This case study explores the concept and experience of boundary crossing among students involved in the virtual interdisciplinary community service learning (iCSL) module convened by Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. The module engenders interdisciplinary collaboration between students to address complex societal issues, while introducing transdisciplinarity through engagement of local stakeholders and experts as group advisors. The students in the course participated from universities in the global south (Indonesia, Philippines, Brazil) and north (EU), and from different cultural and disciplinary backgrounds.

The 5-month online module focused on fostering interdisciplinary collaboration between 38 students (from 7 Universities and 22 Master programs) to jointly address complex issues related to four global topics, viz. COVID-19, Circular economy, Food, and Digital inclusion. The students collaborated to create a joint research report by assimilating knowledge from their disciplines, and research data from their own research internships. Through means of weekly team meetings, exercises, and reflection sessions conducted via various online tools and platforms (zoom, canvas, slack, mural, jamboard), the students experienced interdisciplinary collaboration. In order to move from interdisciplinarity to transdisciplinarity, the module also connected the student groups with relevant stakeholders and experts from the Netherlands and USA to help them understand the issues from the local context.

The following findings were uncovered through thematic content analysis of data obtained from four individual semi-structured reflection sessions (interviews) and ten written frame reflection exercices with students over the course of the module:

While the students commenced the module with skepticism over interdisciplinary collaboration and co-creation, they later found it helpful in understanding the issues-at-hand and their global impact in a holistic way. The module was largely helpful in fostering cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural understanding, knowledge sharing and integration.The connection with societal stakeholders and experts helped students ideate and recommend local targeted solutions from their global and interdisciplinary insights.This demonstrated how students were able to move a step further from interdisciplinary collaboration to transdisciplinary co-ideation and co-creation. The virtual module adapted in this course provided a speedy, low-cost, and low-resource platform for interdisciplinary collaboration among students from global south and north, and in connecting them with stakeholders and experts located in the Netherlands and USA. While there were many opportunities as such, some challenges related to language, time zone, and socio-cultural values, beliefs and attitudes were also encountered.

This case study shows that disciplinary and cultural boundary crossing, and knowledge sharing and co-production is possible in a virtual, international and interdisciplinary environment. Further, it shows that through engagement of societal stakeholders and knowledge experts, interdisciplinary initiatives can be further enriched and extended to elicit transdisciplinary co-ideation and co-creation. This study recommends the use of virtual transdisciplinary collaboration by engaging global stakeholders and their diverse experiences and insights to engineer local contextualized solutions.

 

[Note: The video presentation will also showcase the joint research products co-created by the students and feature testimonies from students, teachers, and societal partners involved in the module on the virtual inter/transdisciplinary teaching and learning experience.]

Global Perspectives: Multi-spatial trajectories at the nexus of art and science discourse

Christiana Kazakou

i-DAT.org University of Plymouth, United Kingdom

 

Living in a globalized society requires attaining interdisciplinary and intercultural communication skills; in order to understand cultural, institutional and educational systems that assist in fostering dialogues, navigate through altered working spaces and remove cultural barriers by being more open to other worldviews. According to Sorrell’s (2019) process there are six points to navigate intercultural spaces consisting of inquiry, framing, positioning, dialogue, reflection and action. In the context of globalization we need to understand how we inhabit ‘spaces’ interpersonally, communally and internationally and the shift from a ‘local universalism’ to a ‘global contextualism’. (Nowotny, 2017, p.3)

Curatorial frameworks within discourses among art and science practices, emerging technologies and spatiality, designate a fragmented domain often determined by institutional, geographical and disciplinary parameters. ‘Mediation’ is therefore required to transmit messages from one party to another, by reconciling altered approaches. (Lind, 2013). In Bhaskar’s (2017) view the concept of ‘curation’ resonates as a powerful and wide-ranging skill in terms of creating content, selecting information and adding value in a world of excess; from numerous new technologies, media companies, cultural organisations, laboratories, scientific research output to artistic practices. As a result, the motivation for this research is to address the spatial trajectories that art and science entangle, to develop a global transdisciplinary framework for cultivating meaningful discourse, and to reflect on virtual environments and tools that facilitate such complex dialogues.

The methodology used is primarily comprised of digital research methods such as online observation, participatory action research and semi-structured narrative interviews. During the conference, I will present a pre-crafted storytelling audio contribution based on case studies and examples from communities of practice and spaces in between that occurred during COVID, specifically a taxonomy of spaces and curatorial approaches where these transnational interactions occurred between artists, scientists, entrepreneurs, humanists, technologists and policy makers. Essentially, a meta-analysis of the transitional spaces for art/science collaboration & discourse.

 

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