While new forms of knowledge production are heavily dependent on the methodologies of traditional disciplinary based science, they differ in that they are problem focused, require multiple disciplines and are guided by a different set of protocols and competencies than traditional knowledge production.

This presentation will focus on the "transdisciplinary" skills, competencies and methodologies which facilitate and structure these new forms of knowledge production and the implications of these for interdisciplinary environmental education.

About Frances Westley
Prof. Frances Westley is currently the Director of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, an interdisciplinary institute for graduate education and research on environmental problems, based at University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Previously she held the position as James McGill Professor of Strategy at McGill University in Montreal, where she headed up the Dupont Initiative on Social Innovation, a think tank dedicated to exploring and building society's capacity for finding innovative solutions to complex, intransigent social and ecological problems.

Her research, writing, and teaching centers on innovation, leadership and knowledge management for effective change at the organizational and interorganizational level, with a particular emphasis on environmental management.

Her most recent book, Getting to Maybe, uses a complexity science approach to understand radical social innovation.