Sustainability science is a problem-based, use-inspired, solutions-oriented research field that aims to generate knowledge with and for action. This theme explores how to do inter- and transdisciplinary research for developing both theory and action, while also facilitating and supporting the processes through which these outcomes are achieved.
How to do inter- and transdisciplinary sustainability research in its different flavours, including research that aims to have a transformative impact for sustainability, is a research frontier. This theme focuses on the practice of sustainability research in ways that are grounded in complexity and resilience thinking.
Central to doing sustainability research, including transformative action research, is the interplay between who we are, how we conceive of reality and what shapes us as researchers, understood in dynamic terms. It also involves understanding how knowledge is produced through research practices, and how this understanding influences action iteratively.
Awareness of this interplay is critical for advancing understanding of complex social-ecological systems and developing ways to transform towards more sustainable pathways.
Core topics and activities that will be explored in the theme include:
- Engaging productively with tensions, contradictions and uncomfortable spaces that arise in multi- and transdisciplinary work.
- Exploring how reflexivity (the practice of reflecting on our experiences, biases, and perspectives), positionality (our social and cultural positions), and the methods we use shape how we do research.
- Developing methodologies to theorize social-ecological systems relations in inter- and transdisciplinary processes.
- Elaborating modes of ethical and situated scientific production and co-production, through engaging with other schools of thought and academic communities.
The theme will engage with diverse research methodologies and plural ways of doing research across different fields, in ways that help us think, articulate and advance how we do sustainability research.
Theme contacts
Jamila Haider
Maria Mancilla Garcia
Maja Schlüter
Maria Tengö
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