Transdisciplinarity integrates or relates different epistemics from science and practice (Mode 2 transdisciplinarity) or from branches of disciplines if interdisciplinary integration is impossible (Mode 1 transdisciplinarity). The paper explains, based on an analysis of the historical development of the Mode 2 transdisciplinarity concept, how transdisciplinary processes link interdisciplinary applied research and multi-stakeholder discourses by facilitating methods. We elaborate on what type of problems may be managed using what knowledge, how this might be accomplished, what types of objectives are desired, and by what organizational means. Thus the paper presents ontology, epistemology, methodology, functionality, and organization of an ideal type of transdisciplinary process. Socially robust orientations are the expected outcomes of this process. These orientations provide science-based, state-of-the-art, socially accepted options of solutions which acknowledge uncertainties and the incompleteness of different forms of epistemics (i.e., of knowing or thought), in particular within the sustainable transitioning of complex real-world problems.

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This paper builds on the theoretical foundation outlined in Part I ('The real type and ideal type of transdisciplinary processes: part I-theoretical foundations') which is included in the same special feature. Mode 2 transdisciplinarity processes are characterized as processes that relate or integrate problem-oriented interdisciplinary research with knowledge generated in a multi-stakeholder approach with the objective to develop socially robust orientations, for instance, on sustainable transitioning. In practice, transdisciplinary processes may have different functions (i.e., societal capacity building, consensus building, analytic mediation, and legitimization). Practitioners and scientists may follow different interests. And we may distinguish between different types of knowledge integration (including different perspectives, modes of thoughts or cultures). Thus, the reality of transdisciplinarity processes may become a very complex and ambitious venture whose multiple objectives are difficult to realize in practice. This paper reviews the existing challenges, obstacles, and constraints of transdisciplinary processes. This review refers to 41 mid-and large-scale transdisciplinary studies run by members of the ITdNet at seven universities on sustainable transitions of urban and regional systems, organizations, and policy processes. A comprehensive table can be used as a checklist for identifying and coping with constraints and obstacles of transdisciplinary processes in practice. The discussion identifies the main challenges for the future development of transdisciplinarity's theory and practice, including linking Mode 1 transdisciplinarity (i.e., the relating of disciplinary causation for which no interdisciplinarity is possible by merging concepts and methods) and Mode 2 transdisciplinarity, which targets sustainable knowledge and action for system transitioning.

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Abstract:We present the main messages of a European Expert Round Table (ERT) on the unintended side effects (unseens) of the digital transition. Seventeen experts provided 42 propositions from ten different perspectives as input for the ERT. A full-day ERT deliberated communalities and relationships among these unseens and provided suggestions on (i) what the major unseens are; (ii) how rebound effects of digital transitioning may become the subject of overarching research; and (iii) what unseens should become subjects of transdisciplinary theory and practice processes for developing socially robust orientations. With respect to the latter, the experts suggested that the "ownership, economic value, use and access of data" and, related to this, algorithmic decision-making call for transdisciplinary processes that may provide guidelines for key stakeholder groups on how the responsible use of digital data can be developed. A cluster-based content analysis of the propositions, the discussion and inputs of the ERT, and a theoretical analysis of major changes to levels of human systems and the human-environment relationship resulted in the following greater picture: The digital transition calls for redefining economy, labor, democracy, and humanity. Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based machines may take over major domains of human labor, reorganize supply chains, induce platform economics, and reshape the participation of economic actors in the value chain. (Digital) Knowledge and data supplement capital, labor, and natural resources as major economic variables. Digital data and technologies lead to a post-fuel industry (post-) capitalism. Traditional democratic processes can be (intentionally or unintentionally) altered by digital technologies. The unseens in this field call for special attention, research and management. Related to the conditions of ontogenetic and phylogenetic development (humanity), the ubiquitous, global, increasingly AI-shaped interlinkage of almost every human personal, social, and economic activity and the exposure to indirect, digital, artificial, fragmented, electronically mediated data affect behavioral, cognitive, psycho-neuro-endocrinological processes on the level of the individual and thus social relations (of groups and families) and culture, and thereby, the essential quality and character of the human being (i.e., humanity). The findings suggest a need for a new field of research, i.e., focusing on sustainable digital societies and environments, in which the identification, analysis, and management of vulnerabilities and unseens emerging in the sociotechnical digital transition play an important role.Keywords: digital transformation; digital curtain; digital vaulting; unintended side effects (unseens), proposition-based expert round tables Scope and Goals Digitalization as a Main Driver of Human Socio-Cultural EvolutionThe digital revolution comprises one of the major transitions of human development. We may consider it to be as critical as the mastery of fire, the development of lang...