Designing trans-disciplinary research to support policy formulation for sustainable agricultural development

Vandermeulen, Valerie; Huylenbroeck, Guido Van

doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2008.05.016

Cited by 30 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 22 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…As Vandermuelen and van Huylenbroeck [76] argue, "in the case of research on sustainability issues, where problems in economics, ecology and sociology have to be tackled simultaneously, disciplinary research often fails to describe the whole picture". As we have already mentioned, sustainability almost inherently requires transdisciplinary attempts.…”

Section: Transdisciplinaritymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As a consequence, there can be no structured step-by-step or 'best practice' guide to conducting integrated research. (This has not stopped eager research teams from offering their own experiences (or workshops) as examples of 'best practices' though [76,[88][89][90].) In addition, for research employing a transdisciplinary or goal-oriented interdisciplinary approach, the process of designing and conducting the research needs to be an iterative one and, consequently, setting too rigorous a guideline for the integrated project would remove some of the flexibility that is essential for its success.…”

Section: Multidisciplinaritymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For others, non-academics are involved from the very beginning and influence project boundaries and methods. Still others adopt hybrid models where previous research projects are then integrated in a participatory manner that tries to delimit academic biases [76]. We cannot offer a preferred method, but simply suggest that sustainability presents a great opportunity to help shape how transdisciplinary research is conducted and will continue to help define what we mean by transdisciplinary research.…”

Section: Transdisciplinaritymentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Defining Terms for Integrated (Multi-Inter-Trans-Disciplinary) Sustainability Research

2011

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:Our contemporary social and ecological problems, including climate change, peak oil and food security, necessitate solutions informed by multiple backgrounds that singular disciplines seem unable to provide, and possibly, are even incapable of providing. The increasing occurrence of multi-, inter-and transdisciplinary (MIT) research projects speak to the recognition of that necessity. But as the literature and our own experiences bear out, just calling a project "beyond disciplinary" or integrated does not necessarily yield the intended outcomes or make progress toward alleviating the hurdles of bridging disciplines. Here we examine the distinctions between three categories (multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary) of integrated research and offer reflections on how sustainability researchers can categorize their research to improve common understandings.

show abstract

Section: Transdisciplinaritymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Multidisciplinaritymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Transdisciplinaritymentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Defining Terms for Integrated (Multi-Inter-Trans-Disciplinary) Sustainability Research

2011

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A third key feature of TD is that of transcending academia and involving societal actors "on equal footing" (e.g., Aeberhard and Rist [65], Baumgärtner et al [66], Klein [67], Vandermeulen and Van Huylenbroeck [68], Scholz and Steiner [64]). However, science-practice collaboration is not limited to TDR.…”

Section: Science-practice Collaborationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Adoption and Implementation of Transdisciplinary Research in the Field of Land-Use Science—A Comparative Case Study

2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Transdisciplinary research (TDR) is discussed as a promising approach in land-use science and spatial research to address complex multifaceted "real-world problems" and to design strategies and solutions for sustainable development. TDR has become a widespread research approach in sustainability science and is increasingly promoted by research programmes and agencies (e.g., Future Earth and Horizon 2020). Against this backdrop, TDR can be considered a (social) innovation in the academic system, which is currently in the midst of an up-scaling diffusion process from a rather small TDR-advocating expert community to a broader science-practice community. We argue that this up-scaling phase also places TDR in a critical state as the concept potentially risks a type of "rhetorical mainstreaming". The objectives of this study were to analyse how the challenging approach of TDR is currently adopted and implemented in the field of land-use research and to identify potential influencing factors. We studied 13 transdisciplinary research projects from Germany by performing qualitative interviews with coordinators, document analysis and participatory observation during meetings over a period of five years. Results show that the adoption level of the TDR concept varied widely among the studied projects, as did the adoption of the TDR indicators used in our analysis. In many of the investigated projects, we identified a clear lack of conceptual knowledge of TDR. In addition, we found that current academic structures limit the ability of researchers to thoroughly adapt to the requirements of TDR. We conclude that further communication and educational efforts that promote TDR are required. In addition, we advocate for the development of suitable funding instruments that support sustained research structures.

show abstract

“…Meanwhile, Vandermeulen and Van Huylenbroeck (2008) mention that lately, some sustainable development agricultural projects are being developed in Belgium, in which they are using discussion software platforms where researchers from different disciplines like economists, ecologists, social scientists and geographers, provide and share specific knowledge useful for the project. Sauvé et al, (2016) mentions that the combination of natural sciences, social sciences, and the engineering and management disciplines is becoming essential to face current challenges of environment care; nevertheless, this can be a complex task, because experts from different disciplines can conceptualize problems in different ways; furthermore, sometimes their vocabularies cannot be understood for others.…”

Section: Trans-disciplinementioning

confidence: 99%

Organizational Evolution and Disciplinary Transition: Case of a R&D Public Center in Mexico

Roberto

2017

BER

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this work, we present the case of the Applied Sciences and Technology Development Center (CCADET, from its Spanish acronym) of the National Autonomous University of Mé xico, to show that there is a close relation between the organizational evolution and the disciplinary transition in organizations that perform research and development (R&D). The methodology used, was the division of the time life span of the center in decades to later proceed with the identification of representative projects developed during the different stages of its life. Emphasis was placed in documenting the various disciplines dominated by the individuals that conformed the intellectual capital resources required to accomplish the projects. Relating this information it was possible to identify the disciplinary transition (DT) that have occurred along the evolution of the organization.The awareness of the DT suffered by the organization and of its actual capacities is essential for organizational knowledge management and its appropriate conduction in concordance to its strategic development plans.

show abstract

Designing trans-disciplinary research to support policy formulation for sustainable agricultural development

Cited by 30 publications

References 22 publications

Defining Terms for Integrated (Multi-Inter-Trans-Disciplinary) Sustainability Research

Defining Terms for Integrated (Multi-Inter-Trans-Disciplinary) Sustainability Research

The Adoption and Implementation of Transdisciplinary Research in the Field of Land-Use Science—A Comparative Case Study

Organizational Evolution and Disciplinary Transition: Case of a R&D Public Center in Mexico

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About