The EMBeRS project: employing model-based reasoning in socio-environmental synthesis

Pennington, Deana; Bammer, Gabriele; Danielson, Antje; Gosselin, David C.; Gouvea, Julia; Habron, Geoffrey; Hawthorne, Dave; Parnell, Roderic A.; Thompson, Kate; Vincent, Shirley; Wei, Cynthia A.

doi:10.1007/s13412-015-0335-8

Cited by 32 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…During the summers of 2016 and 2017, two cohorts of 13 doctoral students enrolled in 21 different universities across the United States participated in the 10-day, National Science Foundationfunded Employing Model-Based Reasoning in Socio-Environmental Synthesis (EMBeRS) workshop held at the University of Texas at El Paso (Pennington et al 2016). The doctoral students had backgrounds in the social, physical, natural, engineering, and health sciences, and were conducting integrative sustainability research as part of their doctoral studies.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We define integrative research inclusive of both interdisciplinary research, in which multiple disciplines jointly focus on a common problem, as well as transdisciplinary research, defined as interdisciplinary research that includes active participation from professionals and stakeholders outside academia (i.e., a person or organization who affect or are affected by a decision or action; Grimble and Wellard 1997, Reed et al 2009, Brandt et al 2013 to synthesize and extend discipline-specific approaches (Stokols 2017). Integrative research strives for synergistic versus additive outcomes (Pennington et al 2016) and is well-equipped to address the problem-driven and solution-oriented nature of sustainability research (Gibbons and Nowotny 2001, Lang et al 2012, Brandt et al 2013, Mauser et al 2013, Stokols 2017.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite a growing number of graduate programs that support inter-and transdisciplinary research opportunities (Stokols 2013, 2017, Borrego et al 2014, Bosque-Pérez et al 2016, Haider et al 2018, training students to conduct integrative research confronts major challenges (Crow 2010, Vincent et al 2015, Pennington et al 2016, Lindvig 2018, Trencher et al 2018. The traditional silo structure (i.e., single discipline) of academic institutions can limit students' exposure to different disciplines (Bozeman and Boardman 2003, Amey and Brown 2004, Sá 2008, Crow and Dabars 2013, Borrego et al 2014.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Preparing the next generation of sustainability scientists

Killion¹,

Sterle²,

Bondank³

et al. 2018

E&S

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Graduate programs emerging in universities over recent decades support the advanced study of sustainability issues in complex socio-environmental systems. Constructing the problem-scope to address these issues requires graduate students to integrate across disciplines and synthesize the social and natural dimensions of sustainability. Graduate programs that are designed to foster inter-and transdisciplinary research acknowledge the importance of training students to use integrative research approaches. However, this training is not available in all graduate programs that support integrative research, often requiring students to seek external training opportunities. We present perspectives from a group of doctoral students with diverse disciplinary backgrounds conducting integrative research in universities across the United States who participated in a 10-day, National Science Foundation-funded integrative research training workshop to learn and develop socio-environmental research skills. Following the workshop, students conducted a collaborative autoethnographic study to share pre-and postworkshop research experiences and discuss ways to increase integrative research training opportunities. Results reveal that students, regardless of disciplinary background, face common barriers conducting integrative research that include: (1) lack of exposure to epistemological frameworks and team-science skills, (2) challenges to effectively include stakeholder perspectives in his/her research, and (3) variable levels of committee support to conduct integrative research. To overcome the identified barriers and advance integrative research, students recommend how training opportunities can be embedded within existing graduate programs. Students advocate that both internal and external training opportunities are necessary to support the next generation of sustainability scientists.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Preparing the next generation of sustainability scientists

Killion¹,

Sterle²,

Bondank³

et al. 2018

E&S

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…However, these are notoriously difficult concepts to grasp, and there has been much discussion about what interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity is and how to successfully conduct such research (Klein 2008(Klein , 2017; Sciences, National Academy of, National Academy of Engineering, and and Institute of Medicine 2004). Recently, much attention has been directed at the notion of 'boundary objects' as a theoretical perspective explaining the role of objects in inter-and transdisciplinary research (Levesque et al 2019;Pennington et al 2016). Boundary objects are situated between social groups and are relevant to each group, and therefore enable communication, mutual learning, and negotiation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Grand Concepts of Environmental Studies Boundary objects between disciplines and policymakers

Lundgren

2020

J Environ Stud Sci

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Inter-and transdisciplinary collaboration is necessary in order to take on the environmental challenges facing humanity. Different disciplines, stakeholders, and policymakers need to work together to produce the knowledge necessary to create effective and just courses of action to counteract environmental problems. Recently, the notion of 'boundary objects' has been increasingly used within environmental studies to explain how some objects facilitate communication across the boundaries between different groups of actors. Due to their vague use in common contexts and specific use in each group, these objects let groups retain their own understanding while still communicating successfully with others. Novel concepts like 'resilience', 'ecosystem services', and 'sustainability' are due to their interpretive flexibility commonly described as boundary objects. However, in order to implement these concepts in concrete policy, some amount of standardization is needed. This presents a tension with the vagueness required for the facilitation of communication. This paper explicates whether and how novel concepts in environmental studies can be usefully understood as boundary objects. I review how boundary objects have been applied in the literature surrounding inter-and transdisciplinary collaborations, focusing especially on instances where concepts were considered to be boundary objects. I suggest that novel concepts in environmental studies can be understood as both 'grand concepts' in their most widespread use and as 'hubs and spokes' in local contexts. This allows for both vagueness at the macro level and standardization at the local level. I also explore how models, frameworks, and data have been successfully used as boundary objects.

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“…Various methods (question 3 in the framework) are useful here, including the following: & A field guide for collaboration (Bennett et al 2010) & An elicitation technique for overcoming biases in expert judgment (Burgman et al 2011) & An understanding of collaboration as a process of harnessing and managing differences (Bammer 2008) & A range of dialogue methods to synthesize disciplinary and/or stakeholder knowledge (McDonald et al 2009) & Model-based reasoning, as described elsewhere in this special issue (Pennington et al 2015).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Negotiating boundaries, leadership, and integration and implementation sciences (I2S)

Bammer

2015

J Environ Stud Sci

Self Cite

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Imagine that you lead a team working on a complex environmental issue, that you are frustrated by the inability to easily obtain an overview of available resources, that you specifically require tools to manage the boundaries relevant to your project, and that you confront the challenge of figuring out how best to teach what you know to others. This commentary argues the case for a new discipline of Integration and Implementation Sciences (I2S) to (1) provide an overview of, and access to, all the tools and approaches used by others in tackling complex problems, (2) make it easy to find specific tools, for example, on setting the project boundaries and accommodating disciplinary colleagues and stakeholders with diverse views, and (3) provide an agreed method to document and transmit the detail of how complex problems are tackled, so that there is a more systematic way to self-reflect, learn from others, and teach. The main characteristics of I2S are described and its utility is demonstrated using the discipline of statistics as an analogy.

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The EMBeRS project: employing model-based reasoning in socio-environmental synthesis

Cited by 32 publications

References 56 publications

Preparing the next generation of sustainability scientists

Preparing the next generation of sustainability scientists

The Grand Concepts of Environmental Studies Boundary objects between disciplines and policymakers

Negotiating boundaries, leadership, and integration and implementation sciences (I2S)

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