Transdisciplinary perspectives on current transformations at extractive and agrarian, frontiers in Latin America

Abstract

Goals and scope of the special issueLand use is at the centre of political and ethical dispute all over the world. How these disputes are conducted depends, to a certain extent, on scientific policy advice. Knowledge related to land rights, food sovereignty, environmental governance, societal and cultural values, and social and human behaviour, among others, represent the frame conditions, well analysed data the content for a qualified debate. Accordingly, cross-fertilization between social and natural sciences and with local stakeholders is critical to produce the knowledge needed to spur transformation (Jahn et al., 2012). In this special issue we aim at:• encouraging transdisciplinary co-production of knowledge on land use in sustainability research • generating original theoretical and methodological insights on the rapid and profound societal and environmental processes currently taking place at Latin American frontiers, and beyond • contributing to an inventive research agenda for transformative research on land use at extractive and agrarian frontiers.Two assumptions guide our reflection:• True transdisciplinarity implies trusting that each source of knowledge involved has a significant role to play in generating the collective insights needed to construct sustainable futures.• We need innovative arenas, where scientific/lay, Western/non-Western, quantitative/qualitative approaches fruitfully interact, to produce hybrid, socially, politically and ecologically conscious research results.With our Special Issue we, therefore, want to foster integrative approaches from a broad spectrum of social science perspectives, ranging from critical geography, agrarian/gender/cultural studies, political sciences, sociology to anthropology and history. We wish to incorporate qualitative, empirical and exploratory methods, which address the societal root causes, processes and implications of land use change. Indeed, they are invaluable in performing actor-, network-, and policy analyses, and providing critical insights into the motivations, perceptions, preferences, and decision-making of societal actors in relation to nature, ecosystem services and land use/land cover (LULC) changes.

Looking at the Future of Transdisciplinary Research

“…There is a vast literature on transdisciplinary research, sometimes theoretical, but often also analysing experiences from concrete project work (for instance, Wickson et al, 2006;Russell et al, 2008;Carew and Wickson, 2010;Clark and Button, 2011;Pohl, 2011;Klein, 2013Klein, , 2015Wickson and Carew, 2014;Gethmann et al, 2015;Osborne, 2015;Bieluch et al, 2017;van Breda and Swilling, 2018;Pereira et al, 2018;de la Vega-Leinert and Schönenberg, 2020;Chambers et al, 2021;Deutsch et al, 2023). There is also literature which more implicitly relates to transdisciplinarity while highlighting other terms; for example, citizen science, co-production of knowledge, sustainability science, participatory research, Indigenous knowledge integration, empowerment or similar terms (e.g.…”

“…We are also aware of interesting work going on in the Global South, for example, the SAEON Maputaland project 11 which is a good example of short-term (3 years) transdisciplinary research design, but several others could be added (cf. Mapara 2009;Chilisa 2017;Breda and Swilling, 2019;de la Vega-Leinert and Schönenberg 2020;Zurba et al 2021;Kareem et al 2022;Schneider, 2022).…”

Making Space in Geographical Analysis

“…Taking gender as an example, recent scholarship in land systems has emphasized that it is a mediating factor in land management, that spatial patterns of land use are not strictly reducible to profit‐ or utility‐maximization assumptions (Turner et al 2020 ), and that natural resource use is shaped by social interactions over space and time (Sen and Nagendra 2019 ). Therefore, to understand pressing environmental problems and drivers of global change, such as transformations at extractive and agrarian frontiers, we must incorporate gender directly into our spatial analyses (de la Vega‐Leinert and Schönenberg 2020 ). Furthermore, a feminist and intersectional spatial imagination (Ducre 2018 ; Eaves and Al‐Hindi 2020 ) can focus geographical analysis of environmental change, hazards and vulnerability (Preston and Yuen 2011 ) with a lens of environmental justice and, indeed, climate justice (Orff 2020 ; Robinson 2018 ).…”