Abstract Transdisciplinary sustainability research (TDR) is characterised by methodologies that support a rich and direct interaction between academics and other societal stakeholders. However, it is not to be taken for granted that societal stakeholders are interested in collaboration, or that researchers have the skills to put participative methods into action. While there are several frameworks available to evaluate transdisciplinary research, the quality of participants’ engagement is often neglected during evaluations. The aim of this paper is to empirically assess the intrinsic motivation of participating societal stakeholders to engage in TDR by pairing Self-Determination Theory with Poggi’s conceptual analysis of enthusiasm. We argue that the quality of collaboration between academic and other societal stakeholders is reflected by the latter’s enthusiasm to participate, and that this supports the co-creation of outputs that societal stakeholders can put into practice. Two smallholder dairy farmer groups in Nakuru County, Kenya, reflected on their engagement in a collaborative learning process (CLP) that started in 2013. The goal of the collaboration was to co-develop contextualized innovations. We found that giving more voice and increasing representation and power of farmers in the research process sparked their enthusiasm, while a sense of progress and success sustained it. The strengthened sense of autonomy, competence and relatedness associated with intrinsic motivation helped participants invest in co-creating research outputs that have direct effects on their production systems. Especially for agricultural research for development spanning between Global North and Global South contexts, sensitivity to encouraging participants’ intrinsic motivation can contribute towards decolonizing research methodologies and shifting more power towards the societal stakeholders that these projects are meant to serve. We conclude that assessing participants’ intrinsic motivation and enthusiasm helps to determine the quality of collaboration. A possible implication could also be the differentiation between methodological approaches employed in TDR that deeply engage societal stakeholders for knowledge integration and co-production, and those that do so only at a superficial level.

中文翻译：

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评估跨学科可持续性研究中的合作质量：农民合作减少肯尼亚收获后乳制品损失的热情

摘要 跨学科可持续性研究 (TDR) 的特点是支持学术界和其他社会利益相关者之间丰富而直接的互动的方法论。然而，社会利益相关者对合作感兴趣，或者研究人员具有将参与式方法付诸实践的技能，这并不是理所当然的。虽然有多种框架可用于评估跨学科研究，但在评估过程中往往忽略参与者参与的质量。本文的目的是通过将自决理论与 Poggi 对热情的概念分析相结合，实证评估参与社会利益相关者参与 TDR 的内在动机。我们认为，学术界和其他社会利益相关者之间合作的质量反映在后者的参与热情上，这支持社会利益相关者可以付诸实践的成果的共同创造。肯尼亚纳库鲁县的两个小规模奶农团体反映了他们参与 2013 年开始的协作学习过程 (CLP)。合作的目标是共同开发情境化创新。我们发现，在研究过程中给予更多发言权、增加农民的代表性和权力，激发了他们的热情，而进步和成功感则持续了这种热情。自主意识增强，与内在动机相关的能力和相关性帮助参与者投资于共同创造对其生产系统有直接影响的研究成果。特别是对于跨越全球北方和全球南方背景的农业研究发展，对鼓励参与者的内在动机的敏感性有助于非殖民化研究方法并将更多权力转移给这些项目旨在服务的社会利益相关者。我们得出的结论是，评估参与者的内在动机和热情有助于确定协作的质量。一个可能的含义还可能是 TDR 中采用的方法论方法之间的区别，这些方法使社会利益相关者深入参与知识整合和共同生产，