Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Deconstructing a 2-year long transdisciplinary sustainability project in Northern universities: is rhetorical nobility obscuring procedural and political discords?

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Sustainability Science Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Transdisciplinary sustainability research (TSR) is essential to better understand and tackle wicked problems such as climate change and realisation of sustainable development goals (SDGs). However, despite the normative nobility, a significant share of these initiatives seems to remain merely rhetorical that fail to address both local level socio-environmental crises and global catastrophes such as rising emissions. To better understand structural and procedural barriers within a TSR project, this study conducted “research on (a transdisciplinary sustainability) research”. It locates two critical reasons why TSR is not able to deliver on its promises in offering effective guidance in addressing global sustainability crisis and discusses how it can be more equitable in knowledge generation in particular and science in general. Firstly, it necessitates TSR to challenge the neo-colonial regime and the hegemonic processes of a dominant Northern episteme around the concept of sustainability, as it otherwise threatens to reinforce and perpetuate the status quo that produces unsustainability from the top. Findings also reveal key procedural shortcomings (often connected to the hegemony itself) that include constricted temporal allowance, insecure scientists and nexus of techno-science markets, Northern academia, funding agencies and governments. This not only seems to affect universality and reflexivity of the TSR project, but also undermines justice and equity by reinforcing prevailing power orders. It seems essential to theoretically shift from domination to partnership, allying with multiple realities, legitimising diverse ontologies and validating epistemic plurality to help TSR gain greater credibility. Procedurally, reforms in institutional research and funding processes including extended temporal spaces and helping scientists to have better collaboration across scales seem critical to enable TSR projects realise their true potential.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/issues/view.php?sf=134.%20I

References

  • Adger WN, Barnett J, Brown K, Marshall N, O'brien K (2013) Cultural dimensions of climate change impacts and adaptation. Nat Clim Change 3(2):112

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Adorno TW, Horkheimer M (1997) Dialectic of enlightenment, vol 15. Verso

  • Andreotti V (2007) An ethical engagement with the other: Spivak’s ideas on education. Crit Lit Theor Pract 1(1):69–79

    Google Scholar 

  • Antal M, Hukkinen JI (2010) The art of the cognitive war to save the planet. Ecol Econ 69(5):937–943

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Avelino F, Wittmayer JM (2016) Shifting power relations in sustainability transitions: a multi-actor perspective. J Environ Plan Policy Manag 18(5):628–649

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baer HA (2016) Climate change mitigation, environmental sustainability, and social parity: green capitalism or an alternative world system? Hum Ecol 44(1):131–135

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Balmer AS, Calvert J, Marris C et al (2015) Taking roles in interdisciplinary collaborations: reflections on working in post-ELSI spaces in the UK synthetic biology community. Sci Technol Stud 28(3):3–25

    Google Scholar 

  • Banerjee AV, Duflo E (2003) Inequality and growth: What can the data say? J Econ Growth 8(3):267–299

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barry A, Born G (eds) (2013) Interdisciplinarity: reconfigurations of the social and natural sciences. Routledge

  • Becher T, Trowler P (2001) Academic tribes and territories. SRHE, Buckingham; Trowler PR (2001) Academic tribes and territories. McGraw-Hill Education, UK

  • Beck U (2010) Climate for change, or how to create a green modernity? Theory Cult Soc 27(2–3):254–266

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Benessia A, Funtowicz S (2015) Sustainability and techno-science: what do we want to sustain and for whom? Int J Sustain Dev 18(4):329–348

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bhabha H (1984) Of mimicry and man: The ambivalence of colonial discourse. October 28:125–133

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blaxter L, Hughes C, Tight M (2001) How to research. Open University Press, UK

    Google Scholar 

  • Blumer H (1980) Mead and Blumer: the convergent methodological perspectives of social behaviorism and symbolic interactionism. Am Soc Rev 409–419

  • Bolton G (2010) Reflective practice: writing and professional development. Sage publications, USA

    Google Scholar 

  • Brace C, Geoghegan H (2011) Human geographies of climate change: landscape, temporality, and lay knowledges. Prog Hum Geogr 35(3):284–302

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brandt P, Ernst A, Gralla F, Luederitz C, Lang DJ, Newig J, Reinert F, Abson DJ, Von Wehrden H (2013) A review of transdisciplinary research in sustainability science. Ecol Econ 92:1–15

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brannick T, Coghlan D (2007) In defense of being “native”: the case for insider academic research. Org Res Methods 10(1):59–74

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brooks S, Leach M, Millstone E, Lucas H (2009) Silver bullets, grand challenges and the new philanthropy

  • Burns H, Diamond-Vaught H, Bauman C (2015) Leadership for sustainability: theoretical foundations and pedagogical practices that foster change. Int J Leadership Stud

  • Camino E, Dodman M, Benessia A Bianco E, Cerutti RK, Gray LC, Ferrara E, Folco S, Perazzone GA (2020) Editorial: visions for sustainability. The manifesto of our new scientific journal. https://doi.org/10.7401/visions.01.01

  • Chambers R (2009) Practising what we preach? The failure to apply sustainable livelihoods thinking where it is most needed-in the North. https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/bitstream/handle/20.500.12413/663/chscoones.pdf?sequence=1

  • Chapason L, van den Hove S (2009) The debate on an intergovernmental science-policy platform on biodiversity and ecosystem services (IPBES): exploring gaps and needs. Idées pour le débat (01)

  • Chilisa B (2017) Decolonising transdisciplinary research approaches: an African perspective for enhancing knowledge integration in sustainability science. Sustain Sci 12(5):813–827

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark WC, Van Kerkhoff L, Lebel L, Gallopin GC (2016) Crafting usable knowledge for sustainable development. Proc Natl Acad Sci 113(17):4570–4578

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Collins SL, Carpenter SR, Swinton SM, Orenstein DE, Childers DL, Gragson TL, Grimm NB, Grove JM, Harlan SL, Kaye JP, Knapp AK (2011) An integrated conceptual framework for long-term social–ecological research. Front Ecol Environ 9(6):351–357

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Connell R, Dados N (2014) Where in the world does neoliberalism come from? Theory Soc 43(2):117–138

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Connolly WE (2013) The fragility of things: self-organizing processes, neoliberal fantasies, and democratic activism. Duke University Press, USA

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Corlett RT (2013) The shifted baseline: prehistoric defaunation in the tropics and its consequences for biodiversity conservation. Biol Cons 163:13–21

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Couix N, Hazard L (2013) When the future of biodiversity depends on researchers’ and stakeholders’ thought-styles. Futures 53:13–21

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cunliffe AL (2003) Reflexive inquiry in organizational research: questions and possibilities. Hum Relat 56(8):983–1003

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Czarniawska B (ed) (1997) A narrative approach to organization studies. Sage Publications, USA43

    Google Scholar 

  • Dany Va, Bajracharya B, Lebel L, Regan M, Taplin R (2016) Narrowing gaps between research and policy development in climate change adaptation work in the water resources and agriculture sectors of Cambodia. Clim Policy 16(2):237–252

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Darbellay F (2015) Rethinking inter-and transdisciplinarity: undisciplined knowledge and the emergence of a new thought style. Futures 65:163–174

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Vries BJ, Petersen AC (2009) Conceptualizing sustainable development: an assessment methodology connecting values, knowledge, worldviews and scenarios. Ecol Econ 68(4):1006–1019

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • de Witt C (2011) Media theory and sustainability communication. Sustainability communication. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 79–88

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Demeritt D (2001) The construction of global warming and the politics of science. Ann Assoc Am Geogr 91(2):307–337

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deutz P (2014) A class-based analysis of sustainable development: developing a radical perspective on environmental justice. Sustain Dev 22(4):243–252

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dogan M, Pahre R (1990) Creative marginality. Innovations at the intersection of science. Westview Press, Boulder, CO

    Google Scholar 

  • Dramstad WE, Fjellstad WJ (2011) Landscapes: bridging the gaps between science, policy and people. Landsc Urban Plan 100(4):330–332

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Drèze J (2019) Sense and solidarity: Jholawala economics for everyone. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Dryzek JS (2013) The politics of the earth: environmental discourses. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Dunlap RE (2010) The maturation and diversification of environmental sociology: from constructivism and realism to agnosticism and pragmatism. Int Handb Environ Sociol 15–32

  • Dutta MJ (2013) Public relations in a global world: culturally centering theory and praxis. Asia Pacific Public Relat J 14(1 & 2):21–31

    Google Scholar 

  • Dutta MJ (2018) On Spivak. In: Ihlen Ø, Fredriksson M (eds) Public relations and social theory: key figures, concepts and developments. Routledge, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Engler JO, Abson DJ, von Wehrden H (2017) ‘It's the Psychology, Stupid!’Understanding Human Cognition Biases to Inform Sustainable Behavior. Understanding Human Cognition Biases to Inform Sustainable Behavior (December 12, 2017).

  • Escobar A (1995) Encountering development: the making and unmaking of the third world. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ

    Google Scholar 

  • Escobar A (1998) Whose knowledge, whose nature? Biodiversity, conservation, and the political ecology of social movements. J Polit Ecol 5(1):53–82

    Google Scholar 

  • Ewert GD (1991) Habermas and education: a comprehensive overview of the influence of Habermas in educational literature. Rev Educ Res 61(3):345–378

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feldman DL, Ingram HM (2009) Making science useful to decision makers: climate forecasts, water management, and knowledge networks. Weather Clim Soc 1(1):9–21

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Felt U, Cervinková A, Garforth L et al (2009) Knowing and living in academic research: convergences and heterogeneity in research cultures in the European context. Felt U (ed) Prague.

  • Ferreira F (2017) Critical sustainability studies: a holistic and visionary conception of socioecological conscientization. J Sustain Educ 13

  • Ferreira-Snyman A (2010) Intervention with specific reference to the relationship between the United Nations Security Council and the African Union. Comp Int Law J South Afr 43(2):139–172

    Google Scholar 

  • Fischer J, Dyball R, Fazey I, Gross C, Dovers S, Ehrlich PR, Brulle RJ, Christensen C, Borden RJ (2012) Human behavior and sustainability. Front Ecol Environ 10(3):153–160

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fitzgerald D, Brunner E, Koellinger P, et al (2012) ‘The good, the bad and the ugly’: understanding collaboration between the social sciences and the life sciences. London

  • Fook J (2002) Social work: critical theory and practice. Sage, USA

    Google Scholar 

  • Forsyth T (2014) Climate justice is not just ice. Geoforum 54:230–232

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frame B, Brown J (2008) Developing post-normal technologies for sustainability. Ecol Econ 65(2):225–241

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fry R, Kolb D (1979) Experiential learning theory and learning experiences in liberal arts education. New Dir Exp Learn 6:79

    Google Scholar 

  • Fuchs C (2016) Critical theory. In: Craig R (ed) International encyclopedia of communication theory and philosophy. Hoboken, Wiley-Blackwell

    Google Scholar 

  • Fuchs C (2017) Critical social theory and sustainable development: the role of class, capitalism and domination in a dialectical analysis of un/sustainability. Sustain Dev 25(5):443–458

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fuest V (2007) German–African research co-operation: practices, problems and policies. Afr Spectr 483–505

  • Fuglesang A (1982) About understanding--ideas and observations on cross-cultural communication.

  • Gardiner SM (2010) Ethics and climate change: an introduction. Wiley Interdiscipl Rev Clim Change 1(1):54–66

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gardner SK (2013) Paradigmatic differences, power, and status: a qualitative investigation of faculty in one interdisciplinary research collaboration on sustainability science. Sustain Sci 8(2):241–252. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-012-0182-4

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Geels FW (2011) The multi-level perspective on sustainability transitions: responses to seven criticisms. Environ Innov Soc Transit 1(1):24–40

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Geertz C (1973) The interpretation of cultures. Basic Books, USA5019

    Google Scholar 

  • Gibbons M, Limoges C, Nowotny H, Schwartzman S, Scott P, Trow M (1994) Tlie new production of knowledge. In: Gibbons M (ed) The new production of knowledge: the dynamics of science and research in contemporary societies. Sage

  • Godemann J, Michelsen G (2011) Sustainability communication—an introduction. Sustainability communication. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 3–11

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Graff G (2000) Scholars and sound bites: the myth of academic difficulty. Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 1041–1052.

  • Guattari F (2015) Transdisciplinarity must become transversality. Theory Cult Soc 32(5–6):131–137. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276415597045

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gunderson R (2016) Environmental sociology and the Frankfurt School 2: ideology, techno-science, reconciliation. Environ Sociol 2(1):64–76

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hadorn GH, Bradley D, Pohl C, Rist S, Wiesmann U (2006) Implications of transdisciplinarity for sustainability research. Ecol Econ 60(1):119–128

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hadorn GH, Biber-Klemm S, Grossenbacher-Mansuy W, Hoffmann-Riem H, Joye D, Pohl C, Wiesmann U, Zemp E (eds) (2008) Handbook of transdisciplinary research. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 978–98110

    Google Scholar 

  • Hammersley M (2006) Ethnography: problems and prospects. Ethnogr Educ 1(1):3–14

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hannigan J (2014) Environmental sociology. Routledge, UK

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Haraway D (1988) Situated knowledges: the science question in feminism and the privilege of partial perspective. Fem Stud 14(3):575–599

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haraway DJ (1996) Modest witness: feminist diffractions in science studies. In: Galison P, Stump DJ (eds) The disunity of science: boundaries, contexts and power. Stanford University Press, Stanford, pp 428–444

    Google Scholar 

  • Harding S (1991) Whose science? Whose knowledge? Thinking from women’s lives. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY

    Google Scholar 

  • Harding S (2008) Sciences from below: feminisms, postcolonialities, and modernities. Duke University Press

  • Hark S (2007) Magical sign: on the politics of inter-and transdisciplinarity. Grad J Soc Sci 4(2):11–33

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvey D (1974) What kind of geography for what kind of public policy? Trans Inst Br Geogr 18–24

  • Harvey D (2007) Neoliberalism as creative destruction. Ann Am Acad Polit Soc Sci 610(1):21–44

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hessels LK, Van Lente H (2008) Re-thinking new knowledge production: a literature review and a research agenda. Res Policy 37(4):740–760

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ingold T (2011) Being alive: essays on movement, knowledge and description. Taylor & Francis, UK

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Jahn T, Bergmann M, Keil F (2012) Transdisciplinarity: between mainstreaming and marginalization. Ecol Econ 79:1–10

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jasanoff S (1996) Beyond epistemology: relativism and engagement in the politics of science. Soc Stud Sci 26(2):393–418

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jasanoff S (ed) (2004) States of knowledge: the co-production of science and social order, London: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9780203413845.

  • Jasanoff S (2005) Technologies of humility: citizen participation in governing science. In: Wozu Experten? VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, pp 370–389

  • Jenkins W (2013) The future of ethics: sustainability, social justice, and religious creativity. Georgetown University Press, USA

    Google Scholar 

  • Jerneck A, Olsson L, Ness B, Anderberg S, Baier M, Clark E, Hickler T, Hornborg A, Kronsell A, Lövbrand E, Persson J (2011) Structuring sustainability science. Sustain Sci 6(1):69–82

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • John B, Keeler LW, Wiek A, Lang DJ (2015) How much sustainability substance is in urban visions?—an analysis of visioning projects in urban planning. Cities 48:86–98

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kapoor I (2004) Hyper-self-reflexive development? Spivak on representing the Third World ‘Other.’ Third World Q 25(4):627–647

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kapoor I (2012) Celebrity humanitarianism: the ideology of global charity. Routledge, UK

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kelly PM, Adger WN (2000) Theory and practice in assessing vulnerability to climate change and facilitating adaptation. Clim Change 47(4):325–352

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kläy A, Zimmermann AB, Schneider F (2015) Rethinking science for sustainable development: reflexive interaction for a paradigm transformation. Futures 65:72–85

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klein JT (1990) Interdisciplinarity: history, theory, and practice. Wayne State University Press, Detroit

    Google Scholar 

  • Klein JT (2015) Reprint of “Discourses of transdisciplinarity: looking back to the future”. Futures 65:10–16

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Knorr Cetina K (1999) Epistemic cultures: how the sciences make knowledge. Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781107415324.004

  • Kolb AY, Kolb DA (2005) Learning styles and learning spaces: enhancing experiential learning in higher education. Acad Manag Learn Educ 4(2):193–212

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn T (2000) The road since structure: philosophical essays, 1970–1993, with an autobiographical interview. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Lang DJ, Wiek A, Bergmann M, Stauffacher M, Martens P, Moll P, Swilling M, Thomas CJ (2012) Transdisciplinary research in sustainability science: practice, principles, and challenges. Sustain Sci 7(1):25–43

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lang DJ, Wiek A, von Wehrden H (2017) Bridging divides in sustainability science. Sustain Sci 12(6):875–879

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lange H, Fuest V (2015) OPTIONEN zur Stärkung inter-und Transdisziplinärer Verbundforschung

  • Latour B (1993) We have never been modern. Harvard University Press

  • Latour B (1999) Pandora’s hope: essays on the reality of science studies. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Lavau S (2013) Going with the flow: sustainable water management as ontological cleaving. Environ Plan D Soc Space 31(3):416–433

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lavrakas PJ (2008) Encyclopedia of survey research methods. Sage Publications

  • Lawrence RJ (2015) Advances in transdisciplinarity: epistemologies, methodologies and processes. Futures. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2014.11.007

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leach M (2008) Re-framing resilience: trans-disciplinarity, reflexivity and progressive sustainability—a symposium report

  • Lehmann A, Giuliani G, Ray N, Rahman K, Abbaspour KC, Nativi S, Craglia M, Cripe D, Quevauviller P, Beniston M (2014) Reviewing innovative Earth observation solutions for filling science-policy gaps in hydrology. J Hydrol 518:267–277

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lipietz A (1988) Reflections on a tale: the Marxist foundations of the concepts of regulation and accumulation. Stud Polit Econ 26

  • Marcuse H (1964) One-dimensional man: studies in the ideology of advanced industrial society. Beacon Press, Boston, MA (reprinted by Routledge, 2013)

  • Marshall F Dolley J, Priya R (2018) Transdisciplinary research as transformative space making for sustainability. Ecol Soc 23(3)

  • Martin JR (1992) English text: system and structure. John Benjamins Publishing, Netherlands

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Mauser W, Klepper G, Rice M, Schmalzbauer BS, Hackmann H, Leemans R, Moore H (2013) Transdisciplinary global change research: the co-creation of knowledge for sustainability. Curr Opin Environ Sustain 5(3–4):420–431

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McEwan C (2001) Postcolonialism, feminism and development: intersections and dilemmas. Prog Dev Stud 1(2):93–111

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Merchant C (1994) Ecology: key concepts in critical theory. Humanities Press, Atlantic Highlands

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller CL (1990) Theories of africans: francophone literature and anthropology in Africa. University of Chicago Press, USA

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller TR, Wiek A, Sarewitz D, Robinson J, Olsson L, Kriebel D, Loorbach D (2014) The future of sustainability science: a solutions-oriented research agenda. Sustain Sci 9(2):239–246

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell C, Cordell D, Fam D (2015) Beginning at the end: the outcome spaces framework to guide purposive transdisciplinary research. Futures 65:86–96

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moser SC (2016) Can science on transformation transform science? Lessons from co-design. Curr Opin Environ Sustain 20:106–115

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nagy K, Körmendi K (2012) Use of renewable energy sources in light of the “New Energy Strategy for Europe 2011–2020.” Appl Energy 96:393–399

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ngom A (2017) Postcolonial studies: an avenue to examining Africa's indigenous knowledge systems. Africol J Pan Afr Stud 11(1):272–290

    Google Scholar 

  • Nowotny H, Scott PB, Gibbons MT (2013) Re-thinking science: knowledge and the public in an age of uncertainty. Wiley

  • Nussbaum M, Sen A (1993) The quality of life. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • O'Reilly EN (2014) Correlations among perceived autonomy support, intrinsic motivation, and learning outcomes in an intensive foreign language program. Theory Pract Lang Stud 4(7)

  • Ogan CL, Bashir M, Camaj L, Luo Y, Gaddie B, Pennington R, Rana S, Salih M (2009) Development communication: the state of research in an era of ICTs and globalization. Int Commun Gazette 71(8):655–670

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Öhman J (2016) New ethical challenges within environmental and sustainability education

  • O’Neill S, Nicholson-Cole S (2009) “Fear Won’t Do It” promoting positive engagement with climate change through visual and iconic representations. Sci Commun 30(3):355–379

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oppenheimer DM (2006) Consequences of erudite vernacular utilized irrespective of necessity: problems with using long words needlessly. Appl Cogn Psychol 20(2):139–156

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ostrom E (2009) A general framework for analysing sustainability of social-ecological systems. Science 325(5939):419–422

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Parodi O (2015) The missing aspect of culture in sustainability concepts. Theor Sustain Dev; Enders JC, Remig M (eds) 169–187

  • Patterson J, Schulz K, Vervoort J, Van Der Hel S, Widerberg O, Adler C, Hurlbert M, Anderton K, Sethi M, Barau A (2017) Exploring the governance and politics of transformations towards sustainability. Environ Innov Soc Trans 24:1–16

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pennebaker JW, Lay TC (2002) Language use and personality during crises: analyses of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's press conferences. J Res Pers 36(3):271–282

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pereira LM, Karpouzoglou T, Frantzeskaki N, Olsson P (2018) Designing transformative spaces for sustainability in social-ecological systems. Ecol Soc 23(4)

  • Phillips L, Kristiansen M, Vehviläinen M, Gunnarsson E (eds) (2013) Knowledge and power in collaborative research: a reflexive approach. Routledge, UK

    Google Scholar 

  • Pohl C (2011) What is progress in transdisciplinary research? Futures 43(6):618–626

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Popa F, Guillermin M, Dedeurwaerdere T (2015) A pragmatist approach to transdisciplinarity in sustainability research: from complex systems theory to reflexive science. Futures 65:45–56

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Porter L (2004) Unlearning one's privilege: reflections on cross-cultural research with indigenous peoples in South-East Australia. Plan Theory Pract 5(1):104–109

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prondzyski F (2013) High value knowledge, and what to do with it. https://goo.gl/yLOhoN. Accessed 26 July 2015

  • Rametsteiner E, Pülzl H, Alkan-Olsson J, Frederiksen P (2011) Sustainability indicator development—science or political negotiation? Ecol Ind 11(1):61–70

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ravetz JR (2006) Post-normal science and the complexity of transitions towards sustainability. Ecol Complex 3(4):275–284

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Redclift MR (2007) Sustainable development (1987–2005): an oxymoron comes of age. Horizontes Antropológicos 3(SE): 0–0

  • Redclift M, Springett D (eds) (2015) Routledge international handbook of sustainable development. Routledge

  • Reid WV, Chen D, Goldfarb L, Hackmann H, Lee YT, Mokhele K, Ostrom E, Raivio K, Rockström J, Schellnhuber HJ, Whyte A (2010) Earth system science for global sustainability: grand challenges. Science 330(6006):916–917

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rocheleau DE (2008) Political ecology in the key of policy: from chains of explanation to webs of relation. Geoforum 39(2):716–727

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rogers EM (1976) New product adoption and diffusion. J Consum Res 2(4):290–301

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rogers EM (2004) A prospective and retrospective look at the diffusion model. J Health Commun 9(S1):13–19

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roncoli C, Crane T, Orlove B (2009) Fielding climate change in cultural anthropology. In: Anthropology and climate change: from encounters to actions, pp 87–115

  • Sachs W (1991) Environment and development: the story of a dangerous liaison. Ecologist 21(6):252–252

    Google Scholar 

  • Said EW (1995) Orientalism: western conceptions of the Orient. Penguin, Harmondsworth (1978, Eng.)

    Google Scholar 

  • Sardar Z (1993) Colonizing the future: the ‘other’dimension of futures studies. Futures 25(2):179–187

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sardar Z (2010) The namesake: futures; futures studies; futurology; futuristic; foresight—what's in a name? Futures 42(3):177–184

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sarewitz D, Clapp R, Crumbley C, Kriebel D, Tickner J (2012) The sustainability solutions agenda. New Solut J Environ Occup Health Policy 22(2):139–151

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schiller HI (1976) Communication and cultural domination

  • Schipper ELF, Burton I (2009) Earthscan reader on adaptation to climate change. Earthscan, UK

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt L, Neuburger M (2017) Trapped between privileges and precariousness: tracing transdisciplinary research in a postcolonial setting. Futures 93:54–67

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt L, Pröpper M (2017) Transdisciplinarity as a real-world challenge: a case study on a North-South collaboration. Sustain Sci 12(3):365–379

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schneider F, Kallis G, Martinez-Alier J (2010) Crisis or opportunity? Economic degrowth for social equity and ecological sustainability Introduction to this special issue. J Clean Prod 18(6):511–518

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schutz A (1962) On multiple realities. Collected papers I. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 207–259

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Sen A (2013) The ends and means of sustainability. J Hum Dev Capab 14(1):6–20

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Servaes J, Liu S (2007) Moving targets: mapping the paths between communication, technology and social change

  • Shahrier S, Kotani K, Saijo T (2017) Intergenerational sustainability dilemma and the degree of capitalism in societies: a field experiment. Sustain Sci 12(6):957–967

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Siune K (2009) Challenging futures of science in society-emerging trends and cutting-edge issues: report of the MASIS Expert Group setup by the European Commission

  • Spangenberg JH (2011) Sustainability science: a review, an analysis and some empirical lessons. Environ Conserv 38(3):275–287

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spivak GC (1990) Poststructuralism, marginality, postcoloniality and value. Lit Theory Today 219–244

  • Spivak GC (1993) More on power/knowledge

  • Spivak GC (2012) In other worlds: essays in cultural politics. Routledge

  • Springett D, Redclift M (2015) Introduction: history and evolution of the concept. In: Redclift M, Springett D (eds) Routledge international handbook of sustainable development. Routledge, UK, pp 3–35

    Google Scholar 

  • Stenmark M (2017) Environmental ethics and policy-making. Routledge, UK

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Stokols D (2013) Training the next generation of transdisciplinarias. Enhanc Commun Collab Interdiscipl Res 2014:56–74. https://doi.org/10.1097/00001888-199608000-00020

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Strober M (2011) Interdisciplinary conversations: Challenging habits of thought. Stanford University Press, USA

    Google Scholar 

  • Sumner A, Tribe MA (2008) International development studies: theories and methods in research and practice. Sage, USA

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Swyngedouw E (2014) Where is the political? Insurgent mobilisations and the incipient “return of the political.” Space Polity 18(2):122–136

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sylvester C (1999) Development studies and postcolonial studies: disparate tales of the 'Third World'. Third World Q 20(4):703–721

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor M (2015) The political ecology of climate change adaptation: livelihoods, agrarian change and the conflicts of development. Routledge explorations in development studies Show all parts in this series.

  • Thompson A, Bendik-Keymer J (eds) (2012) Ethical adaptation to climate change: human virtues of the future. MIT Press, USA

    Google Scholar 

  • Tolman J (2006) Learning, unlearning, and the teaching of writing: educational turns in postcoloniality. Crit Inq Lang Stud 3(2–3):191–202

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tress B, Tress G, Fry G (2005) Defining concepts and the process of knowledge production. In: Tress B, Tres G, Fry G, Opdam P (eds) From landscape research to landscape planning: aspects of integration, education and application, vol 12. Frontis, p 13

  • Tschakert P (2012) From impacts to embodied experiences: tracing political ecology in climate change research. Geografisk Tidsskrift-Dan J Geogr 112(2):144–158

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turner BL, Kasperson RE, Matson PA, McCarthy JJ, Corell RW, Christensen L, Eckley N, Kasperson JX, Luers A, Martello ML, Polsky C (2003) A framework for vulnerability analysis in sustainability science. Proc Natl Acad Sci 100(14):8074–8079

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Turnhout E, Dewulf A, Hulme M (2016) What does policy-relevant global environmental knowledge do? The cases of climate and biodiversity. Curr Opin Environ Sustain 18:65–72

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turnhout E, Metze T, Wyborn C, Klenk N, Louder E (2020) The politics of co-production: participation, power, and transformation. Curr Opin Environ Sustain 42:15–21

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van der Hel S (2016) New science for global sustainability? The institutionalisation of knowledge co-production in Future Earth. Environ Sci Policy 61:165–175

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Opstal M, Hugé J (2013) Knowledge for sustainable development: a worldviews perspective. Environ Dev Sustain 15(3):687–709

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vogel AL, Hall KL, Fiore SM et al (2013) The team science toolkit: enhancing research collaboration through online knowledge sharing. Am J Prevent Med 45(6):787–789. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2013.09.001

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wainwright J (2010) Climate change, capitalism, and the challenge of transdisciplinarity. Ann Assoc Ame Geogr 100(4):983–991

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wanner T (2015) The new ‘passive revolution’of the green economy and growth discourse: maintaining the ‘sustainable development’of neoliberal capitalism. New Polit Econ 20(1):21–41

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Watts MJ (2015) The origins of political ecology and the rebirth of adaptation as a form of thought. The Routledge Handbook of Political Ecology 19

  • Webster DG (2017) Scape goats, silver bullets, and other pitfalls in the path to sustainability. ELEMENTA Sience of the Anthropocene.

  • Weingart P (1997) From “Finalization” to “Mode 2”: old wine in new bottles? Soc Sci Inf 36(4):591–613

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weingart P, Padberg B (eds) (2014) University experiments in interdisciplinarity: obstacles and opportunities. transcript Verlag

  • Wiek A, Lang DJ (2016) Transformational sustainability research methodology. Sustainability science. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 31–41

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Wiek A, Farioli F, Fukushi K, Yarime M (2012) Sustainability science: bridging the gap between science and society. Sustain Sci 7(1):1–4

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wiek A, Harlow J, Melnick R, Van Der Leeuw S, Fukushi K, Takeuchi K, Farioli F, Yamba F, Blake A, Geiger C, Kutter R (2015) Sustainability science in action: a review of the state of the field through case studies on disaster recovery, bioenergy, and precautionary purchasing. Sustain Sci 10(1):17–31

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilken R, McCosker A (2014) Rethinking ‘Big Data’ as visual knowledge: the sublime and the diagrammatic in data visualization. Vis Stud 29(2):155–164

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Willers B (1994) Sustainable development: a new world deception. Conserv Biol 8(4):1146–1148

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Winder N (2003) Successes and problems when conducting interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary (= integrative) research. In: Tress B, Tress G, van der Valk A, Fry G (eds) Potential and limitations of interdisciplinary and transdisiplinary landscape studies. Delta series 2. Alterra Green World Research and Wageningen University, Wageningen, pp 74–90

    Google Scholar 

  • Young RJ (2016) Postcolonialism: an historical introduction. Wiley, USA

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Zanella MA, Rahmanian M, Perch LN, Callenius C, Rubio JL, Vuningoma F, Rist S, Mapfumo P (2015) Discussion: food security and sustainable food systems: the role of soil. Int Soil Water Conserv Res 3(2):154–159

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ziai A (2015) Development discourse and global history: from colonialism to the sustainable development goals. Routledge, UK

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ziegler R, Ott K (2011) The quality of sustainability science: a philosophical perspective. Sustain Sci Pract Policy 7(1):31–44

    Google Scholar 

  • Zscheischler J, Rogga S (2015) Transdisciplinarity in land use science–a review of concepts, empirical findings and current practices. Futures 65:28–44

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This study was funded from the State of Lower Saxony (Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur) and the Volkswagen Foundation in line with the research project “Bridging the Great Divide” (Grant Number VWZN3188). The author also wishes to express his sincere gratitudes to the two anonymous reviewers whose untiring guidance made this article a much stronger and focused one.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jindal Global University, Sonipat, India

    Aditya Ghosh

  2. South Asia Institute, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

    Aditya Ghosh

  3. Leuphana University, Lüneburg, Germany

    Aditya Ghosh

Authors
  1. Aditya Ghosh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Aditya Ghosh.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Handled by Eefje Cuppen, Universiteit Leiden Instituut Bestuurskunde, Netherlands.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Ghosh, A. Deconstructing a 2-year long transdisciplinary sustainability project in Northern universities: is rhetorical nobility obscuring procedural and political discords?. Sustain Sci 15, 1111–1127 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-020-00816-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-020-00816-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation