Creating Inspiring Workshops and Courses in Transdisciplinarity: A Guide - Manual / Resource - Page 14
What we hope this guide can achieve
Advancing the 昀椀eld
The well-established promise of – and documented experience with - transdisciplinarity is that it produces knowledge that is more
useful in practice and decision-making than conventional academic science, thus shortening the distance between knowledge
generation and societal impact, and generally increasing the likelihood of beneficial impacts for all involved in the iterative knowledgeto-action process.
Given these significant benefits, why is TD not far more widely adopted? The process of TD inherently requires the close and repeated
interaction between researchers and societal partners, which many welcome, but some also find uncomfortable – largely because they
lack the experience and skills to do it well. Unexperienced researchers and their societal partners may hold preconceived notions of
what close collaboration with the respective other may look like, what risks or benefits it may entail, and what professional, personal, or
societal implications such interaction may hold. Academic institutions often still don’t reward this form of research; graduate education
is still not adequately preparing students for this type of collaborative research; and funders, publishers, and professional societies are
also not yet fully on board.
Experience shows that those who are best positioned to introduce and train others to TD are those who are experienced in TDR, and
who have had positive experiences working in this particular way. They have used TD even in inhospitable institutional environments
but have multiple cases of successful interaction with societal partners. They can serve as role models for colleagues, students, and
post-docs; and they are credible and passionate spokespersons for TD wherever they work, thus most likely to be able to convince
institutional leaders and funders to recognize and support TD work.
What they often lack is training in how to train others in becoming excellent TD researchers and leaders.
See Proficiencies
(page 47)
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About the guide What we hope this guide can achieve
