Creating Inspiring Workshops and Courses in Transdisciplinarity: A Guide - Manual / Resource - Page 87
Communication
In the co-implementation phase, communication is essential in:
Alemayehu Wassie Eshete, an ecologist, in dialogue with Coptic priests in Ethiopia about conserving the
“church forests”
Photo credit: M. Lowman
In the co-production phase, communication is part and parcel of:
•
Learning relevant methodological skills;
•
Carrying out project tasks;
•
Integrating different types of knowledges;
•
Growing understanding and respect for each other’s
expertise;
•
Reflecting on project advances;
•
Working through problems, challenges, delays, or conflicts
among team members, societal partners, and funders;
•
Reporting on project progress to team members, societal
partners, funders, and the wider public; and
•
Coming to agreement about project outputs (formats,
length, timing, etc.).
Practices When is communication needed and for what?
•
Presenting project findings in scientific outlets (e.g., peerreviewed specialist journals or conferences), as well as
to lay audiences (e.g., press releases, TV interviews, user
manuals, policy briefings);
•
Conducting outreach;
•
Developing skill-building/capacity-building trainings in the
use of tools, data, and information developed during the
project;
•
Evaluation of project process and achievements and
related reflection and learning;
•
Reporting to funders; and
•
Appropriately closing out a project (e.g., reflection meeting
with partners, reporting, debrief with team members).
This list is categorical, exemplary, necessarily abstracted,
and incomplete, but it points to the need for ongoing teamand project-internal communication, as well as for external
communication. It hints at the many different audiences that
need to be involved or addressed, and hence the different
formats, venues, languages, levels of detail, and specificity
needed, as well as the implied differences in formality and
informality.
p. 82
