PART III: A TRANSDISCIPLINARY MIX: CLIMATE CHANGE, POLITICS AND FINANCE

Transdisciplinarity, which has become a third mode of using science, supplements disciplinarity and interdisciplinarity. This contribution discusses different notions of transdisciplinarity and introduces into theory, methodology and practice of transdisciplinarity. The core of transdisciplinarity is the integration of different types of epistemics (i.e. ways of knowing) from science and societal actors and systems. Ideally, transdisciplinarity relates abstract, analytic academic rigor with contextualised, experiential intuitive knowledge/wisdom of different key actors from practice. Transdisciplinary is a key methodology of sustainable transitioning and the coping with illdefined problems such as coping with climate change. The article elaborates how transdisciplinary processes differ from other forms of applied research and participatory research such as action research, public participation, participatory research, or consultation. It is shown how different methods of case/system representation, case/system evaluation and case/system transformation may serve for different types of knowledge integration in transdisciplinary processes The functions of transdisciplinarity, i.e. capacity building, consensus building, mediation and legitimisation are identified and discussed. Goals and Variants of Transdisciplinarity This paper reviews how transdisciplinarity is distinguished from both interdisciplinarity and disciplinarity. The distinction between transdisciA. * This paper is based on Scholz (2011:Chapter 15), used with permission, and has been partly reworked. 329 https://doi.org/10.5771/9783845242774_327, am 08.03. 2021, 07:04:28 Open Access https://www.nomos-elibrary.de/agb plinarity research and transdisciplinary processes is introduced. While there have been different interpretations of transdisciplinarity, this article advocates transdisciplinary processes that involve authentic collaboration between science and society, including representatives from industry, government, administration, different stakeholder groups, and the public at large. Such collaborations, as described here, emphasise mutual learning, joint problem definition and knowledge integration. Transdisciplinary processes should produce relevant, socially robust knowledge, i.e. knowledge that empowers society to cope with societal relevant problems, and which feeds back to scientific knowledge-generation and theory-building. To initiate a transdisciplinary process, facilitators can employ techniques such as embedded case study methods to structure and organise work. These methods support problem representation and modelling, problem evaluation, development, and transition of the real-world problem. After a brief introduction of these methods, a step-by-step example is presented of a transdisciplinary process in Switzerland – one which has used these methods to develop a sustainable business future in harmony with the environment. Finally, the functions of transdisciplinary processes are described, such as capacity-/competence-building, consensus-building, analytic mediation, and legitimisation of public policy. There is a practice of more than 20 years of transdisciplinary processes on sustainable transitions of regional, urban and organisational processes.1 In the case of nuclear waste disposal, transdisciplinary processes have been applied to sustainable policy transformations.2 The why and how of global transdisciplinary processes are presented, in which people involved in transdisciplinary case studies in different parts of the world may learn about how to adapt to climate change, and in what way social adaptation processes can inform each other. Why Transdisciplinarity? Collaboration between science and society is often requested if uncertainty arises about substantial changes in human-environment systems, such as the introduction of a new technology or new medical pharmaceuticals, diagI. 1 Scholz (2011); Scholz et al. (2006). 2 Krütli et al. (2010); Scholz et al. (2007). Roland W. Scholz 330 https://doi.org/10.5771/9783845242774_327, am 08.03. 2021, 07:04:28 Open Access https://www.nomos-elibrary.de/agb noses or therapies. Other problems that could benefit from collaborative processes between science and society are the finding of mitigation, adaptation, policy or decision strategies when facing fundamental changes to the natural or social environment, for instance, such as those due to natural hazards, climate change, resource scarcity or changing cultural settings. It is argued here that, from the perspective of society, transdisciplinarity provides an efficient use of knowledge for coping with complex, socially relevant problems; it provides societal capacity-building and bridges the growing gulf between many areas of research and the public. This equips society with a better understanding of how technologies or the natural environment work, and how the natural environment interacts with man-made systems. Consequently, transdisciplinarity can permit us to master the new and cope more adequately with the unknown both from a scientific and a societal perspective, e.g. with regard to inventions such as nanotech articles. At the same time, transdisciplinarity stimulates academic research by highlighting phenomena, issues and emerging questions that require scientific reflection, and by feeding experiential knowledge into the research process. Furthermore, it frees science from the cumbersome implementation problem. In other words, instead of science having to face the challenge of gaining public understanding, acceptance or appraisal of something ingenious, but which is then rejected for ‘non-academic’ reasons, transdisciplinary processes put science into practice from the very beginning. Transdisciplinarity is, as will be elaborated, an efficient means of using knowledge in decisionmaking – at least in certain types of pro-democratic, civic societies.3 Definition and Notions of Transdisciplinarity The term transdisciplinarity is occasionally referred to as perfected interdisciplinarity, or as the transfer of concepts or methods from one discipline to another. In the first definition of transdisciplinarity by Jantsch, as the “multi-level coordination of [an] entire education/innovation system”,4 the ‘beyond science’ notion of ‘trans’-disciplinarity is highlighted. Since there is some confusion about the distinction between interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity, these concepts are briefly defined below. II. 3 Almond (2000). 4 Jantsch (1972:221). 10 Transdisciplinarity: Theory and Visions on Global Transdisciplinary Processes 331 https://doi.org/10.5771/9783845242774_327, am 08.03. 2021, 07:04:28 Open Access https://www.nomos-elibrary.de/agb Disciplines are characterised by objects and (core) methods by which certain problems are approached. For example, the discipline of mathematics deals with relationships between symbols and numbers by the method of proof. Similarly, the purview of the discipline of pharmacy is to investigate the impact of certain chemicals (called pharmaceutical drugs) on diseases by the use of laboratory experiments and clinical trials. Interdisciplinarity is established by the fusion of concepts and methods from different disciplines. A metaphorical example of fusion is the saxophone, which emerged from the clarinet and the trumpet. Biochemistry, the study of chemical processes in living organisms, e.g. investigating reactions between proteins and other molecules, can serve as an example of an interdisciplinary field – at least, that is, before it became established as a discipline. The experimental method is a pillar of this field. The term industrial food web, used in the emerging domain of industrial ecology, can also be taken as an integrated concept. Transdisciplinarity is fundamentally different from interdisciplinarity. Most of today’s definitions of transdisciplinarity include the fact that it goes beyond science, in the sense that it “. deals with relevant, complex societal problems and organizes processes [that relate knowledge and values of] agents from the scientific and the non-scientific world. ”5 There are different notions of transdisciplinarity. This contribution refers to the Zurich 200 definition.6 Disciplines efficiently organise the methods and systematised knowledge about the material-biophysical-technological world, as well as the socialcultural-epistemic world. Interdisciplinarity merges concepts and methods from different disciplines for a better understanding and to better explain certain issues, phenomena and processes that cannot be sufficiently explained from a single disciplinary perspective. Transdisciplinarity organises processes that link scientific, theoretical and abstract epistemics with realworld-based experiential knowledge, outside academia; and it relates human wisdom to the analytical rigour of science and academic methodology. 5 Scholz et al. (2000:447). 6 See Scholz (2011:377). Roland W. Scholz 332 https://doi.org/10.5771/9783845242774_327, am 08.03. 2021, 07:04:28 Open Access https://www.nomos-elibrary.de/agb Figure 1: Transdisciplinary Processes as Interface and Mutual Learning among Three Types of Actors In Figure 1, actors from the science community, the public at large, and legitimised decision-makers are involved in research processes, public discourses or stakeholder activities, and decision processes, respectively. When the actors leave their primary processes (indicated by bold grey action lines in Figure 1) and join in on a collaborative, power-balanced effort, we can call this a transdisciplinary process. Distinguishing transdisciplinary research from transdisciplinary processes is important. Transdisciplinarity, according to the Zurich 2000 definition described in the next section, organises mutual learning among science and society that can generate socially robust knowledge. For the most part, this mutual learning takes place in transdisciplinary processe