The Confluence of Interaction Design & Design: from Disciplinary to Transdisciplinary Perspectives

In keeping with the conference theme of rigour and the authors’ interest in sustainability and interaction design, we describe the confluence of design-oriented notions of interaction design and HCI-oriented notions of interaction design in terms of understanding the present and making choices about possible futures. We comment on the variety of research modes in this confluence and then take up the issue of how disciplinarity, multidisciplinarity, and interdisciplinarity operate and fail to operate as boundary crossing mechanisms for these research modes. As a complement and extension to disciplinary, multidisciplinary, and interdisciplinary practices, we take up the notion of transdisciplinarity and describe how it informs the possibility of values-rich free boundary crossing between research modes in the service of real world issues, while still preserving rigour. Keywords: Transdisciplinarity; Interaction Design; Design Research; Sustainability; Disciplinarity; Multidisciplinarity; Interdisciplinarity.</p

Transdisciplinary global change research: the co-creation of knowledge for sustainability

The challenges formulated within the Future Earth framework set the orientation for research programmes in sustainability science for the next ten years. Scientific disciplines from natural and social science will collaborate both among each other and with relevant societal groups in order to define the important integrated research questions, and to explore together successful pathways towards global sustainability. Such collaboration will be based on transdisciplinarity and integrated research concepts. This paper analyses the relationship between scientific integration and transdisciplinarity, discusses the dimensions of integration of different knowledge and proposes a platform and a paradigm for research towards global sustainability that will be both designed and conducted in partnership between science and society. We argue that integration is an iterative process that involves reflection among all stakeholders. It consists of three stages: co-design, co-production and co-dissemination

Towards a Theory of Practice: Critical Transdisciplinary Multiliteracies

About the book: Education institutions and organizations throughout the world are currently being held accountable for achieving and maintaining historically unmatched standards of academic quality and performance. Accreditation bodies; policy makers; boards of trustees; and teacher, parent, and student groups all place educational institutions and organizations under unprecedented accountability pressures. The aim of this volume is to explore and better understand how these pressures are impacting a broad range of social and cultural issues and, subsequently, how these issues impact student motivation and learnin

A Vision for Transdisciplinarity in Future Earth: Perspectives from Young Researchers

Meeting the demand for food, energy, and water as world population increases is a major goal for the food systems of the future. These future challenges, which are complex, multiscalar, and cross-sectoral in nature, require a food systems approach that recognizes the socio-ecological and socio-technical dimensions of food (Ericksen, 2008; Ingram, 2011; Rivera-Ferre, 2012). The United Nations' Future Earth Program aims to provide a new platform for consolidating the knowledge required for societies to transition to global sustainability (Future Earth Transition Team, 2012). In this paper, we explore how Future Earth could become a vehicle for inspiring the production of new research ideas and collaborations for sustainably transforming the future food system. We do this on the basis of a synthesis of views from 28 young (below 40 years old) food system scientists, representing five continents. Their expertise comes from disciplines including food engineering, agronomy, ecology, geography, psychology, public health, food politics, nutritional science, political science, sociology and sustainability science. This paper begins with an outline of the institutional framework of Future Earth and how it might support innovative transdisciplinary research on food systems, and the position of young scientists within this framework. Secondly, we outline the key insights expressed by the young scientists during the Food Futures Conference in Villa Vigoni, Italy, in April 2013, including the core research questions raised during the meeting as well as some of the challenges involved in realizing their research ambitions within their professional spheres

Sustainability in a changing world: integrating human health and wellbeing, urbanisation, and ecosystem services

There is an urgent need to address interlinked sustainability issues in a world challenged by inequality, finite resources and unprecedented changes across Earth’s systems. As Future Earth Fellows, based on our collective expertise in a diverse range of sustainability issues, here we identify a specific need to recognise and respond appropriately to the nexus between human health and wellbeing, urbanisation, and ecosystem services (the ‘WUE nexus’). This nexus is a priority area for research, policy and practice. In particular, it provides a useful pathway to meet the challenges of successful implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this brief, we present the following policy recommendations:1. By emphasising urban-rural linkages, foster an integrated approach to ensure food security, food safety, and health promotion;2. Secure resilient livelihoods for all, in particular for vulnerable groups; and3. Integrate co-production of knowledge in science for decision-making, including the co-design of implementation frameworks, and the adoption of a nexus approach.<br/

Chapter 1 The multifaceted picture of transdisciplinarity in marine research

Chapter 1 = The Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget is considered responsible for coining the term transdisciplinarity’ in the 1970s, defining it as a higher stage after the interdisciplinary relations. To date, transdisciplinarity research is a growing field in academia, but still there is no uniform definition. In this book chapter, we explore how the term ‘transdisciplinarity’ is used in marine research including different fields like quantitative ecology and modeling, marine social science or marine conservation. We used a quantitative full-text analysis of peer-reviewed journal publications from 1992 to 2021, ensuring to include most recent contributions to the analysis. A total of over 6000 publications could be identified, about 500 of these focusing on marine realm. We applied an agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis (program R) to consider relative frequencies of significant conceptual words within the transdisciplinary landscape. Multiple research clusters have been identified and further divided regarding the study background (e.g., meta-analysis, case study, theory)

Cultural Botany: Toward a Model of Transdisciplinary, Embodied, and Poetic Research Into Plants

Since the eighteenth century, the study of plants has reflected an increasingly mechanized and technological view of the natural world that divides the humanities and the natual sciences. In broad terms, this article proposes a context for research into flora through an interrogation of existing literature addressing a rapprochement between ways to knowledge. The natureculture dichotomy, and more specifically the plant-to-human sensory disjunction, follows a parallel course of resolution to the schism between objective (technical, scientific, reductionistic, visual) and subjective (emotive, artistic, relational, multi-sensory) forms of knowledge. The foundations of taxonomic botany, as well as the allied fields of environmental studies, ethnobotany and economic botany, are undergirded by universalizing, sensorylimited visual structuring of the natural world. As the study of everyday embodied interactions of humans with flora, expanding upon the lens of cultural ecology, cultural botany provides a transdisciplinary research approach. Alternate embodied cultural engagements with flora emerge through a syncretic fusion of diverse methodologies

Approaching the environmental threat in Art, Culture and Science : a transdisciplinary dialogue in a bio-acoustic sound experiment and line of beauty

The new geological era, the Anthropocene, is characterized by humanity being the prevailing geological force. With its activity, humankind is influencing the Earth System by changing natural processes and being responsible for the consequences of climate change. The uniqueness of this historical moment manifests itself in the witnessing of the becoming of an era, while still having the possibility to influence the outcome of the environmental crisis, which currently reached a tipping point. The encounter between the disciplines of art and science could represent a possibility of closing the knowledge gap concerning the influence of humankind over the Earth System. Therefore, transdisciplinary collaborations between art and science will be presented to illustrate through a different approach what the Earth System is and how it functions. A thorough investigation of the various narratives concerning the history of life, the understanding of nature, wilderness, the natural as well as the transdisciplinary practice and the Earth System is necessary. Furthermore, cutting across disciplines allows the possibility of taking action. The thesis analyzes to what extend transdisciplinarity between these two domains might be able to solve current environmental threats and influence the Earth System in the Anthropocene. Projects such as the bio-acoustic sound experiment between Dunn and Crutchfield and Line of Beauty between Lorenz and Pflugmacher, will illustrate the interaction. Dunn and Crutchfield experimented with sound to influence the behavior of bark beetles, which were infesting California´s forests. Susanne Lorenz explores together with biologist Stephan Pflugmacher the possibility of cleaning the river water of the Seseke through an installation. Both projects will be discussed as transdisciplinary attempts between art and science to come to terms with environmental threats.O Antropoceno, a nova era geológica, é caracterizado por a humanidade se assumir como a força geológica predominante que pela sua atividade está a influenciar o Sistema Terra, alterando os processos naturais e sendo responsável pelas consequências das alterações climáticas. A singularidade deste momento histórico encontra-se na observação da afirmação de uma época que embora ainda tem a possibilidade de influenciar o desfecho da crise ambiental que está a atingir um ponto de inflexão. O encontro entre as disciplinas da arte das ciências pode representar uma possibilidade de colmatar a lacuna de conhecimentos sobre a influência da humanidade no Sistema Terra. Assim sendo, as colaborações transdisciplinares entre a arte e a ciência serão apresentadas para ilustrar, com uma abordagem diferente, o funcionamento do Sistema Terra. Para tal è necessárias uma investigação. O encontro entre as disciplinas da arte e da ciência poderia representar uma possibilidade de colmatar a lacuna de conhecimentos sobre a influência da humanidade sobre o Sistema Terra. Por conseguinte, colaborações transdisciplinares entre arte e ciência serão apresentadas para ilustrar através de uma abordagem diferente o que é e como funciona o Sistema Terra. É necessária uma investigação aprofundada das várias narrativas relativas à história da vida, à compreensão da natureza, da natureza selvagem, da prática tanto natural como transdisciplinar assim como do Sistema Terra. O corte transversal de disciplinas permite a possibilidade de tomar medidas. A tese analisa até que ponto a transdisciplinaridade entre estes dois domínios poderá ser capaz de resolver as atuais ameaças ambientais e influenciar o Sistema Terra no Antropoceno. Esta interação entre as duas disciplinas será ilustrada através de dois projetos: a experiência sonora bio-acústica entre Dunn e Crutchfield e a Linha de Beleza entre Lorenz e Pflugmacher. Dunn e Crutchfield experimentaram usar som para influenciar o comportamento dos bark beetles que estavam a infestar as florestas da Califórnia. Susanne Lorenz explora juntamente com o biólogo Stephan Pflugmacher a possibilidade de limpar a água do rio Seseke através de uma instalação. Ambos os projetos serão discutidos com o objetivo de apresentar uma abordagem transdisciplinar entre a arte e a ciência para enfrentar as ameaças ambientais