Science with society: Challenges of early-stage researchers engaging with transdisciplinary research in sustainability science

Kaustubh Thapa; Walter J.V. Vermeulen; Pauline Deutz

doi:10.1002/sd.2328

Science with society: Challenges of early-stage researchers engaging with transdisciplinary research in sustainability science

Kaustubh Thapa^*, Walter J.V. Vermeulen, Pauline Deutz

^*Corresponding author for this work

University of Hull

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

The ongoing social and ecological crises create urgency in academia and elsewhere to devise actionable problem-solving knowledge to tackle sustainability challenges. Transdisciplinary research (TDR) represents a problem-solving methodology for sustainability problems. TDR requires researchers to get out in the real world and engage with other societal actors to jointly produce such problem-solving knowledge for research to have a societal impact. This radical process of doing “science with society” instead of “science for society” is becoming more urgent and relevant. However, a transdisciplinary (TD) researcher faces challenges: often, institutions have limited readiness for facilitating TDR, a researcher has to juggle the roles of an academic and changemaker simultaneously and needs new ways of doing science. The research process requires enough manoeuvring space to incorporate reflexivity, adaptiveness, and emergence based on the research context. The research uses case studies, interviews, reflections, and document analysis from two finished and one ongoing TDR PhDs in sustainability science and connects them with the TD literature. Based on previous and ongoing TDR by early-stage researchers (ESRs), this article identifies and discusses six TDR challenges ESRs in sustainability sciences might face.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1562-1572
Number of pages	11
Journal	Sustainable Development
Volume	30
Issue number	6
Early online date	Apr 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.2328
Publication status	Published - Dec 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank the research participants, CRESTING colleagues and the four anonymous reviewers for their helpful input. This study is part of the Circular Economy: Sustainability implications and guiding progress project (CRESTING), which received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 765198.

Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank the research participants, CRESTING colleagues and the four anonymous reviewers for their helpful input. This study is part of the Circular Economy: Sustainability implications and guiding progress project (CRESTING), which received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska‐Curie grant agreement No 765198.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors. Sustainable Development published by ERP Environment and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Funding

The authors would like to thank the research participants, CRESTING colleagues and the four anonymous reviewers for their helpful input. This study is part of the Circular Economy: Sustainability implications and guiding progress project (CRESTING), which received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska‐Curie grant agreement No 765198.

Keywords

early-stage researcher
higher education
sustainability science
transdisciplinary PhD
transdisciplinary research

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1002/sd.2328Licence: CC BY

Sustainable Development - 2022 - Thapa - Science with society Challenges of early‐stage researchers engaging withFinal published version, 1.17 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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abstract = "The ongoing social and ecological crises create urgency in academia and elsewhere to devise actionable problem-solving knowledge to tackle sustainability challenges. Transdisciplinary research (TDR) represents a problem-solving methodology for sustainability problems. TDR requires researchers to get out in the real world and engage with other societal actors to jointly produce such problem-solving knowledge for research to have a societal impact. This radical process of doing “science with society” instead of “science for society” is becoming more urgent and relevant. However, a transdisciplinary (TD) researcher faces challenges: often, institutions have limited readiness for facilitating TDR, a researcher has to juggle the roles of an academic and changemaker simultaneously and needs new ways of doing science. The research process requires enough manoeuvring space to incorporate reflexivity, adaptiveness, and emergence based on the research context. The research uses case studies, interviews, reflections, and document analysis from two finished and one ongoing TDR PhDs in sustainability science and connects them with the TD literature. Based on previous and ongoing TDR by early-stage researchers (ESRs), this article identifies and discusses six TDR challenges ESRs in sustainability sciences might face.",

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note = "Funding Information: The authors would like to thank the research participants, CRESTING colleagues and the four anonymous reviewers for their helpful input. This study is part of the Circular Economy: Sustainability implications and guiding progress project (CRESTING), which received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sk{\l}odowska-Curie grant agreement No 765198. Funding Information: The authors would like to thank the research participants, CRESTING colleagues and the four anonymous reviewers for their helpful input. This study is part of the Circular Economy: Sustainability implications and guiding progress project (CRESTING), which received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sk{\l}odowska‐Curie grant agreement No 765198. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 The Authors. Sustainable Development published by ERP Environment and John Wiley \& Sons Ltd.",

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Science with society: Challenges of early-stage researchers engaging with transdisciplinary research in sustainability science

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

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