Sustainability science has increasingly adopted more action-oriented approaches in an attempt to mobilise and implement a broad knowledge base to sustain human wellbeing and promote sustainable ...development. There is an increasing recognition of the importance of knowledge exchange (KE) between scientists and end users of research for enhancing social, environmental and economic impacts of research. Here, we explore the process of KE through close observation of two cases of KE between external PhD researchers and local actors in small-scale fisheries at the community level in Zanzibar, Tanzania. First, we address context by examining perceptions of research held by actors at community level and patterns of interactions and flows of benefits between external researchers and local actors including fisheries managers, local research institute as well as fishers and traders. Second, we unpack experiences of actors engaged in the cases of KE. The study draws attention to KE processes in the Global South and actors outside decision-making processes in fisheries management. The study concludes that as KE is a complex and dynamic process and that (i) history and relationships between actors shape the outcomes of KE, (ii) KE includes more than knowledge-based processes and outcomes because multiple incentives of different actors shape KE and how it is experiences and (iii) knowledge-based outcomes of KE are complex and unpredictable as different actors create their own meaning from shared information. The results exemplify the inevitably complex and unpredictable nature of KE processes and their outcomes, and provide insight into how KE can contribute to science–society relationships.
Sustainability research is characterized by a plurality of interests, actors, and research traditions. Sustainability is a widely used concept across multiple disciplines and often a cross-cutting ...theme in different research projects. However, there is a limited understanding of how researchers from multiple disciplinary backgrounds approach sustainability and position themselves in sustainability research as a part of their researcher identity. Previous studies among sustainability science experts have indicated diverse approaches and definitions of the socio-political, epistemic and normative dimensions of sustainability. In this study, we use semi-structured interviews with researchers (
N
= 7) and a survey distributed to two academic institutes in Finland (
N
= 376) to examine how researchers relate to sustainability research through the notions of identity as ‘being’ and ‘doing’ and how the differing ways to relate to sustainability research shape preferred definitions and approaches. The examination of perspectives among researchers enables the identification of diverse views related to sustainability and, consequently, sheds light on what kinds of ideas of sustainability get presented in the research. We conclude that understanding different identities is crucial for negotiating and implementing sustainability and developing sustainability research, requiring more attention to researchers’ positionality and reflexivity.
Including different forms of knowledges and views in decision‐making is crucial to managing the complexity of social–ecological systems (SES) in ways that are inclusive and embrace diversity.
Sense ...of place scholarship can explain subjectivity in SES; however, it has hardly been considered together with the literature on knowledge processes, overlooking the epistemic dimension of sense of place and its potential to shed light on the roles and views of individuals in respect to natural resources and their management.
This paper explores how local knowledge and place‐belonging (as a form of sense of place) intersect, and what kinds of implications these knowledge–place connections have for the interactions between actors and their agency in the High Coast/Kvarken Archipelago UNESCO World Heritage Site (Sweden/Finland).
Drawing on participant observation in workshops and semi‐structured interviews with diverse actors in this transboundary governance context, we identify five types of knowledge–place connections, which exemplify diverse positions on local knowledge shaped by place‐belonging.
We propose a concept of place‐embedded agency to reveal how these positions shape action and interaction between people inside and outside formal decision‐making processes. We argue that recognising and taking place‐embedded agency into account can help to overcome tensions and enhance plurality in SES governance.
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Abstrakti
Erilaisten tietämisen tapojen ja näkemysten sisällyttäminen sosio‐ekologisten systeemien hallintoon on tärkeää, jotta päätöksenteko tukee näiden systeemien moninaisuutta ja monimutkaisuuden ymmärtämistä. Tutkimus koskien paikan tuntua auttaa ymmärtämään sosio‐ekologisten systeemien subjektiivisuutta. Paikan tuntua ei kuitenkaan ole käsitelty yhdessä tietoprosessien kanssa, mikä tarjoaa mahdollisuuden ymmärtää yksilön rooleja ja näkemyksiä sosio‐ekologisten systeemien hallinnossa. Tässä artikkelissa käytämme osallistuvaa havainnointia ja laadullisia haastatteluja ja tutkimme, miten paikallinen tieto ja paikkakuuluvuus (paikan tunnun muotona) risteävät, ja mitä seurauksia sillä on eri toimijoiden väliseen vuorovaikutukseen Korkearannikon ja Merenkurkun maailmanperintöalueella (Ruotsi/Suomi) ja sen hallinnossa. Ehdotamme käsitettä place‐embedded agency (paikkaan sulautettu toimijuus) tiedon ja paikan risteyskohtien huomioimiseen ja subjektiivisista lähtökodista juontavien jännitteiden ymmärtämiseen alueen hallinnossa.
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•Reflexive analysis of IPBES experts’ philosophical assumptions reveals how expertise is constituted in the Values Assessment.•Transformative and Constructive worldviews are less presented than ...Pragmatist and Post-positivists in the IPBES Values Assessment.•Consideration of plurality of epistemic worldviews is required in inter- and transdisciplinary teams.
This study identifies and analyses the underlying assumptions of experts involved in the first author meeting (FAM) of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)’s Values Assessment, and how they shape understandings of the multiple values of nature. We draw from survey data collected from 94 experts attending the FAM. Respondents self-report the tendencies and aims they bring to the assessment (i.e. motivation), the type and amount of evidence they require for knowledge to be valid (i.e. confirmation) and their epistemic worldviews (i.e. objectivity). Four clusters emerged that correspond to Pragmatist, Post-Positivist, Constructivist and Transformative epistemic worldviews. This result clarifies how different knowledge claims are represented in science-policy processes. Despite the proportionately higher number of social scientists in the Values Assessment, compared with previous IPBES assessments, we still found that fewer experts have Constructivist or Transformative worldviews than Pragmatist or Post-Positivist outlooks, an imbalance that may influence the types of values and valuation perspectives emphasised in the assessment. We also detected a tension regarding what constitutes valid knowledge between Post-Positivists, who emphasised high levels of agreement, and Pragmatists and Constructivists, who did not necessarily consider agreement crucial. Conversely, Post-Positivists did not align with relational values and were more diverse in their views regarding definitions of multiple values of nature compared to other clusters. Pragmatists emphasized relational values, while Constructivists tended to consider all value types (including relational values) as important. We discuss the implications of our findings for future design and delivery of IPBES processes and interdisciplinary research.
This longitudinal study explores evidence of learning and reflexivity among experts involved in the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Values ...Assessment from 2018 to 2022. As part of an online survey administered at yearly intervals, experts self-reported their views on: i) the aims they attributed to the Values Assessment, ii) their epistemic worldviews, iii) the definition of the multiple values of nature, and iv) their personal learning experiences in the assessment process. The represented epistemic worldviews corresponded to Constructivist, Transformative, Pragmatist, and Post-positivist. Across the three surveys, 59% of the respondents shifted their epistemic worldviews. However, these same experts did not change their core perspectives regarding the motivation behind the Values Assessment. At the same time, experts holding a Post-positivist worldview came to express more engagement-inclined themes and openness to dialogue with diverse knowledge systems. While enhanced reflexivity stimulated overall learning, cutting across all learning dimensions, it was itself a multilayered learning outcome. This study illustrates how diverse experts critically reflected and changed their own underlying assumptions during the inter- and transdisciplinary process of the Values Assessment. It further reveals that learning experiences in the Values Assessment were embedded in epistemic worldviews and connected to cognitive, relational, and transformative dimensions of learning. Our findings have broader implications for the design of inclusive and reflexive learning processes in future work of organisations aiming to facilitate inter- and transdisciplinary practices at the science-policy interface.
•The IPBES process challenged experts to reflect active engagement with larger society.•Experts’ epistemic worldviews and understandings shifted during a four-year IPBES process.•The degree and limits of reflection were ingrained partly in epistemic worldviews.•Epistemic worldviews connected to cognitive, relational, and transformative learning types.
Transdisciplinary research often utilizes collaborative ways of knowledge production to enable deliberate transformations towards sustainability. Multiple concepts with varying definitions are ...applied, leading to confusion in the aims and uses of these concepts. In this article, we review five concepts relevant to the current debate on the new collaborative ways of knowledge production in transdisciplinary research. We focus on the concepts of co‐creation, co‐production, co‐design, co‐learning, and adaptive co‐management in the context of natural resources management (NRM). This study couples a literature review and a conceptual analysis, and aims to clarify definitions, use, the interlinkages of these concepts and to shed light on their intertwined nature. We propose an integrative understanding of the concepts to facilitate collaborative modes and to enable the transformative aims of research processes. To this end, we discuss how to harvest the transformative potential of the “co‐concepts” by focusing on reflexivity, power analysis and process orientation.
Uncertainty and change are increasingly commonplace as communities respond to impacts of social-ecological change including climate change, and dangerous levels of pollution. Given the extent of ...these crises, new approaches are needed to support responses. Here we identify challenges and discuss insights that the nexus of Senses of place (SoP) and mobilities research offers in navigating such uncertainty. We conducted a two-round Delphi, followed by a workshop, and collaborative writing process with a global network of researchers with expertise in either or both SoP and mobilities research. Participants identified five challenges at the place-mobility nexus that emerge when a social-ecological system is disrupted. We use the 2022 Odra River fish die-off to exemplify the identified challenges: 1) accounting for power dynamics, inequalities and motility; 2) doing justice to more-than human actors; 3) integrating multiple and sometimes nested spatial scales; 4) considering temporalities of place and mobilities, and 5) embracing multisensoriality. To address these challenges, we recommend drawing on diverse methods and knowledge co-creation processes that combine more-than-human perspectives, multisensoriality, and engage in the dynamic relations between places to understand people-place disruptions in the face of socio-spatial precarity. Addressing such knowledge gaps requires stronger collaboration of mobilities and place researchers.
•Understanding the nexus of mobilities and place perspectives is necessary to understand human response to place disruptions.•Place and mobilities researchers identified five key challenges at the nexus through mixed-method approach.•Challenges evolve around power, multispecies perspective, spatial and temporal scales, and multisensoriality.•We use case of Odra River's ecological catastrophe to illustrate relevance of interconnected place and mobility research.
Understanding Transformations through Design van der Veen, Rosa; Hakkerainen, Viola; Peeters, Jeroen ...
Proceedings of the Twelfth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction,
03/2018
Conference Proceeding
The interaction design community increasingly addresses how digital technologies may contribute to societal transformations. This paper aims at understanding transformation ignited by a particular ...constructive design research project. This transformation will be discussed and analysed using resilience thinking, an established approach within sustainability science. By creating a common language between these two disciplines, we start to identify what kind of transformation took place, what factors played a role in the transformation, and which transformative qualities played a role in creating these factors. Our intention is to set out how the notion of resilience might provide a new perspective to understand how constructive design research may produce results that have a sustainable social impact. The findings point towards ways in which these two different perspectives on transformation the analytical perspective of resilience thinking and the generative perspective of constructive design research - may become complementary in both igniting and understanding transformations.
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