Chapter 8: Sustainability and Transdisciplinary Knowledge: Experience gained and challenges ahead

GRO LIE; ALBERTO D. CIMADAMORE; MAURICE MITTELMARK; FUNGISAI P. OTTEMÜLLER

Human development and sustainability science: the challange of transdisciplinary knowledge for social change

Zed Books

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2016; p. 159 - 173

We did manage to bring together researchers from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, North America and Europe. We also managed to bring together people from diverse disciplinary backgrounds with a variety of theoretical, methodological and empirical backgrounds ? people who, we discovered, shared similar ethical concerns and a sense of urgency in enhancing the well-being of people and their environments where it is most needed.The process of selecting the chapters, grouping the chapters and reflecting on differences as well as interlinkages stimulated a transformative process in our search for an overarching theoretical and conceptual framework, a process in which we were all learners. This process is reflected in Chapter 1, which includes a section on sustainability science and global challenges as well as a section on sustainability science as a special case of transdisciplinary research (TDR). Sustainability science is complex and calls not only for transdisciplinarity, but for synergy across the natural sciences, the environment and the social sciences. In spite of an increased international interest in and concern for the future of the globe and for human well-being, the challenges remain complex and call for unconventional alliances. The reflections on these complexities and the urgency to move forward led us into a search for the next practical steps to be taken in future joint efforts for sustainable development.