Sustainability Transformations Practice as a Transdisciplinary and Metadisciplinary Field
Keywords:
systems change, transformations, transdisciplinary, action researchAbstract
What does a “transformations practitioner” do to change systems, how do they do it, and what abilities do they need to do it well? Drawing from 56 practitioner interviews of members of the Transformations Community, we explore how transformations practitioners bring about a just transition toward a more sustainable future. We identify how the field is rooted in three core transdisciplinary capacities: participatory diagnosis, expertise in knowledge co-production, and co-production action. The capacities primarily rely on ‘people skills’ such as interpersonal communication, personal empathy, and interactional capacity. We also describe how practitioner work is not only transdisciplinary but also metadisciplinary, in that they seek to take what they learned in individual projects and initiatives to advance the field of transdisciplinary research through specific techniques and practices, integrative leadership practices, training, and reflexive theorizing on the nature of their practice. We identify how the Transformations Community supports each of these domains to expand the scope and reach of transformations practice.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Categories
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Bruce Evan Goldstein, David Manuel-Navarrete, Raksha Balakrishna (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The Social Innovations Journal permits the Creative Commons License:
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0
Under the following terms:
-
Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
-
NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
-
NoDerivatives — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.
- No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
Notices:
- You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation.
- No warranties are given. The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material
Copyright and Publishing Rights
For the licenses indicated above, authors retain the copyright and full publishing rights without restrictions.