Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The guiding logics and principles for designing emergent transdisciplinary research processes: learning experiences and reflections from a transdisciplinary urban case study in Enkanini informal settlement, South Africa

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Sustainability Science Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Transdisciplinarity is not a new science per se, but a new methodology for doing science with society. A particular challenge in doing science with society is the engagement with non-academic actors to enable joint problem formulation, analysis and transformation. How this is achieved differs between contexts. The premise of this paper is that transdisciplinary research (TDR) methodologies designed for developed world contexts cannot merely be replicated and transferred to developing world contexts. Thus a new approach is needed for conducting TDR in contexts characterised by high levels of complexity, conflict and social fluidity. To that end, this paper introduces a new approach to TDR titled emergent transdisciplinary design research (ETDR). A core element of this approach is that the research process is designed as it unfolds, that is, it transforms as it emerges from and within the fluid context. The ETDR outlined in this paper emerged through a case study in the informal settlement (slum) of Enkanini in Stellenbosch, South Africa. This case study demonstrates the context from and within which the ETDR approach and identifies a set of guiding logics that can be used to guide ETDR approaches in other contexts. The study demonstrates that the new logics and guiding principles were not simply derived from the TDR literature, but rather emerged from constant interacting dynamics between theory and practice. Learning how to co-design the research process through co-producing transformative knowledge and then implementing strategic interventions to bring about incremental social change is key to theory development in ways that are informed by local contextual dynamics. There are, however, risks when undertaking such TDR processes such as under-valuing disciplinary knowledge, transferring risks onto a society, and suppressing ‘truth-to-power’.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

(Source: Jaglin 2014)

Fig. 2

(Source: Tosey et al. 2012)

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. According to Jaglin (2014: 438) service provision in southern cities is “a combination made up of a networked infrastructure, deficient in varying degrees and offering a rational service, and of private sector commercial initiatives, whether individual or collective, formal or informal, which are usually illegal in respect of the exclusive contracts of operators officially responsible for the service. These services fill the gaps in the conventional service and, depending on the type of urban area, target either the well-off clientele or poor clientele excluded from the main networks because of lack of resources, geographical remoteness or illegal status. These delivery configurations have one thing in common: the conventional network does not always reach the end user.”

  2. Such high experiments have been discussed in the well-established literature that emerged after the Chernobyl disaster. For a review see Gross & Hoffmann-Riem (2005).

  3. By the time we approached the people of Enkanini in their informal social networks there had not been any shared experience amongst them of having worked jointly on any such project (e.g., electricity, water, waste). In other words, they were ‘un-mobilised’ following the NGO sector discourse. So, this ‘culture’ (or shared experience) of working together only emerged during our TDR process. As this was not something we intentionally planned for, it is reasonable to claim that it truly emerged during the TDR process.

References

  • Allen A, Lampis A, Swilling M (2015) Untamed Urbanisms. Routledge

  • Ambole LA (2016) Understanding co-production through sanitation intervention case studies in South Africa (Thesis). Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch

    Google Scholar 

  • Argyris C (2002) Double-loop learning, teaching, and research. Acad Manag. Learn Educ. 1:206–218

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bateson G (1972) Steps to an ecology of mind: collected essays in anthropology, psychiatry, evolution, and epistemology. University of Chicago Press

  • Bateson G (2002) Mind and nature: a necessary unity. Hampton Press, Incorporated

    Google Scholar 

  • Becker E (2012) Social-ecological systems as epistemic objects. In: Glaser M, Krause G, Ratter B, Welp M (eds) Human-Nature interactions in the anthropocene: potentials of social-ecological systems analysis. Routledge, London, pp 37–59

    Google Scholar 

  • Bergmann M, Jahn T, Knobloch T, Krohn W, Pohl C, Schramm E (2013) Methods for Transdisciplinary Research: A Primer for Practice. Campus Verlag GmbH

  • Bohme G, Van den Daele W, Krohn W (1973) Die finalisierung der wissenschaft/the finalization of science. Z Für Soziol 2:128–144

  • Boulton JG, Allen PM, Bowman C (2015) Embracing Complexity: Strategic Perspectives for an Age of Turbulence. Oxford University Press

  • Burgess and Burgess (1997) Constructive confrontation: a Strategy for dealing with intractable environmental conflicts (WWW Document). Url http://www.colorado.edu/conflict/full_text_search/AllCRCDocs/97-1.htm (accessed 5.23.16)

  • Carew AL, Wickson F (2010) The TD wheel: a heuristic to shape, support and evaluate transdisciplinary research. Futures 42:1146–1155

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cavallo D (2000) Emergent design and learning environments: building on indigenous knowledge. IBM Syst J 39:768–781

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chilisa B (2011) Indigenous research methodologies. SAGE

  • Chu D, Strand R, Fjelland R (2003) Theories of complexity. Complexity 8:19–30

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cilliers P (1998) Complexity and postmodernism: understanding complex systems. Routledge

  • Corcoran PB, Wals AEJ (eds) (2012) Learning for sustainability in times of accelerating change. Wageningen Academic Publishers

  • Czarniawska B (2004) Narratives in social science research. Sage

  • Davies JL, Kaufman E (2003) Second tract/citizens’ diplomacy: concepts and techniques for conflict. Rowman & Littlefield

  • DeLanda M (2006) A new philosophy of society: assemblage theory and social complexity. A&C Black

  • Diamond L, McDonald JW (1996) Multi-track diplomacy: a systems approach to peace. Kumarian Press

  • Edelman GM (2006) Second nature: brain science and human knowledge. Yale University Press

  • Edensor T, Jayne M (2012) Urban theory beyond the west: a world of cities. Routledge

  • Esterhuyse W (2012) Endgame: secret talks and the end of apartheid. NB Publishers Limited

  • Etzkowitz H, Leydesdorff L (2000) The dynamics of innovation: from National Systems and “Mode 2” to a Triple Helix of university–industry–government relations. Res Policy 29:109–123

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Farías I, Bender T (2012) Urban assemblages: how actor-network theory changes urban studies. Routledge

  • Foley RW, Wiek A, Kay B, Rushforth R (2017) Ideal and reality of multi-stakeholder collaboration on sustainability problems: a case study on a large-scale industrial contamination in Phoenix, Arizona. Sustain. Science 12:123–136

    Google Scholar 

  • Gerring J (2006) Case Study Research: Principles and Practices. Cambridge University Press

  • Gibbons M, Limoges C, Nowotny H, Schwartzman S, Scott P, Trow M (1994) The new production of knowledge: the dynamics of science and research in contemporary societies. SAGE

  • Gross M, Stauffacher M (2014) Transdisciplinary environmental science: problem-oriented projects and strategic research programs. Taylor & Francis

  • Gross M, Hoffmann-Riem H (2005) Ecological restoration as a real-world experiment: designing robust implementation strategies in an urban environment. Public Underst Sci 14:269–284

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hadorn GH, Pohl C (2008a) Handbook of transdisciplinary research. Springer, Dordrecht

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hadorn GH, Pohl C (2008b) Handbook of transdisciplinary research. Springer, Dordrecht

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Harman G (2008) DeLanda’s ontology: assemblage and realism. Cont Philos Rev 41:367–383

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hasan H (2006) Design as research: emergent complex activity. Proceedings of the 17th Australasian Conference of Information Systems (ACIS 2006), Adelaide, 6-8 December 2006

  • Heinen S, Sommer R (2009) Narratology in the age of cross-disciplinary narrative research. Walter de Gruyter

  • Herman D, Jahn M, Ryan M-L (2010) Routledge encyclopedia of narrative theory. Routledge

  • Hesse-Biber SN (2010) Mixed Methods Research: Merging Theory with Practice. Guilford Press

  • Hesse-Biber SN, Leavy P (2010) Handbook of emergent methods. Guilford Press

  • Hodder I (2012) Entangled: an archaeology of the relationships between humans and things. Wiley

  • Jacobs JA (2013) In defense of disciplines: interdisciplinarity and specialization in the research university. University of Chicago Press

  • Jaglin S (2014) The routledge handbook on cities of the global south. Routledge

  • Jahn T (2008) Transdisciplinarity in the practice of research. Matthias bergmannengelbert schramm hg transdisziplinäre forsch. Integr. Forschungsprozesse Verstehen Bewerten, German (No English translation yet) 21–37

  • Jahn T, Bergmann M, Keil F (2012) Transdisciplinarity: between mainstreaming and marginalization. Ecol Econ 79:1–10

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jonas W (2007) Design research and its meaning to the methodological development of the discipline. In: Michel R (ed) Design research now, board of international research in design. Birkhäuser, Basel, pp 187–206. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7643-8472-2_11

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Juarrero A (2002) Dynamics in action: intentional behavior as a complex system. MIT Press

  • Kant I (1996) Kant: The Metaphysics of Morals. Cambridge University Press

  • Kant I (2005) Groundwork for the metaphysics of morals. Broadview Press

  • Kant I (2012) Fundamental principles of the metaphysics of morals. Courier Corporation

  • Keller A (2012) Conceptualising a sustainable energy solution for in situ informal settlement upgrading (Thesis). Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch

    Google Scholar 

  • Kincheloe JL, Berry KS (2004) Rigour and complexity in educational research: conceptualizing the bricolage. McGraw-Hill International

  • Klein G, Snowden D, Pin CL (2011) Anticipatory thinking. In: Mosier KL, Fisch UM (eds) Information Knowledge, pp 235–246

  • Kolb DA (2014) Experiential learning: experience as the source of learning and development. FT Press

  • Krohn W (2008) Learning from case studies. In: Handbook of Transdisciplinary Research. Springer, pp 369–383

  • Krohn W (2010) Interdisciplinary cases and disciplinary knowledge. Oxf. Handb. Interdiscip. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 32–49

    Google Scholar 

  • Kurtz CF (2014) Working with stories in your community or organization: participatory narrative inquiry. On Demand Publishing, LLC-Create Space

    Google Scholar 

  • Lang DJ, Wiek A, Bergmann M, Stauffacher M, Martens P, Moll P, Swilling M, Thomas CJ (2012) Transdisciplinary research in sustainability science: practice, principles, and challenges. Sustain Sci 7:25–43

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Latour B (2007) Reassembling the social: an introduction to actor-network-theory. OUP Oxford

  • Latour B, Jensen P, Venturini T, Grauwin S, Boullier D (2012) ‘The whole is always smaller than its parts’—a digital test of Gabriel Tardes’ monads. Br J Sociol 63:590–615. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-4446.2012.01428.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Law J (2004) After method: mess in social science research. Routledge

  • Machado A (2003) There is no road. White Pine Press

  • Machado A, Trueblood AS (1982) Antonio Machado. Harvard University Press

  • Mapendere, 2005. Track one and a half diplomacy and the complementarity of tracks. COPOJ—culture of peace online journal. 2(1). pp. 66–81—Google Scholar [WWW Document]. Url https://scholar.google.co.za/scholar?q=Mapendere%2C+J.+2005.+Track+one+and+a+half+diplomacy+and+the+complementarity+of+tracks.+COPOJ+-+Culture+of+Peace+Online+Journal%2C+2%281%29%2C+pp.+66%E2%80%9381&btnG=&hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5 (accessed 5.23.16)

  • McCarney PL, Stren RE (2003) Governance on the ground: innovations and discontinuities in cities of the developing world. Woodrow Wilson Center Press

  • McFarlane C (2011) Learning the city: knowledge and translocal assemblage. Wiley

  • Meadows D (1999) Leverage points: place to intervene in a system. The Sustainability Institute: Hartland, VT, USA

    Google Scholar 

  • Medema W, Wals A, Adamowski J (2014) Multi-loop social learning for sustainable land and water governance: towards a research agenda on the potential of virtual learning platforms. NJAS-Wagening. J Life Sci 69:23–38

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller TR, Wiek A, Sarewitz D, Robinson J, Olsson L, Kriebel D, Loorbach D (2014) The future of sustainability science: a solutions-oriented research agenda. Sustain Sci 9:239–246

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mingers J (2014) Philosophy and systems thinking: a mutual synergy. Routledge

  • Mintzberg H, Lampel J (1999) Reflecting on the strategy process. Sloan Manage Rev 40(3):21–30

    Google Scholar 

  • Mintzberg H, Raisinghani D, Théoret A (1974) The Structure of “unstructured” Decision Processes. McGill University

  • Mintzberg H, Lampel J, Ghoshal S, Quinn JB (2013) The strategy process: concepts, contexts, cases. Pearson Education

  • Morin E, Kern AB (1999) Homeland earth: a manifesto for the new millennium. Hampton Press, Incorporated

  • Nowotny H, Scott P, Gibbons M (2001) Re-thinking science: knowledge and the public in an age of uncertainty. Wiley

  • Parnell S, Oldfield S (2014) The routledge handbook on cities of the global south. Routledge

  • Patokorpi, 2006. Role of abductive reasoning in digital interaction (Doctoral thesis, Åbo Akademi University, Finland). [WWW Document]. https://scholar.google.co.za/scholar?q = atokorpi%2C +E.+ 2006. + Role + of + abductive + reasoning + in + digital + interaction + %28 + Doctoral + thesis%2C + %C3%85bo + Akademi + %09University%2C + Finland%29. + Available + at + http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cspeirce.com%2Fmenu%2Flibrary%2Faboutcsp%2Fpatokorpi%2Fabduction.pdf + &btnG = &hl = en&as_sdt = 0%2C5. Accessed 23 May 2016

  • Peirce CS (1974) Collected papers of charles sanders peirce. Harvard University Press

  • Pohl C, Hadorn GH (2007) Principles for designing transdisciplinary research. Oekom, Munich

    Google Scholar 

  • Poli R (2009) The complexity of anticipation. Balk J Philos 1:19–29

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Poli R (2010a) The many aspects of anticipation. Foresight 12:7–17

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Poli R (2010b) An introduction to the ontology of anticipation. Futures 42:769–776

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rip A (2011) The future of research universities. Prometheus 29:443–453

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sanders EB-N, Stappers PJ (2008) Co-creation and the new landscapes of design. CoDesign 4:5–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/15710880701875068

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scholz RW (2011) Environmental literacy in science and society: from knowledge to decisions. Cambridge University Press

  • Scholz RW, Lang DJ, Wiek A, Walter AI, Stauffacher M (2006) Transdisciplinary case studies as a means of sustainability learning: historical framework and theory. Int J Sustain High Educ 7:226–251. https://doi.org/10.1108/14676370610677829

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scholz RW, Spoerri A, Lang DJ (2009) Problem structuring for transitions: the case of Swiss waste management. Futures 41:171–181

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seidl R, Brand FS, Stauffacher M, Krütli P, Le QB, Spörri A, Meylan G, Moser C, González MB, Scholz RW (2013) Science with society in the anthropocene. Ambio 42:5–12. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-012-0363-5

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sennett R (2012) Together: the rituals, pleasures and politics of cooperation. Penguin, UK

    Google Scholar 

  • Simone A (2004) For the city yet to come: changing African life in four cities. Duke University Press

  • Simone A, Pieterse E (2017) New urban worlds: inhabiting dissonant times. Polity Press, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Snodderly (2011) USIP “Peace Terms” Glossary [WWW Document]. U. S. Inst. Peace. Url http://www.usip.org/publications/usip-peace-terms-glossary (accessed 5.23.16)

  • Snowden D (1999) Story telling: an old skill in a new context. Bus Inf Rev 16:30–37

    Google Scholar 

  • Snowden D (2005) Multi-ontology sense making: a new simplicity in decision making. J Innov Health Inform 13:45–53. https://doi.org/10.14236/jhi.v13i1.578

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Snowden D (2006) Perspectives around emergent connectivity, sense-making and asymmetric threat management. Public Money Manag 26:275–277

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Snowden D (2010) Naturalizing Sensemaking. In: Mosier KL, Fischer UM (eds) Informed by knowledge: expert performance in complex situations. Taylor & Francis, New York, pp 223–234

  • Snowden D (2011) Good fences make good neighbors. Inf Knowl Syst Manag 10:135–150

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Snowden D (2012) Sidecasting techniques [WWW Document]. Cogn. Edge. URL/blog/sidecasting-techniques/(accessed 3.17.17)

  • Snowden D (2015) The evolutionary potential of the present [WWW Document]. Cogn. Edge. URL/blog/the-evolutionary-potential-of-the-present/(accessed 3.14.17)

  • Snowden D (2016) The adjacent possible [WWW Document]. Cogn. Edge. URL/blog/the-adjacent-possible/(accessed 3.14.17)

  • Snowden DJ, Boone ME (2007) A leader’s framework for decision making. Harv Bus Rev 85:68. https://doi.org/10.14236/jhi.v13i1.578

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Star SL (2010) This is not a boundary object: reflections on the origin of a concept. Sci. Technol. Hum. Values 35:601–617

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Star SL, Griesemer JR (1989) Institutional ecology, translations’ and boundary objects: amateurs and professionals in Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 1907–39. Soc Stud Sci 19:387–420

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stauffacher M, Walter AI, Lang DJ, Wiek A, Scholz RW (2006) Learning to research environmental problems from a functional socio-cultural constructivism perspective: the transdisciplinary case study approach. Int J Sustain High Educ 7:252–275

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tait A, Richardson KA (2010) Complexity and knowledge management: understanding the role of knowledge in the management of social networks. IAP

  • Taylor EW, Cranton P (2012) The handbook of transformative learning: theory, research, and practice. Wiley

  • Tosey P, Visser M, Saunders MN (2012) The origins and conceptualizations of ‘triple-loop’ learning: A critical review. Manag Learn 43:291–307

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Unger RM (1998) Democracy realized: the progressive alternative. Verso

  • Unger RM (2007) The self awakened: pragmatism unbound. Harvard University Press

  • Unger RM (2014) What is Wrong with the Social Sciences Today? [WWW Document]. Url http://www.socialsciencespace.com/2014/01/roberto-mangabeira-unger-what-is-wrong-with-the-social-sciences-today/ (accessed 7.25.16)

  • Van Dijk TA (1976) Philosophy of action and theory of narrative. Poetics 5:287–338. https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-422X(76)90014-0

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vester F (2007) The art of interconnected thinking: tools and concepts for a new approach to tackling complexity. MCB Verlag GmbH, Munich, Germany

  • Vilsmaier U, Lang DJ (2015) Making a difference by marking the difference: constituting in-between spaces for sustainability learning. Curr Opin Environ Sustain 16:51–55

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • von der Heyde V (2014) Towards a sustainable incremental waste management system in Enkanini: a transdisciplinary case study (Thesis). Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch

    Google Scholar 

  • Wals AE, Rodela R (2014) Social learning towards sustainability: problematic, perspectives and promise. NJAS-Wagening. J Life Sci 69:1–3

    Google Scholar 

  • Wessels BS (2015) MA-Thesis. Turning points: Exploring power transitions in an incremental upgrading process in Enkanin. Stellenbosch

  • Wickson F, Carew AL, Russell AW (2006) Transdisciplinary research: characteristics, quandaries and quality. Futures 38:1046–1059

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wiek A, Lang DJ (2016) Transformational sustainability research methodology. In: Heinrichs H, Martens P, Michelsen G, Wiek A (eds) Sustainability science – an introduction. Springer, Berlin, New York, pp 31–41

  • Wright D, Meadows DH (2012) Thinking in systems: a primer. Routledge

  • Yin RK (2009) Case study research: design and methods. SAGE Publications

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Complex Systems in Transition, School of Public Leadership, Stellenbosch University Stias Stables, 19 Jonkershoekweg, Stellenbosch, 7600, South Africa

    John van Breda

  2. School of Public Leadership, Stellenbosch University, Private Bag X1, Matieland, 7602, South Africa

    Mark Swilling

  3. Sustainability Institute, Stellenbosch University, Lynedoch, 7603, Stellenbosch, South Africa

    Mark Swilling

Authors
  1. John van Breda
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Mark Swilling
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to John van Breda.

Additional information

Handled by Alexandros Gasparatos, University of Tokyo, Japan.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

van Breda, J., Swilling, M. The guiding logics and principles for designing emergent transdisciplinary research processes: learning experiences and reflections from a transdisciplinary urban case study in Enkanini informal settlement, South Africa. Sustain Sci 14, 823–841 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-018-0606-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-018-0606-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation