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Environmental and Health Research Methodologies: Integrating a Transdisciplinary Approach in a Higher Education Cross-Cutting Curricular Unit

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Sustainable Policies and Practices in Energy, Environment and Health Research

Part of the book series: World Sustainability Series ((WSUSE))

Abstract

It is currently undeniable that human health is influenced by the environment and the lifestyle. The United Nations Agenda 2030 emphasizes that the assessment of sustainability cannot dissociate ecological and social problems, specifically concerning health, the environment and human beings, in a logic of collaborative platforms for sharing knowledge, solutions and good practices. These shared approaches should integrate a higher education curriculum, namely through the inclusion of a curricular unit that could be part of all courses and scientific fields to promote the interdisciplinary necessary to deal with wicked problems, such as those involved in environment and health. Sustainability cannot rely on incorporating concepts and methodologies beyond each cut (multidisciplinary). Instead, it must result from a dialogue between such concepts and methodologies (interdisciplinary), making it possible to overcome these cuts (transdisciplinary). This is the way through which scientific community deal with cross-cutting issues, accelerating progress when strengthening the robust methodological approaches of the research to be carried out. This work aims to emphasize the importance of the careful choice of methodologies to be applied to the environment and health fields. A new curricular unit called “Environmental and Health Research Methodologies” to achieve transdisciplinary among different knowledge areas is proposed, contributing to a vision of indivisibility of sustainability science and methods.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. UFP Energy, Environment and Health Research Unit (FP-ENAS), University Fernando Pessoa, Praça 9 de Abril 349, 4249-004, Porto, Portugal

    Maria Alzira Pimenta Dinis & Diogo Guedes Vidal

  2. Centre for Public Administration and Public Policies (CAPP), Institute of Social and Political Sciences (ISCSP), University of Lisboa (UL), Campus Universitário do Alto da Ajuda, Rua Almerindo Lessa, 1300-663, Lisboa, Portugal

    Ricardo Cunha Dias

Authors
  1. Maria Alzira Pimenta Dinis
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  2. Diogo Guedes Vidal
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  3. Ricardo Cunha Dias
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maria Alzira Pimenta Dinis .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Hamburg, Germany

    Walter Leal Filho

  2. UFP Energy, Environment and Health Research Unit, Fernando Pessoa University, Porto, Portugal

    Diogo Guedes Vidal

  3. UFP Energy, Environment and Health Research Unit, Fernando Pessoa University, Porto, Portugal

    Maria Alzira Pimenta Dinis

  4. Centre for Public Administration and Public Policies, Institute of Social and Political Sciences, University of Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

    Ricardo Cunha Dias

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Dinis, M.A.P., Vidal, D.G., Dias, R.C. (2022). Environmental and Health Research Methodologies: Integrating a Transdisciplinary Approach in a Higher Education Cross-Cutting Curricular Unit. In: Leal Filho, W., Vidal, D.G., Dinis, M.A.P., Dias, R.C. (eds) Sustainable Policies and Practices in Energy, Environment and Health Research. World Sustainability Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86304-3_8

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