We adopt the last term. In our conception of transdisciplinarity, the group of people involved in a transdisciplinary project does not, and does not have to, represent society. Nor does it have to represent a specific professional field or an area of practice. It is not about integrating interests but about integrating specialised knowledge.
Transdisciplinarity Revealed: What Librarians Need to Know
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Further, we conceive transdisciplinarity first and foremost as research and not as a socio-political activity to engineer social change. Its primary goal is to produce new knowledge (answering a scientific or societal question) addressing both academic and non-academic audiences. Actual social change can be a goal of a transdisciplinary project, and the members of a project team might do a lot to achieve it, but it is a subsidiary goal.
Biography: Antonietta Di Giulio PhD is leader of the Research Group Inter-/Transdisciplinarity and senior researcher at the Program Man-Society-Environment (MGU), Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Basel, Switzerland. Her areas of interest in inter-/transdisciplinarity are in theory of inter- and transdisciplinary research and teaching, methodology, knowledge integration and evaluation.
Biography: Rico Defila is deputy leader of the Research Group Inter-/Transdisciplinarity and senior researcher at the Program Man-Society-Environment (MGU), Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Basel, Switzerland. His areas of interest in inter-/transdisciplinarity are in theory of inter- and transdisciplinary research and teaching, methodology, knowledge integration and evaluation.
To ensure that librarians as knowledge managers can better educate scholars about the benefits and challenges of open scholarship, Victoria Martin's The Complete Guide to Open Scholarship brings clarity to the concept of openness, tests assumptions concerning it, and strikes the right balance between breaking down complex ideas into simpler ones and honoring the reader's intelligence and previous knowledge of the subject. Readers will learn the history of openness in scholarship as well as several ways in which openness can be perceived. Drawing on specific examples, Martin discusses the most prominent scholarly models based on openness, barriers to openness, concerns about openness in scholarship, and the future of open scholarship.
Transdisciplinarity Revealed: What Librarians Need to Know supplies pragmatic advice for academic librarians on working with faculty and students to promote the skills necessary for successful transdisciplinary research. It shows how to overcome the obstacles created by the ways that libraries have traditionally organized information in subject silos, offering librarians conceptual and practical guidance on transdisciplinarity. This information will enable them to support research that transcends disciplinary limits to help researchers answer the complex questions of our world today.
Today's librarians need to be technology-savvy information experts who understand how to manage datasets. Demystifying eResearch: A Primer for Librarians prepares librarians for careers that involve eResearch, clearly defining what it is and how it impacts library services and collections, explaining key terms and concepts, and explaining the importance of the field. You will come to understand exactly how the use of networked computing technologies enhances and supports collaboration and innovative methods particularly in scientific research, learn about eResearch library initiatives and best practices, and recognize the professional development opportunities that eResearch offers.
Transdisciplinarity is becoming a catchword that is increasingly difficult to define, constituting what Nicolescu (2010) refers to as a war of definitions. Given that they are often conflated, the concept of transdisciplinarity needs to be explored in contradistinction to the related concepts of disciplinary collaboration (Gehlert et al. 2010), namely, interdisciplinarity and multidisciplinarity. Multidisciplinarity entails the combination of insights from a number of disciplines towards resolving a particular problem or answering a given question. This approach brings together the insights of different disciplines without attempting to integrate them (Leavy 2011; Repko 2008; Wall & Shankar 2008). In interdisciplinarity, there is notably reliance on individual disciplines for their theories, concepts and methods towards understanding a particular problem. The methods are thus transferred from one discipline to another, although the ultimate process remains grounded in the framework of one discipline (Leavy 2011; Repko 2008).
Hadorn et al. (2008) reiterate that transdisciplinarity is ambiguous and is informed by different lines of thought. To add to the confusion of definition, there is no consistency in the literature in terms of when the concept was coined. It is typically recorded that transdisciplinarity can be traced to the first international conference on interdisciplinarity held in 1970 in France (see Hoffman-Riem et al. 2008; Klein 2008). On the contrary, some commentators argue that the concept first appeared in the 1980s (see Gehlert et al. 2010). It should also be noted that transdisciplinarity takes varying directions in different contexts and countries (Du Plessis, Sehume & Martin 2014; Van Breda & Swilling 2018). In transdisciplinarity, members of different disciplines work together to contribute towards concepts (and even theories) and methods that integrate and transcend the perspectives of individual disciplines (Stokols et al. 2010; Wall & Shankar 2008). In that process, cross-fertilisation of knowledge and skills occurs (Du Plessis et al. 2014). In a transdisciplinary approach, educators, professionals and/or researchers develop shared frameworks that extend discipline-specific theories, concepts and methods towards creating a new language to address a given situation or problem (Stokols et al. 2010). As it could be argued with the other forms of disciplinary collaboration, the notion of transdisciplinarity acknowledges the complexity, interconnectedness and multidimensionality of reality; hence, it makes a call for the use of more than one discipline towards exploring reality (Du Plessis et al. 2014; Martin 2017). Transdisciplinarity is particularly important when the knowledge about a certain situation is uncertain and when the origin and nature of the problem is disputed (Hadorn et al. 2008).
Although there is no consensus in the literature, the distinguishing characteristics of transdisciplinarity from the associated concepts are: (1) it integrates the disciplines with non-academic actors (see Palmer, Owens & Sparks 2006). However, certain sections of the literature argue that multidisciplinarity also incorporates non-academic actors (e.g. see Frodeman 2010). Nonetheless, transdisciplinarity intends to close the gap between, on the one hand, research and education, and on the other hand, knowledge that is required towards solving societal problems (Hoffman-Riem et al. 2008). (2) In transdisciplinarity, as noted above, the theoretical, conceptual or methodological standpoints are not only taken from one discipline and applied to other disciplines, but rather transcend the disciplines and are thus applicable to numerous fields (Repko 2008). Notwithstanding these subtle differences, Nicolescu (2010) maintains that transdisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity and multidisciplinarity complement each other and should thus not be regarded as being in opposition. Needless to say, all these approaches are anti a situation where only one discipline is involved towards addressing a particular problem, which could be termed monodisciplinarity (see Gehlert et al. 2010) or unidisciplinarity (see Stokols et al. 2010).
As with the ambiguity regarding the definition of transdisciplinarity relative to the associated concepts, Nash (2008) notes that the distinction between transdisciplinary training and other integrative training approaches is not clear-cut. It is often understood that in multidisciplinary training, students are taught the approach of a given discipline, while they also become familiar, and learn to work, with other disciplines. In interdisciplinary training, the intention is to groom professionals who possess knowledge of varying concepts, theories and methodological skills. In this way, transdisciplinary training aims to groom professionals who are able to synthesise the conceptual, methodological and/or theoretical aspects of various disciplines (Aneas 2015; Nash 2008).
There are various approaches to transdisciplinary education that are advanced in the literature, while acknowledging that individual disciplines do not necessarily vanish (see the case of CPUT presented herein). The following approaches (which are also relevant to other modes of integrative training) can be highlighted: firstly, it is typically recommended that students enrol in courses or subjects in a wide range of disciplines, while developing a solid background in one (Bradbeer 1999; Klein 2008). Secondly, students are encouraged to undertake projects, theses or dissertations under the supervision of staff from different disciplines (Klein 2008; Wall & Shankar 2008). Thirdly, and related to the above, novice investigators are encouraged to conduct research projects at a centre or department other than their own over a certain period. In the process, investigators collaborate on joint projects with colleagues in other institutions (Stokols et al. 2010) or departments. Fourthly, universities are encouraged to develop curricula that are aligned towards transdisciplinarity (Eishof 2003; Klein 2008).
It cannot be claimed that the list of approaches above is exhaustive, and Stokols et al. (2010) note that with the growing interest, transdisciplinary training approaches are likely to grow. Fischer and Derry (2005) cited in Klein (2008) proposed the following transdisciplinary competencies, which, though are intended for science, technology, engineering and mathematics, could be widely applicable: (1) the ability to participate in communities and communicate effectively, as was performed in the Goedverwacht service-learning project discussed herein; (2) Possession of metacognitive skills, including critical thinking skills that enable lifelong learning and self-directed learning; (3) the ability to understand, develop and operate in innovative socio-technical environments; (4) the ability to develop and guide knowledge building, and understand communities as contexts of teaching and learning; and (5) concern about real-world needs and willingness to be engaged citizens (Derry & Fischer 2005 cited in Klein 2008). 2ff7e9595c
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