Theme 3: Practical Approaches to Boundary Work

Keynote speaker: dr. Christian Pohl, Co-director of transdisciplinarity-net, Swiss Academy of Arts and Sciences, Switzersland
Co-referent: prof. John Grin, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Research that crosses disciplinary boundaries and boundaries between science and society to address real world problems can be found in a number of thematic fields, such as global environmental change, migration, public health, new technologies or area development. It is amongst others termed as transdisciplinary research, mode 2 knowledge production, boundary work and transition or hybrid management. Such knowledge production often takes place as a self organised temporary collaboration of disciplinary researchers and actors of civil society, the government and the private sector. The question however remains, how the practical experiences gained in one project can be depersonalised and handed over to the next project to disburden project teams form reinventing the wheel. For that purpose the practical experiences have to be sampled and systematised and the core challenges as well as successfully ways to address them have to be identified. But which are the specific challenges that have to be addressed in boundary work? What are suitable approaches to address them? How can these approaches be conceptualised and formulated as challenges from the perspective of those involved in the knowledge production process? Is there a need for experienced boundary workers who organise such collective knowledge production? And if so, what are the specific competencies of such boundary workers?

Papers & abstracts

Christian Pohl, Methodological Challenges of Transdisciplinary Research 
To download his paper, please click here.


Presentations

Christian Pohl
To download his powerpoint presentation, please click here.
John Grin
To download his powerpoint presentation, please click here.