Transdisciplinarity: putting the South on the map
Southern hemisphere scientists to create a transdisciplinary network.
Prof Coleen Vogel recently attended the International Transdisciplinarity Conference 2017: Transdiscliplinary Research and Education – Intercultural Endeavours at Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany.
According to Professor Vogel, African scholars were not well represented in terms of numbers, however one of the outcomes of this meeting is to try and push for more engagement amongst African scholars in the transdisciplinary research (TDR) sphere. “Conferences such as these assist in building networks through bringing people together. One of the key takeaways of this conference is the establishment of a South-South (Africa, South America and Australia) scholars network working towards developing transdisciplinary research.”
Prof Vogel was on the opening panel of this conference, chaired a panel and additionally delivered a paper on the transdisciplinary research project she has undertaken with the City of Johannesburg pertaining to adaptation planning.
“It was a fascinating conference bringing together scientists from all over the world who have an interest in transdisciplinary research. It was an opportunity for TD researchers to share knowledge across the different TD schools - the Zurich School of TD focuses more on Mode 2 science and the French School of TD which is more philosophical,” says Vogel.
She adds, “TD as a science continues to gain traction. Wits together with the University of Stellenbosch are planning to set-up an African network on transdisciplinary research.”
The ITD Conference 2017 looked at ways to explore different conceptualisations and practice of transdisciplinarity and related approaches. The conference further aimed to strengthen the communities of transdisciplinary research and education, and to increase the visibility of theoretical, empirical and transformative advances. This year’s conference had a focus on interculturality which looked at creating a culturally sensitive space to elaborate the different dimensions of culturality that are inherent to transdisciplinarity.