Moderator note: We are aware that the ‘Select date range’ field in the search box below is not currently working. We are seeking a solution and once obtained, will remove this warning box. All other fields in the advanced search box below are working correctly. Last updated 6 November 2025.
Results from your search will be shown on this page below the search form – you may need to scroll down to the results if the page does not automatically take you there after you submit your search.
Instructions:
- All blog posts are searched (pages from the menu are not searched)
- Search outputs are weighted by relevance.
- If searching with two or more words, the system uses an AND operator.
- Selecting a tag, author tag and/or category binds the search to only those posts which have those taxonomy term/s.
- A search output can be obtained by filling out any one field (ie., the search box; or, categories; or, tags; or, authors; or, date). If all fields are left blank, then the search returns the blog scroll.
- Exact word combinations can be searched for by using quotation marks (eg., “transdisciplinary learning”).
- Keyword matching is on partial words.
- The reset button (beneath the ‘Submit search’ button) will clear all entries in the search form, as will clicking on the ‘Advanced search…’ link in the top of the right sidebar.
- For more information on how advanced search works, see the ‘in-detail’ instructions below.
The search function checks all blog posts but not pages (ie., it does not check the ‘About’, ‘Index’ and other pages listed in the main menu).
For posts, search checks within titles, body text, category and tag text, and comments.
Searches are weighted by relevance, with affects the order in which posts appear, with titles and content getting the most weighting, tags and categories lesser weighting, and comments the least weighting.
Increasing the number of search terms and selections generally focuses the search output (ie., decreases the number of outputs).
Keyword matching is based on partial word/s, ie., the search will find any word containing the term you are searching on, provided the word begins or ends with the search term (eg., searching for ‘ion’ will not only find the word ‘ion’ but will also find ‘caution’ or ‘ionized’, but not “cautionary’).
If you enter two or more words into the search box, the relationship between the words is based on an AND operator (meaning the more words you add, the tighter (less content is returned in) the search output).
- For example, entering transdisciplinary learning into the search box would provide an output that lists all posts with both the word transdisciplinary and the word learning anywhere in the text, Posts with only transdisciplinary in the text or posts with only learning in the text would not be included in the output.
To find a specific word combination (eg., critical systems), wrap in quotation marks (ie., “critical systems“).
When you open a post that was found by your search, you can find where your specific word or word combination appears by using your computer’s search function (eg., on a computer running Microsoft Windows, Control ‘F’ will allow you to search the post (as well as anything else in the active screen)).
Restrict searches to particular tags, categories and/or author tags by using the dropdown selectors.
- Eg., if you choose the tag Advocacy, the search will only be conducted within posts that have that tag assigned to them.
- If you added the category Cases to that search, then only posts that had both the tag Advocacy and the category Cases assigned to them would be searched.
An alternative to selecting categories, tags or authors from their respective long drop-down list is to type the term or author name you are looking for in the relevant selector field. Typing one letter will jump to the lead word in the alphabetical listing (ie, typing ‘s’ takes you to the first tag or category in the list of those starting with ‘s’). Further addition of letters will home in on a tag, category or author until it is found or until the choice of letters exhausts the possible set of tags, categories or authors (in which case that tag, category or author is not in our list). NOTE: all authors are also available in reverse name order under ‘Authors‘ in the menu bar.
In the category, tag and author dropdown list, the number in brackets after each entry indicates the number of posts with that category, tag or author assigned to them.
Tags or authors with a zero in brackets “(0)”, placed after the tag or author text, are not currently linked to any blog posts. In the case of tags, most of these tags identify alternative tags, which, if searched, will yield a result. For example, “Assumptions – see ‘Mental models’ tag (0)” signifies that blog posts about ‘assumptions’ are tagged with ‘mental models’ and not ‘assumptions.’ Occasionally there will be a tag (or author tag) with “(0)” which refers to a new tag (or author tag) on a blog post which has not yet been made public. This tag (or author tag) will be searchable once the blog post is public (usually within a week).
For the category selector, choosing one of the two parent categories (main topics or resource types) searches all blog posts, as all blog posts are assigned a main topic and a resource type.
Participatory video
By Pamela Richardson
What is participatory video? How can it enhance participatory research? What’s required to make participatory video work well?
Participatory video involves the co-production of videos in a group setting and can be used for community development, research and advocacy. The focus here is on research and, as a tool for communication and reflection, participatory video can support many different steps along a research journey, including:
- co-creation of video-based funding proposals or the development of group plans,
- project documentation and reflection,
- participatory monitoring and evaluation,
- dissemination of “best practices” or communication of results and lessons learned.
In these ways, video-making by participants can support both internal and external communication processes within a research project.
Designing a rapid participatory scenario planning process
By Giles Thomson and Varvara Nikulina
2. Varvara Nikulina (biography)
How can transdisciplinary researchers efficiently and effectively support diverse and time-poor actors in participatory scenario planning processes?
Scenario planning is a useful tool for policy development, especially for contexts with high uncertainty and complexity as described by Bonnie McBain in her i2Insights contribution, Designing scenarios to guide robust decisions. However, participatory scenario planning takes time, as pointed out by Maike Hamann and colleagues in their i2Insights contribution, Participatory scenario planning.
To address this challenge, we designed, tested and evaluated a rapid scenario planning method for a regional sustainability transition. In this case, the regional authority (host organization) wanted to increase collaboration and strengthen the link between municipal spatial planning and regional development by building consensus on the region’s most important development issues over a 30-year horizon to 2050.
Challenges in knowledge translation: A Global South perspective
By Fajri Siregar
How is knowledge translation the same between the Global South and the Global North? What are the particular challenges in the Global South? How should future support be focused in the Global South and what, in particular, can funders do?
Common knowledge translation mechanisms
The impact of the political system on the basic mechanisms of evidence use are quite alike globally. Whether one works in a country of the Global South or North, one needs to identify influential actors to engage, the right channels to lobby, the most effective means of communication, and the right policy that needs changing. In this sense, researchers all over the world face the same struggles.
There is also a growing trend in both the Global South and North to eliminate boundaries between the realms of science and the public.
Learning to use Appreciative Inquiry
By Rachel Arnold
What is Appreciative Inquiry? How does one shift from research that focuses on problems and negative details to the strengths-based approach of Appreciative Inquiry? What are the benefits and requirements of such an approach? And what is it about Appreciative Inquiry that fosters change?
Appreciative Inquiry, developed by David Cooperrider and Suresh Srivastva, is a five-step process (originally four steps), as shown in the figure below. The steps are:
- Definition – deciding what to study is critical in moving humans in a positive direction
- Discovery – discovering and appreciating best experiences
- Dream – imagining the ideal – how it would be if those valued experiences happened most of the time
- Design – defining the dream more clearly and discussing steps towards realizing it
- Destiny – implementing wide ranging actions, improvisation, learning, and adjustments.
Knowledge translation and multilingualism
By Chalani Ranwala
How can knowledge translation be made more effective in countries where multiple languages are spoken, including many countries in the Global South, as well as countries with large immigrant or refugee populations?
Anywhere in the world, knowledge translation is facilitated through a process of communicating messages to an audience, who will ultimately use that information to inform their own opinions and actions. However, the way that information is perceived, digested, discussed, and passed on is shaped by the environment in which an audience lives. For example, factors such as education, economic status, political climate and cultural norms play a part in how we consume information. Here I focus on one factor – language – building on my work in research communication in Sri Lanka.
Language has a significant influence on the way knowledge translation takes place in bilingual and multilingual countries.
Eighth annual review
By Gabriele Bammer
Which i2Insights contributions inspired you in 2023? What did you learn that was new and how did it help you in tackling the complex societal or environmental problems you focus on? What would you like to see in 2024 and beyond?
One of the delights of curating i2Insights is learning something from every blog post. Another is the personal interactions involved in broadening the global community of contributors, introducing fresh voices and fresh insights, alongside those who are more seasoned contributors.
In this last blog post for 2023, I survey three of the year’s many highlights and what they mean for the operation of i2Insights:
- integration and synthesis as an emerging ‘hot’ topic
- re-introducing “golden oldies,” ie. tried and tested tools
- increasing the number of countries represented by contributors, with an accompanying focus on decolonisation.