Concepts

Dealing with imperfection in tackling complex problems

By Gabriele Bammer.

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Gabriele Bammer (biography)

Why is an appreciation of imperfection and its inevitability important for those seeking to understand and act on complex societal and environmental problems? Which traps can imperfection lead to and what are the most effective ways of dealing with it?

The inevitability of imperfection

Imperfection is inevitable both in attempting to develop a comprehensive understanding of complex societal and environmental problems and in acting on them. The multiple underpinning reasons include:

● Complex problems are systems problems, and all systems views are partial, so that the whole system cannot be taken into account. Even then, boundaries need to be set to effectively deploy available resources and these artificial boundaries further constrain understanding of the whole system.

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Transforming and weaving knowledge in a complex world: The butterfly and the spider

By Frédéric Darbellay.

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Frédéric Darbellay (biography)

Inter- and transdisciplinarity is today increasingly recognized as a field of study in its own right, with its own theoretical and conceptual foundations, its methodological approaches, its national and international scientific communities and networks.

The field aims to meet the demand for the collaborative, integrated and forward-looking responses that are needed to address the complexity of global issues. Inter- and transdisciplinarity is establishing itself not only as a pioneering and transformative field of research, but also as an essential approach to rethinking the organization of knowledge in academic structures and beyond.

However, inter- and transdisciplinarity remains a diverse and constantly evolving field, shaped by various schools of thought and enriched by a global and intercultural perspective. This diversity constitutes its richness and calls for an inclusive approach, capable of representing the plurality of scientific communities, approaches and practices.

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Boundary spanning: A leadership perspective

By Gemma Jiang, Jenny Grabmeier, Diane Boghrat and Susan Simkins.

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1. Gemma Jiang (biography)
2. Jenny Grabmeier (biography)
3. Diane Boghrat (biography)
4. Susan Simkins (biography)

What does boundary spanning in cross-disciplinary science teams entail, and how does it relate to leadership?

At its core, boundary spanning is about bridging differences. These differences usually fall into two categories:

  1. Interdisciplinary differences, which involve varying perspectives across different disciplines, such as vocabulary, methods, epistemologies, and cultures.
  2. Transdisciplinary differences, which involve perspectives from science, society, policy, and practice that transcend institutional and sectoral boundaries.

The expertise required to bridge these differences is often referred to as “integration expertise” (Hoffman et al., 2024) or as one of us (Simkins) refers to it “interdisciplinary translation.” For simplicity, we’ll refer to all these forms of expertise as “boundary spanning,” and those who play these roles as “boundary spanners.”

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Better understanding trust

By Gabriele Bammer.

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Gabriele Bammer (biography)

Trust is regarded as essential for effective teamwork and stakeholder engagement, so how can we better understand trust? How can that understanding underpin more effective action in establishing trust and in remedying loss of trust?

I use ideas about trust developed by Piotr Sztompka (1999) to reflect on trust in teamwork and in stakeholder engagement in research projects. Stakeholder engagement is divided into two broad types:

  • engagement with those affected by the problem being researched, and
  • engagement with those in a position to act on the problem; they are often decision makers.

Sztompka provides a useful definition of trust (p. 25) as:
“a bet about the future contingent actions of others.”

Trust consists of beliefs or specific expectations about others which influence how we act, what Sztompka calls “commitment through action” (p. 26).

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Being a “conscious” leader: Three foundational commitments

By Gemma Jiang and Jeni Cross.

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1. Gemma Jiang (biography)
2. Jeni Cross (biography)

As a leader, are you prone to defensiveness, blame and avoidance? Is your team trapped in a similar pattern? What is the alternative and how to get there?

The Conscious Leadership framework’s 15 commitments (Dethmer, Chapman and Klemp, 2014) offer powerful tools for addressing these questions. Central to this framework is the distinction between operating “above the line,” which involves openness, curiosity, and a commitment to growth, and “below the line,” characterized by defensiveness, blame, and avoidance. The first three commitments—taking radical responsibility, learning through curiosity, and feeling all feelings—serve as foundational steps for leaders and teams to maintain an “above the line” mindset. This post explores these commitments and the associated tools to empower leaders in guiding their teams from below to above the line.

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Epistemic justice and its relevance to transdisciplinary research

By Sarah Cummings, Charles Dhewa, Gladys Kemboi, Stacey Young and Mike Powell.

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1. Sarah Cummings; 2. Charles Dhewa; 3. Gladys Kemboi; 4. Stacey Young; 5. Mike Powell (biographies)

Can you imagine that you are in a situation where no-one listens to you or believes what you have to say? And the reason they are not listening or believing is because of your race or your gender or where you come from or your accent, or an intersectional combination of all four?

Or imagine that the knowledge of your community is seen as worthless and ignored, even when the community will suffer most when efforts to change it go awry?

This phenomenon is called epistemic injustice. Originally elaborated by social philosopher Miranda Fricker (2007), epistemic (or knowledge-related) injustice comprises unfair treatment in which the voices, experiences and solutions of marginalized individuals, communities and societies are ignored. We consider that it poses an existential threat to individuals and communities.

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Evaluation criteria for transdisciplinary research

This i2Insights contribution has been retracted.

For an excellent framework on evaluation criteria for transdisciplinary research, see:

Belcher, B. M., Rasmussen, K. E., Kemshaw, M. R. and Zornes, D. A. (2016). Defining and Assessing Research Quality in a Transdisciplinary Context. Research Evaluation, 25, 1–17. (Online – open access) (DOI): https://doi.org/10.1093/reseval/rvv025

with an updated and refined version available at: Transdisciplinary-Research-Quality-Assessment-Framework-2.0.pdf. 

 

Transforming experts into team science leaders

By Gemma Jiang.

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Gemma Jiang (biography)

Are you transitioning from a subject matter expert to a team leader? What is key to leadership? What challenges are you likely to confront? What questions will you need to address?

Defining leadership

Leadership is about influencing change among a collective of people, not about titles or top-down decision-making.

Influencing change

Change is an enduring and accelerating force, from the actions of ancient mythological heroes to the demands of our rapidly evolving VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) world. Effective leadership bridges deep personal transformation and profound organizational change, guiding individuals and institutions through transitions and innovations.

Influencing a collective

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Insights into the science of complexity

By Jean Boulton

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Jean Boulton (biography)

What are the key ideas that define the science of complexity? How do they help us better understand our world so that we can engage more effectively?

The science of complexity conveys a view of the world as dynamic, richly interdependent and full of variety.

“A world – organic and emergent, shaped by history and context – naturally patterned, yet always in process” (Boulton 2024: 39).

Ilya Prigogine asked why classical physics and evolutionary biology seem to contradict each other. The word that brought these two sciences together and shaped the development of complexity theory, was ‘open’ (Prigogine 1977).

Situations that are open to their environments display emerging order in the form of patterns of relationships.

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The role of frames and framing in communication and change

Edited by Gabriele Bammer

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What are frames and framing? What roles do they play in making change happen? What are some essential principles of framing? Can framing be used to manipulate people?

This editor’s addition draws on the 2014 updated edition of George Lakoff’s classic work “Don’t think of an elephant.” Lakoff provided these ideas in the US context of the contest between progressive and conservative ideas, and here they are adapted to be more general, including highlighting issues relevant to dealing with complex problems.

What are frames?

There is no simple definition of frames, with key elements including that they are embedded in neural circuits, that they are linked to morals or values, and that they are evoked by language. Lakoff highlights that:

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Three lessons for mainstreaming transdisciplinarity

By Lisa Andrews, Bárbara Willaarts, Andreas Panagopoulos, Radhika Kanade, Nelson Odume, Bodil Ankjær Nielsen and Ingrīda Brēmere.

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1. Lisa Andrews; 2. Bárbara Willaarts; 3. Andreas Panagopoulos; 4. Radhika Kanade; 5. Nelson Odume; 6. Bodil Ankjær Nielsen; 7. Ingrīda Brēmere (biographies)

Are there similar challenges, responsibilities, and methods in transdisciplinarity across countries, scales, contexts and actor types?

In exploring five transdisciplinary case studies from projects on the topics of the water-energy-food-environment nexus and climate change adaptation, we identified three main lessons learned. These were common across the cases from South Africa, India, Greece, Latvia and Denmark, despite their different contexts, types of actors and project structures. These lessons were shared in a workshop at the 2024 Sustainability, Research and Innovation (SRI) Congress in Finland.

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Metalogues and their role in communities of practice

By Janet J. McIntyre-Mills

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Janet J. McIntyre-Mills (biography)

What is a metalogue? How can metalogues support the work of communities of practice?

A metalogue is a series of asynchronous, iterative conversations, and commentary on transcripts from dialogues, to enable exploring diverse ways of knowing in a community of practice (Wenger et al., 2009).

The term ‘metalogue’ draws on the work of Gregory Bateson (1972) and Nora Bateson (2021) to encourage people to think ecologically and to avoid what Shiva (2012) calls ‘monocultures of the mind’ when addressing areas of concern. In other words to think about relationships within context and to foster ‘an ecology of mind’ with members of a community of practice. The aim is to address an area of shared concern by pooling ideas in a reciprocal manner in order to achieve an agreed goal with people from similar or diverse backgrounds spanning spaces and places.

How can metalogues support the work of communities of practice?

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