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Christine Wamsler. Photo

Christine Wamsler

Professor, Docent, appointed Excellent Teaching Practitioner (ETP)

Christine Wamsler. Photo

On the road to ‘research municipalities’: analysing transdisciplinarity in municipal ecosystem services and adaptation planning

Author

  • Ebba Brink
  • Christine Wamsler
  • Maria Adolfsson
  • Monica Axelsson
  • Thomas Beery
  • Helena Björn
  • Torleif Bramryd
  • Nils Ekelund
  • Therese Jephson
  • Widar Narvelo
  • Barry Ness
  • K. Ingemar Jönsson
  • Thomas Palo
  • Magnus Sjeldrup
  • Sanna Stålhammar
  • Geraldine Thiere

Summary, in English

Transdisciplinary research and collaboration is widely acknowledged as a critical success factor for solution-oriented approaches that can tackle complex sustainability challenges, such as biodiversity loss, pollution, and climate-related hazards. In this context, city governments’ engagement in transdisciplinarity is generally seen as a key condition for societal transformation towards sustainability. However, empirical evidence is rare. This paper presents a self-assessment of a joint research project on ecosystem services and climate adaptation planning (ECOSIMP) undertaken by four universities and seven Swedish municipalities. We apply a set of design principles and guiding questions for transdisciplinary sustainability projects and, on this basis, identify key aspects for supporting university–municipality collaboration. We show that: (1) selecting the number and type of project stakeholders requires more explicit consideration of the purpose of societal actors’ participation; (2) concrete, interim benefits for participating practitioners and organisations need to be continuously discussed; (3) promoting the ‘inter’, i.e., interdisciplinary and inter-city learning, can support transdisciplinarity and, ultimately, urban sustainability and long-term change. In this context, we found that design principles for transdisciplinarity have the potential to (4) mitigate project shortcomings, even when transdisciplinarity is not an explicit aim, and (5) address differences and allow new voices to be heard. We propose additional guiding questions to address shortcomings and inspire reflexivity in transdisciplinary projects.

Department/s

  • LUCSUS (Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies)
  • Department of Service Studies
  • Department of Biology
  • BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate

Publishing year

2018-04-29

Language

English

Pages

765-784

Publication/Series

Sustainability Science

Volume

13

Issue

3

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Springer

Topic

  • Social Sciences Interdisciplinary

Keywords

  • Transdisciplinarity
  • Ecosystem services
  • Project assessment
  • Urban planning

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1862-4057