Mobilizing transdisciplinary collaborations: collective reflections on de centering academia in knowledge production

• Published in: Global sustainability 2019, Vol.2, Article e5
• Main Authors: Alonso-Yanez, Gabriela, House-Peters, Lily, Garcia-Cartagena, Martin, Bonelli, Sebastian, Lorenzo-Arana, Ignacio, Ohira, Marcella
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2059-4798; 2059-4798
• DOI: 10.1017/sus.2019.2

Global sustainability challenges and their impact on society have been well-documented in recent years, such as more intense extreme weather events, environmental degradation, as well as ecosystem and biodiversity loss. These challenges require a united effort of scientists from multiple disciplines with stakeholders, including government, non-government organizations, corporate industry, and members of the general public, with the aim to generate integrated knowledge with real-world applicability. Yet, there continues to be challenges for these types of collaboration. In this commentary, we describe processes of collective un learning that serve to de center academia in collaborations leading to a more equitable positioning of practitioners engaged in collaborative global sustainability research. Increasing attention to transdisciplinary (TD) sustainability science has shaped the joint work of researchers and practitioners currently addressing pressing global sustainability problems. In this short commentary, we describe and discuss an international TD collaboration and draw upon the authors’ experiences after 5 years of ongoing collaborative work in the realm of global sustainability research in the Americas. Our collective experience illustrates that processes of un learning serve to de center academia in TD collaborations leading to a more equitable positioning of practitioners engaged in TD research. Participating in social un learning practices that aim to deconstruct and disrupt institutionalized scientific norms and challenge entrenched institutional structures may hold the key to mobilizing TD research for solution-oriented placed-based social-ecological research.