Action, research and participation: roles of researchers in sustainability transitions

In sustainability science, the tension between more descriptive–analytical and more process-oriented approaches is receiving increasing attention. The latter entails a number of roles for researchers, which have largely been neglected in the literature. Based on the rich tradition of action research...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sustainability science 2014-10, Vol.9 (4), p.483-496
Main Authors: Wittmayer, Julia M., Schäpke, Niko
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Action research
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Applied ecology
Biological and medical sciences
Climate Change Management and Policy
Collaboration
Earth and Environmental Science
Environment
Environment and sustainable development
Environmental Economics
Environmental Management
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Knowledge
Landscape Ecology
Original Article
Public Health
Research methodology
Researchers
Science
Scientists
Society
Studies
Sustainability
Sustainability science
Sustainability transitions
Sustainable Development
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Summary:In sustainability science, the tension between more descriptive–analytical and more process-oriented approaches is receiving increasing attention. The latter entails a number of roles for researchers, which have largely been neglected in the literature. Based on the rich tradition of action research and on a specific process-oriented approach to sustainability transitions (transition management), we establish an in-depth understanding of the activities and roles of researchers. This is done by specifying ideal-type roles that researchers take when dealing with key issues in creating and maintaining space for societal learning—a core activity in process-oriented approaches. These roles are change agent, knowledge broker, reflective scientist, self-reflexive scientist and process facilitator. To better understand these ideal-type roles, we use them as a heuristic to explore a case of transition management in Rotterdam. In the analysis, we discuss the implications of this set of ideal-type roles for the self-reflexivity of researchers, role conflicts and potentials, and for the changing role of the researcher and of science in general.
ISSN:1862-4065
1862-4057
DOI:10.1007/s11625-014-0258-4