Transdisciplinary collaboration to meet societal challenges
Joining forces for change is the theme of this year’s International Transdisciplinary Research Conference, ITD2019. During the conference, 250 scholars and practitioners from different disciplines, sectors and professions will gather in Gothenburg to discuss how to meet the challenges of the future – together. The conference is hosted by Mistra Urban Futures, td-net Network for Transdisciplinary Research and the School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg, on September 10-13 2019.
Transdisciplinary (TD) research focuses specifically on co-producing and integrating knowledge and expertise from a variety of sources, including communities, research, cities and businesses. It is an approach that is driven by the need to create processes where values and transformations towards a more just and sustainable society are openly debated.
Contributions from Mistra Urban Futures
Several researchers and practitioners connected to Mistra Urban Futures has contributed to the conference with papers and presentations including:
- The Role of Co-Creative Processes to Facilitate Change (Sophia Kaså, Mistra Urban Future, Gothenburg, network Go-Create.)
- Creating a desired landscape of toolkits for inter- and transdisciplinarity (Kerstin Hemström, Mistra Urban Futures researcher)
- Advantages and challenges of facilitation of TD research for urban projects (Kerstin Hemström, Mistra Urban Futures researcher and Henrietta Palmer, Deputy Scientific Director, Mistra Urban Futures.)
- Societal transformation (Mikael Cullberg, Head of the Governor’s Chancellery at the Swedish County Administration Agency and Chair Gothenburg Consortium, Mistra Urban Futures.)
- Interaction and/or integration? Discussing priorities for co-production (Kerstin Hemström, Mistra Urban Futures researcher and Henrietta Palmer, Deputy Scientific Director, Mistra Urban Futures.)
- More than teaching - Transdisciplinary capacity building II (Henrietta Palmer, Deputy Scientific Director, Mistra Urban Futures.)
- Platforms for transdisciplinary co-production – Stakeholder perspective on challenges and opportunities (Sanna Isemo, Co-ordinator, Mistra Urban Futures Gothenburg Platform and Elma Durakovic, Acting Director, Mistra Urban Futures Gothenburg Platform.)
- Methods for transdisciplinarity and how to use them (Sophia Kaså, Mistra Urban Future, Gothenburg, network Go-Create.)
- Enabling social learning and societal change (Warren Smit, Mercy Brown-Luthango, Liza Rose Cirolia and Rike Sitas, University of Cape Town/African Centre for Cities and Mistra Urban Futures Cape Town Platform, Chair: David Simon, Director, Mistra Urban Futures.)
- Roles and careers for transdisciplinarians (Olivia Bina, Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Universidade de Lisboa; Geography and Resource Management, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Board member, Mistra Urban Futures.)
- Poster session II - Double jeopardy within Swedish Integration: Using South-North collaborations to explore the role of gender within transdisciplinary integration projects (Mirek Dymitrow, researcher Mistra Urban Futures, Shelley Kotze, researcher Mistra Urban Futures and Lillian Omondi, Maseno University and Mistra Urban Futures Kisumu Platform)
- Evaluation - Different perspectives (David Simon, Director, Mistra Urban Futures and Henrietta Palmer, Deputy Scientific Director, Mistra Urban Futures)
- Dialogue, discourse, and engaging different voices (Johan Larson Lindal, Royal University of Technology and Mistra Urban Futures Stockholm node and Varvara Nikulina, Blekinge Institute of Technology, Mistra Urban Futures PhD student)
- Concluding plenary (Henrietta Palmer, Deputy Scientific Director, Mistra Urban Futures)
The conference is taking place at the Wallenberg Conference Centre in Gothenburg, Sweden. The participants come from 30 countries around the world and are both scholars and practitioners dealing with topics such as global governance, sustainable development, urban challenges, infrastructure, air pollution, natural resource- and climate management.
Merritt Polk, head of department at the School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg, and one of the conference’s keynote speakers, says she is expecting many new insights regarding transdisciplinary work in the coming days. Read an interview with Merritt Polk here.
More information
Follow the conference in social media: #ITD_2019 and @MistraUrbanFut
Read more about the conference and on TDnet’s website
Read the conference’s full programme.
Photo: Göteborg & Co Anders Wester.
