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Sustainability Science

Promising degress of stakeholder interaction in research for sustainable development

Schneider, F, Buser, T (2018)

Stakeholder interactions are increasingly viewed as an important element of research for sustainable development. But to what extent, how, and for which goals should stakeholders be involved? In this article, we explore what degrees of stakeholder interaction show the most promise in research for sustainable development. For this purpose, we examine 16 research projects from the transdisciplinary research programme NRP 61 on sustainable water management in Switzerland. The results suggest that various degrees of stakeholder interaction can be beneficial depending on each project’s intended contribution to sustainability, the form of knowledge desired, how contested the issues are, the level of actor diversity, actors’ interests, and existing collaborations between actors. We argue that systematic reflection about these six criteria can enable tailoring stakeholder interaction processes according specific project goals and context conditions.

© Image source: Sustainabiltiy Science
  • Humanities and Social Sciences Communications

    Toolkitting: an unrecognized form of expertise for overcoming fragmentation in inter and transdisciplinarity

    Laursen, B, Vienni-Baptista, B, Bammer, G, Di Giulio, A, Paulsen, T, Robson-Williams, M, Studer, S (2024)

    A growing number of inter- and transdisciplinary (ITD) toolkits provide methods, processes, concepts, heuristics, frameworks, and other resources for designing and implementing ITD research. A brief overview of the currently fragmented toolkits landscape is provided, fleshed out through descriptions of four toolkits.

  • Gaia Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society

    Two decades of transdisciplinarity in Switzerland: Past, present, future

    Paulsen, T, Küffer, C (2023)

    Switzerland has been a stronghold of transdisciplinarity in the past decades, thanks in particular to saguf and td-net. td-net’s 20 years anniversary is an opportunity to recall the past and look ahead.

  • Network for Transdisciplinary Research td-net

    Gaia Editorial: Building a transdisciplinary future: Balancing collaboration and excellence

    "Everything must change so that everything can stay the same.” This quote from the novel The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa sums up the challenges of our time. Amidst an era of rapid change and social paradigm shifts, rethinking and renegotiating the social contract between science and society is more urgent than ever.

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