Transdisciplinarity connotes a research strategy that crosses many disciplinary
boundaries to create a holistic approach. It applies to research efforts
focused on problems that cross the boundaries of two or more disciplines,
such as research on effective information systems for biomedical
research, and can refer to concepts or methods that were originally developed
by one discipline, but are now used by several others, such as ethnography, a
field research method originally developed in anthropology but now widely
used by other disciplines. Usage
Transdisciplinarity has two common meanings:
= German usage = In German-speaking countries,
Transdisziplinarität refers to the integration of diverse forms of
research, and includes specific methods for relating knowledge in
problem-solving. A 2003 conference held in Göttingen showcased the diverse
meanings of multi-, inter- and transdisciplinarity and made suggestions
for converging them without eliminating present usages.
When the very nature of a problem is under dispute, transdisciplinarity can
help determine the most relevant problems and research questions
involved. A first type of question concerns the cause of the present
problems and their future development. Another concerns which values and norms
can be used to form goals of the problem-solving process. A third relates
to how a problematic situation can be transformed and improved.
Transdisciplinarity requires adequate addressing of the complexity of problems
and the diversity of perceptions of them, that abstract and case-specific
knowledge are linked, and that practices promote the common good.
Transdisciplinarity arises when participating experts interact in an
open discussion and dialogue, giving equal weight to each perspective and
relating them to each other. This is difficult because of the overwhelming
amount of information involved, and because of incommensurability of
specialized languages in each field of expertise. To excel under these
conditions, researchers need not only in-depth knowledge and know-how of the
disciplines involved, but skills in moderation, mediation, association and
transfer. = Wider usage =
Transdisciplinarity is also used to signify a unity of knowledge beyond
disciplines. Jean Piaget introduced this usage of the
term in 1970, and in 1987, the International Center for
Transdisciplinary Research adopted the Charter of Transdisciplinarity at the
1st World Congress of Transdisciplinarity, Convento da
Arrabida, Portugal, November 1994. In the CIRET approach,
transdisciplinarity is radically distinct from interdisciplinarity.
Interdisciplinarity, like pluridisciplinarity, concerns the
transfer of methods from one discipline to another, allowing research to spill
over disciplinary boundaries, but staying within the framework of
disciplinary research. As the prefix "trans" indicates,
transdisciplinarity concerns that which is at once between the disciplines,
across the different disciplines, and beyond each individual discipline. Its
goal is the understanding of the present world, of which one of the imperatives
is the overarching unity of knowledge. Another critical defining characteristic
of transdisciplinary research is the inclusion of stakeholders in defining
research objectives and strategies in order to better incorporate the
diffusion of learning produced by the research. Collaboration between
stakeholders is deemed essential – not merely at an academic or disciplinary
collaboration level, but through active collaboration with people affected by
the research and community-based stakeholders. In such a way,
transdisciplinary collaboration becomes uniquely capable of engaging with
different ways of knowing the world, generating new knowledge, and helping
stakeholders understand and incorporate the results or lessons learned by the
research. Transdisciplinarity is defined by
Basarab Nicolescu through three methodological postulates: the existence
of levels of Reality, the logic of the included middle, and complexity. In the
presence of several levels of Reality the space between disciplines and beyond
disciplines is full of information. Disciplinary research concerns, at most,
one and the same level of Reality ; moreover, in most cases, it only
concerns fragments of one level of Reality. On the contrary,
transdisciplinarity concerns the dynamics engendered by the action of
several levels of Reality at once. The discovery of these dynamics necessarily
passes through disciplinary knowledge. While not a new discipline or a new
superdiscipline, transdisciplinarity is nourished by disciplinary research; in
turn, disciplinary research is clarified by transdisciplinary knowledge in a new,
fertile way. In this sense, disciplinary and transdisciplinary research are not
antagonistic but complementary. As in the case of disciplinarity,
transdisciplinary research is not antagonistic but complementary to
multidisciplinarity and interdisciplinarity research.
According to Nicolescu, transdisciplinarity is nevertheless
radically distinct from multidisciplinarity and
interdisciplinarity because of its goal, the understanding of the present world,
which cannot be accomplished in the framework of disciplinary research. The
goal of multidisciplinarity and interdisciplinarity always remains
within the framework of disciplinary research. If transdisciplinarity is
often confused with interdisciplinarity or multidisciplinarity this is explained
in large part by the fact that all three overflow disciplinary boundaries.
Advocates maintain this confusion hides the huge potential of
transdisciplinarity. Arts and humanities
Transdisciplinarity can be found in the arts and humanities. For example, the
Planetary Collegium seeks "the development of transdisciplinary
discourse in the convergence of art, science, technology and consciousness
research." Global education
Transdisciplinarity can be also found in Global Education. For example, Global
Education Magazine, an international journal supported by UNESCO and UNHCR:
"transdisciplinarity represents the capable germ to promote an endogenous
development of the evolutionary spirit of internal critical consciousness,
where religion and science are complementary. Respect, solidarity and
cooperation should be global standards for the entire human development with no
boundaries. This requires a radical change in the ontological models of
sustainable development, global education and world-society. We must
rely on the recognition of a plurality of models, cultures and socio-economical
diversification. As well as biodiversity is the way for the emergence of new
species, cultural diversity represents the creative potential of
world-society." Human sciences
The range of transdisciplinarity becomes clear when the four central questions of
biological research causation, ontogeny, adaptation, phylogeny [after Niko
Tinbergen 1963, see also Tinbergen's four questions, cf. Aristotle: Causality
/ Four Major Causes]) are graphed against distinct levels of analysis:
In this “scheme of transdisciplinarity”, all anthropological disciplines, their
questions and results can be intertwined and allocated with each other [for
examples how these aspects go into those little boxes in the matrix, see e.g. the
table "The Framework of Anthropological Research". ] This chart includes all
realms of anthropological research. It is the starting point for a systematical
order for all human sciences, and also a source for a consistent networking and
structuring of their results. This “bio-psycho-social” orientation
framework is the basis for the development of the "Fundamental Theory
of Human Sciences" and for a transdisciplinary consensus. Certainly,
a humanist perspective always involves a transdisciplinary focus. A good and
classic example of mixing very different sciences was the work developed by
Leibniz in seventeenth-eighteenth centuries in order to create a universal
system of justice. See also
Discipline Crossdisciplinarity
Interdisciplinarity Multidisciplinarity
References = Footnotes =
= Notations = Bernard Carmona - Inter and
Transdisciplinary international conference - Lisbon 2014 december 11th
Bernard Carmona - ITD14 - Swiss Conference : Inter and
Transdisciplinarity 2014 Bernard Carmona - Practice of the debate
of the Tibetan buddhism : A space of artificial intelligence on YouTube
Bernard Carmona, Ingénium transdisciplinaire - La pratique du
débat dans le bouddhisme tibétain, Editions l'Harmattan, 2013
Bernard Carmona, Le réveil du génie de l'apprenant, Editions l'Harmattan, 2009
Basarab Nicolescu Manifesto of Transdisciplinarity, State University of
New York Press, New York, 2002, translation from French by Karen-Claire
Voss. Basarab Nicolescu Transdisciplinarity –
Theory and Practice, Hampton Press, Cresskill, NJ, USA, 2008.
Article by Jürgen Mittelstrass entitled On Transdisciplinarity
Gerhard Medicus, 2005. "Mapping Transdisciplinarity in Human Sciences".
; see also 2015: Being Human - Bridging the Gap between the Sciences of Body and
Mind. Berlin, VWB, ISBN 978-3-86135-584-7
Russian school of transdisciplinarity, 2000-2013 Articles Russian school of
transdisciplinarity, 2000-2013 Bambara, E., "Alle radici della
Transdisciplinarità. Edgar Morin e Basarab Nicolescu", PhD Thesis,
University of Messina, 2000 Brand, Frank; Schaller, Franz & Völker,
Harald: Transdisziplinarität. Bestandsaufnahme und Perspektiven.
Beiträge zur THESIS-Arbeitstagung im Oktober 2003 in Göttingen. Göttingen:
Universitätsverlag, 2004. Hirsch Hadorn, Gertrude; Hoffmann-Riem,
Holger; Biber-Klemm, Susette; Grossenbacher-Mansuy, Walter; Joye,
Dominique; Pohl, Christian; Wiesmann, Urs & Zemp, Elisabeth: Handbook of
Transdisciplinary Research, Springer. Hamberger, E., Luger, K.(2008):
Transdisziplinäre Kommunikation. Aktuelle Be-Deutungen im
fächerübergreifenden Dialog, Wien: Österr. Kunst- und Kulturverlag, ISBN
978-3-85437-264-6 Jaeger J., Scheringer M. 1998.
Transdisziplinarität. Problemorientierung ohne Methodenzwang.
GAIA 7(1): 10-25. Ronald Jones, Interdisciplinarian, The
Experience Design Group,Konstfack University of Art Design and Craft,
Stockholm, Sweden [1] Max-Neef, Manfred A. "Foundations of
Transdisciplinarity" Ecological Economics 53(2005) 5-16.
Jürgen Mittelstrass: Transdisciplinarity - New Structures in Science, presented
at the conference "Innovative Structures in Basic Research" at Schloss Ringberg,
4 October 2000 Jürgen Mittelstrass:
Transdisziplinarität – wissenschaftliche Zukunft und institutionelle
Wirklichkeit. 2003 ISBN 3-87940-786-X V.S.Mokiy, Methodology of
transdisciplinarity-4, number of pages-83, number of figures -41
Institute of transdisciplinary technologies, Russia, 2013.
V.S.Mokiy, Transdisciplinary research of the Big Bang potency transformation in
regards to Earth and human beings, number of pages-86, number of figures
-13 Institute of transdisciplinary technologies, Russia, 2013.
Nicolai Hartmann: Der Aufbau der realen Welt, Berlin, 1939, de Gruyter
Basarab Nicolescu, "Manifesto of Transdisciplinarity", State University
of New York Press, New York, USA, 2002, translation from the French by
Karen-Claire Voss. Pohl, Christian & Hirsch Hadorn,
Gertrude: Principles for Designing Transdisciplinary Research - proposed by
the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences, München: oekom Verlag.
Rupert Riedl: The Biology of Knowledge. Chichester, 1984, John Wiley
Thompson Klein, Julie; Grossenbacher-Mansuy, Walter; Häberli,
Rudolf; Bill, Alain; Scholz, Roland W.; Welti, Myrtha. Transdisciplinarity:
Joint problem solving among science, technology, and society. An effective
way for managing complexity. Basel: Birkhäuser
Niko Tinbergen: On Aims and Methods in Ethology. Zeitschrift für
Tierpsychologie, 1963, 20: 410-433 Steinmetz, George.. Transdisciplinarity
as a Nonimperial Encounter. Thesis Eleven, 91, 48-65.
sagepub.com9148.short?rss=1&ssource=mfc/ Stokols, D.. Toward a science of
transdisciplinary action research. American Journal of Community
Psychology, 38, 63-77. tp:www.springerlink.com46152846475696gu/
The Science of Team Science – Assessing the value of transdisciplinary research.
Supplement issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, August, 2008.
rcontrol.cancer.govscienceteam/ajpm.html Wickson, F., Carew, A.L. & Russell,
A.W., 2006, 'Transdisciplinary research: characteristics, quandaries and
quality', Futures, vol. 38, no. 9, pp. 1046–1059.
External links Integral Research Center
transdisciplinary-net, Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences
Transdisciplinary Case Studies at ETH Zurich
International Center for Transdisciplinary Research The site of
the International Center for Transdisciplinary Research. E-zine
"Transdisciplinary Encounters". Transdisciplinary Studies The book
series dedicated to transdisciplinary research.
Gerhard Medicus. "Basic Theory of Human Sciences".
World Knowledge Dialogue Foundation Сoncept Russian school of
Transdisciplinarity Article of the Russian School of
Transdisciplinarity Transdisciplinary Studies at Claremont
Graduate University [2] Journal of the International
Association of Transdisciplinary Psychology
GAIA: Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society A quarterly inter-
and transdisciplinary journal for scientists and other interested parties
concerned with the causes and analyses of environmental and sustainability
problems and their solutions. [3] Global Education Magazine
disseminate specialized knowledge with multi, inter and transdisciplinary
contents, with original works of research, studies, reviews and
innovative experiences to improve management and practice of institutions
and organizations with humanitarian and philanthropic educational activities.
Their preferred writers are come from educational scientific community with
international projects, humanitarian and voluntary activities, as well as
cooperation and development: Public and Private Educational Institutions, NGOs,
Development and Cooperation Associations, International Volunteers,
etc