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Inter- and Transdisciplinarity

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Sustainability Ethics and Sustainability Research

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Abstract

In this chapter, I refer to the existing concepts of interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity to discuss some main principles for the design of sustainability research. However, I will provide a specific interpretation and definition of the concepts of inter- and transdisciplinarity, which currently have a rather broad and sometimes vague meaning, to make them fruitful for the design of the new type of sustainability research. I argue for a type of interdisciplinary sustainability research, which integrates different academic disciplines and ethics, and discuss some methodological challenges of this integration. Further, for the purpose of designing a new type of sustainability research, I suggest to extend and redefine the concept of transdisciplinarity. As a characteristic of sustainability research, I define transdisciplinarity as a reorientation of the meta-structure science with regard to the context of all three sustainability relations. This is a broader understanding of transdisciplinarity, which means not just a new social contract (Lubchenco 1998) for science to reorient on society, but rather a new sustainability contract for science to reorient towards the three sustainability relations— i.e. towards society, future generations, and nature.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For a more detailed discussion of different types of interdisciplinary research, see Baumgärtner and Becker (2005) and Baumgärtner et al. (2008).

  2. 2.

    The concept of transdisciplinarity is also used in a variety of other meanings. Sometimes it is not defined as an interconnection of science and society, but rather as a certain type of interdisciplinarity, e.g., by Costanza et al. (1998) and Mittelstraß (2001).

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, The Pennsylvania State University, 240 Sparks Building, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    Christian U. Becker

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  1. Christian U. Becker
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Correspondence to Christian U. Becker .

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© 2012 Springer Science +Business Media B.V.

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Becker, C.U. (2012). Inter- and Transdisciplinarity. In: Sustainability Ethics and Sustainability Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2285-9_12

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