Disciplinarity within the academy has supported the development of expertise whilst at the same time fragmenting research and scholarship in the face of complex problems and ‘Grand Challenges’. Many fields of urgent research from sustainable cities to domestic abuse demand trans-disciplinary enquiry – and research funders are calling for new modes of collaboration, bringing together many different kinds of knowledge and experience. Multi-disciplinary modes of research seek collaboration while maintaining disciplinary boundaries, whilst inter-disciplinary modes attempt to combine and synthesise disciplines. Transdisciplinary, however, attempts to reach out beyond the university and its disciplines to produce new knowledge with partners who range from commercial, governmental professional and practitioner organisations to social movements and marginalised communities. But how can different ways of knowing be combined? Do some ways still count more than others? What problems arise from transdisciplinary encounters? The membership of the Institute of Citizenship, Society and Change has a rich and varied experience of transdisciplinary work. This seminar will explore the experiences and practical dilemmas of transdisciplinary and also present a range of theoretical resources to reflect on the emergence of engaged and transdisciplinary knowledge production.
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