Search

Inspired by the goal of making marketplaces more inclusive, this research provides a deeper understanding of consumer vulnerability dynamics to develop strategies that help reduce these vulnerabilities. The proposed framework, first, conceptualizes vulnerability states as a function of the breadth and depth of consumers' vulnerability; then, it sketches a set of vulnerability indicators that illustrate vulnerability breadth and depth. Second, because the breadth and depth of vulnerability vary over time, the framework goes beyond vulnerability states to identify distinct vulnerability-increasing and vulnerability-decreasing pathways, which describe how consumers move between vulnerability states. In a final step, the framework proposes that organizations can (and should) support consumers to mitigate vulnerability by helping consumers build resilience (e.g., via distinct types of resilience-fueling consumer agency). This framework offers novel conceptual insights into consumer vulnerability dynamics as well as resilience and provides avenues for future research on how organizations can better partner with consumers who experience vulnerabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The disseminating of academic knowledge to nonacademic audiences partly relies on the transition of subsequent citing papers. This study aims to investigate direct and indirect impact on technology and policy originating from transformative research based on ego citation network.

AbstractPurposeMethodResultConclusionTo investigate the characteristics of studies that included underrepresented speech-language pathologists (SLPs) as research participants.A scoping review was conducted using the principles of the transformative research paradigm, which promotes the meaningful involvement and empowerment of marginalised groups. Co-production with minority SLPs was facilitated. The search strategy was run in six databases, and the transformative checklist used for analysis.Twenty studies were included. Bilingual and male SLPs were among the most commonly included underrepresented SLPs. Most studies were conducted in the USA (n = 16), and used survey methods. The studies provided valuable insights into the experiences and practices of underrepresented SLPs, and yielded practical solutions to foster inclusion and diversity in the profession. Most studies demonstrated a transformative potential, but the active engagement of underrepresented SLP participants in the research cycle was rarely demonstrated.This review calls for a shift in how and why research is conducted when including underrepresented SLP participants. Through the lens of the transformative research paradigm, we can rethink the broader aim of research and the role of researchers and participants. Using research as a platform to give visibility, voice, and agency to minority groups can stimulate change and equity in the profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our study provides findings from cultural leadership project based on healing-centered engagement strategies using a transformative convergent mixed methods research design to address mental well-being among young Bhutanese-Nepali refugee women(N = 36). Using a participatory approach, data were collected to explore the feasibility and acceptability of a culturally responsive healing-centered intervention. While quantitative scores showed a significant decrease in anxiety and depression, qualitative findings revealed increased leadership skills, self-esteem, social support, and resilience after the intervention. We discuss the need to promote a holistic view of healing from collective trauma and offer a culturally grounded asset-driven approach to promote hope and healing among refugees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this panel discussion, we explore various ways that academics can advance work related to GenderS, intersectionality and inequities so that it has impact within academia and in society. Panelists offer practical insights, relate challenges in doing this work, and suggest avenues for alternative yet impactful dissemination of work. The purpose is to demonstrate how those interested in supporting or working in this space might move from being allies to advocates and accomplices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transformative research agenda encourages the pursuit of questions emphasizing societal welfare and well‐being outcomes rather than (just) focusing on narrow, incremental business‐related outcomes. This paper addresses that premise by examining those households at the social and economic bottom of the pyramid (BOP) that are intended to benefit most from the removal of trade barriers. The removal of these barriers should enable supply chains to yield commercial and welfare efficiency in terms of economic surpluses. The Goods and Services Tax legislation implemented in India in 2017 sought to do just that, serving as the experimental testbed for our investigation. Yet, as our analysis of more than 50,000 unique households in the Consumer Pyramids Household Survey data indicates, those at the social and geographic BOP see less benefit than others from the same policy intervention. This runs counter to the intended consequences of such policies. We employ a middle‐range theorizing approach grounded in the Theory of Customs Unions to inform and substantiate our hypotheses, which are tested using a stochastic frontier analysis and truncated regression. The results hold implications for policymakers and organizations seeking to elevate the efficacy of supply chains orchestrated by and serving BOP populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transformative capacity (TC) is key for addressing climate change impacts. It refers to urban areas' ability for profound and intentional change to address current challenges and move towards a more desirable and resilient state. However, its varied applications across disciplines can lead to misunderstandings and implementation challenges. Thus, this Semi-Systematic Literature Review (SSLR) on TC within urban studies from 2016 to 2022 aims to overview and synthesise TC literature and its gaps to inform ongoing debates, intersecting it with climate-related research. The results show an increasing interest in TC within two fields of knowledge: resilience studies and transformative research. The review found TC as a catalyst for transformative actions, promoting sustainable pathways, enhancing resilience, and driving fundamental changes in urban climate adaptation. Finally, the prevailing literature gaps concern the TC concept's fragmentation, excessive research on governance features, and lack of joint research about TC and innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This issue's In-Dialogue represents the intentional epitomization of many conversations the Editorial Team has been having since JASC’s inception around what we mean by 'transformative'. As convenors of the dialogue Oliver Koenig and Megan Seneque invited a small group of individuals who, in their ongoing work, have been deeply immersed in exploring research and praxis paradigms that respond ethically, critically, and creatively to the intersecting crises of our time. Together, the group set out to explore the integrity of 'research' and 'practice', their critical entanglement and co-dependence, and the nature of practices that enable worlds to be created in certain ways. Rather than attempting to arrive at a consensual understanding, the dialogue that unfolds can be seen as a mirror of the world-making practice(s) that are characteristic of transformative research

Real-world laboratories have become a recognised research format for addressing sustainability challenges. In these transdisciplinary settings, actors from civil society, local government, and academia work together using a transdisciplinary research approach to joint[y experiment and learn about sustainability transformations. While these labs areconsidered to have potential, their impact has not yet been fully measured. Therefore, in our paper we explore the case of the Zukunfts-stadt Loneburg 2030+ process to uncover the impacts that this long-term effort has generated over the past eight years. By examining the process land its design features from three analytical perspectives, we identify emergent impacts in three dimensions: education, governance, and the lab as an actor for sustainability. Based on our case study, we suggest that real-world labs contribute to sustainability on a local level, beyond the intentional experiments, through impacts that emerge over the scourse of the joint operation of the lab. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dominant model of universities, especially in the social sciences, is often based upon academic disciplines, objectivity, and a linear knowledge-transfer model. It facilitates competition between academics, educating students for specific professions from an objective, descriptive, and neutral position. This paper argues that this institutional model of universities is inadequate to contribute effectively to societal transitions towards just and sustainable futures. Taking the Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR), the Netherlands, as an example, this paper illustrates the problems with the dominant (twentieth century) model of universities in the social sciences and explores what strategies universities can develop to transform. It introduces the notions of transformative research and transformative education: transdisciplinary, collaborative, and action-oriented academic work that explicitly aims to support societal transitions. It presents the design impact transition (DIT) platform as an 'institutional experiment' at the EUR and a concerted and strategic effort that lays bare current lock-ins of the dominant university model and the kind of institutional work needed to transform universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academia has experienced acceleration and expansion in parallel with the Great Acceleration, which has shaped the Anthropocene. Among other pressures, the expectation to be internationally mobile conflicts with many values held by sustainability scholars and results in disillusionment. The changes in the academic system can be seen through the framework of the adaptive cycle, which can help us understand historical parallels and shape the system to better align with sustainability values in future. We hope this piece can contribute to the discussion of the next steps forward to reimagine academia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Freedom of Information (FOI) or Access to Information (ATI) legislation regulates the right to make written requests for government records. Previous research either interrogates the effectiveness of FOI/ATI legislation for advancing government transparency or positions the requests as a means for gathering data on government institutions. This article intervenes in this debate by treating FOI/ATI mechanisms as the vantage point from which to examine questions about power in public administration. Adopting a transformative approach, this article explores the potential of using FOI/ATI requests as a liberatory tool that enables the analysis of power dynamics in public administration. For this purpose, the author draws upon her experience with Canada’s ATI regime and requests from the Immigration and Refugee Board. This article documents how ATI requests reveal policy tensions within the Board related to case and performance management, as well as patterns of front-line staff resistance to these measures. It goes on to examine complaints about delays made to the ATI watchdog which expose the attribution of ATI resources towards non-ATI responsibilities. This article highlights the contribution that FOI/ATI requests can make to public administration research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impacts of neoliberal managerialism mean that practitioners working in child protection programmes are often challenged to balance social work values, with formal compliance activities to reduce risk. Within this context, what are the possibilities for practitioners to creatively navigate complex practice environments to achieve better outcomes for children and families? And how might transformative research empower practitioners to improve practice by reconnecting their work with the emancipatory values of the profession? This article seeks to address these questions by showcasing key findings of a state-wide study focused on empowering children's voices, through the presentation and analysis of a case study. The research used a pre-test/post-test design with critical reflection as a methodology to transform the practice of front line workers and managers who work with children and families in an Australian-based non-government organisation. The case study illustrates the conceptual and practical processes involved in achieving change in a way that can be replicated by others and transferred to other contexts. The findings of the research suggest that critical reflection can be effective to enable practitioners to improve practice with children and families. The article concludes by highlighting implications for organisations in supporting critically reflective practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This small-scale, qualitative, participatory study explored a group of young people's experiences of the Tree of Life narrative intervention and ways of conducting participatory research with this particular group. The research was carried out with five co-researchers (aged 12–13 years) who attend a specialist secondary school for students with autism/social communication needs and related social, emotional and mental health needs. Visual approaches were used to answer the research question: "What did we think of the Tree of Life group?" The data were analysed using an adaptation of thematic analysis and the findings included the following themes: friendship, knowledge, fun, and self-expression. The findings suggest implications for educational psychologists regarding the usefulness of the Tree of Life approach to improve friendships, group cohesion and foster self-reflection. The research also has implications for EPs as practitioner researchers in supporting the use of participatory approaches to promote the autonomy of young people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a narrative account of my search for knowledge about the nature of consciousness, and the implications of my findings for research and education. For over three decades, I accepted the dominant script presented to me through my education, both formal and informal, which assumes that the brain creates consciousness. Further, when the brain dies, consciousness dies with it. However, the unexpected death of my partner pushed me to investigate these assumptions. Through reading consciousness studies research, I learned of considerable empirical evidence that challenges the materialist paradigm taken for granted in the educational and social cultures in which I was raised. An analysis of the literature, combined with the learning gained from my own experiences, transformed my understanding of reality. This led me to radically question the ontological and epistemological assumptions of mainstream educational and social research. I end with a call for the development of an integral framework for consciousness education that would liberate researchers and educators from the materialist paradigm that is so deeply embedded in Western culture and contribute to an emerging postmaterialist worldview.

This reflective paper explores Tara's doctoral research journey of realization and adaptation in auto/ethnography as a transformative research methodology. While reflecting on Tara’s journey, the auto/ethnographic paper emphasizes cultural perspectives, interpreting one's own experiences, thoughts, actions, and behaviors relating to society and culture. Likewise, auto/ethnography investigates and associates an individual's confrontation within specific educational, societal, and cultural contexts. With this ethos, the paper demonstrates how Tara, a mathematics teacher and doctoral student, encountered and observed auto/ethnography and discovered it as a path to transformation as a paradigm shift in transformative educational research by connecting lives and research (Dahal et al., 2022) considering the basis of ethics in auto/ethnography (Dahal & Luitel, 2022). Next, in this scenario of residing in cultural and societal context dealing with Tara’s emotions and settings of an education system, we have explored the journey of realization and adaption on how auto/ethnography blends analytic, evocative, and performative realms. Overall, we also realized that auto/ethnography guided us to delve through the past, present, and possible future experiences and unlatch Tara’s eyes to visualize a new era of research for upcoming generations in teaching and learning mathematics that reaches out to society and the nation whilst shifting to transformative educational research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of GAIA: Ecological Perspectives for Science & Society is the property of Oekom Verlag GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Scientific realists have suggested that changes in our scientific communities over the course of their history have rendered those communities progressively less vulnerable to the problem of unconcieved alternatives over time. I argue in response not only that the most fundamental historical transformations of the scientific enterprise have generated steadily mounting obstacles to revolutionary, transformative, or unorthodox scientific theorizing, but also that we have substantial independent evidence that the institutional apparatus of contemporary scientific inquiry fosters an exceedingly and increasingly theoretically conservative form of that inquiry. I conclude that contemporary scientific communities are actually more vulnerable to the problem of unconceived alternatives than their historical predecessors, and I briefly suggest how we might seek to pursue scientific inquiry in a less theoretically conservative way.

The purpose of this article is two-fold. Firstly, we consider whether the setting up of mixed-gender focus group sessions has the potential as a research process to contribute to transforming people's understandings of their gendered relationships. Secondly, we relate our discussion to the question of the mutability of stereotypical thinking in the context in question, taking into account the idea that cultures in different contexts can be seen as "in the making" through the way in which people together create meaning. We explain how the first author of the article organized focus groups which were mixed in terms of gender with the purpose that the adult learner participants could develop their perceptions as they related to each other around the topic of gender inequalities.). The sessions were conducted in two adult learning Centers located in a rural and an urban area respectively - Xola and Zodwa - within the Cacadu District of the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Two mixed focus groups took place in 2016 (one in each Center, with 19 females and 5 males altogether), and a follow up took place in 2018, to further discuss recommendations. In 2022, another set of focus group sessions was arranged in the same Centers, with 10 females and 6 males who were asked to participate and agreed. As part of a related discussion on gendered relationships, they were asked specific questions regarding how they understood the value of the mixed-gender conversations. Results from the various sets of groups suggest that focus groups can indeed help people to explore and rethink gender disparities and to think of ways forward in terms of enriched understandings. We recommend that mixed-gender focus group sessions should be regarded by researchers as a potential space to fruitfully set up a way for people to develop their sense of interdependence in their social relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecological crises such as climate change challenge ecosystems and societies. They also concern us as scholars of media and communication. We should not stand by and watch ecological disaster from the sidelines. This article calls for more transformative communication and media scholarship. This implies research, teaching, and public engagement about how to transform societies toward just socioecological transformations through preserving ecosystems and catering for the needs of current and future generations across the globe. We show how much is already being done, as well as how much more we could do as a discipline to not only become carbon neutral but leave a positive imprint on the way societies respond to ecological challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women's entrepreneurship is an important medium for poverty reduction, economic growth and development. Nonetheless, it faces critical challenges that limit it from realizing its full potential. Feminist theories bring to the fore the diverse conundrums of women's entrepreneurship and how to address them. This paper aims to examine Ghana's women's entrepreneurship policies from feminist theoretical perspectives to determine how the policies address gendered barriers and support women's entrepreneurship efforts. Premised on the transformative research paradigm, the paper involves content analysis of 14 purposively-sampled Ghana's public policy documents. Consistent with policy expectations of the feminist theories, it was found that there are policies that seek to address gendered discourses, promote change of social structures in support of women's venturing and enhance women entrepreneurs' access to resources. Nonetheless, there are still areas that need further attention in all three theoretical perspectives, particularly in pursuit of change in social structures and gender equality in access to resources. Although the policies justifiably tilt more towards the informal sector, inadequate attention to women operating in the formal sector could serve as a disincentive to the growth and development of their ventures and a deterrent to the graduation of more informal enterprises into the formal economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the perspective of the architecture departments in nine German technical universities, this essay argues that the positioning of architecture as a research discipline requires adapted evaluation standards to fulfil its promise of generating new knowledge. Evaluation processes depend on and also influence their funding context, plus they are strongly linked to a categorisation of research practices and topics. The essay argues for widespread recognition of discipline-specific research methods, as well as specific outputs and publication practices. It provides empirical evidence of new European standards for peer-reviewed assessment of architectural research in line with subject-specific approaches. Suggestions are made for opening up excellence funding lines to design-oriented and practice-based research. The essay thus calls for researchers, universities, and associations to work together to improve evaluation and funding frameworks. It proposes that measures to strengthen the quality of architectural research in Germany can thus be of interest to a wider European academic community. The essay's conclusions support the goal of the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (COARA) to maximise the excellence and impact of research by reforming assessment practices across all disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an increasing call for science to contribute more to real-world solutions for a sustainability transformation. At the same time, the scientific landscape encompasses different concepts, which are characterized as practice-oriented, addressing social challenges and wicked problems, which thus offer potential to contribute to a transformation, notably: technology assessment (TA), responsible research and innovation (RRI), and real-world labs (RwLs). This article deals with the question of how these different concepts can be better integrated to contribute to a transformation. With this goal in mind, we analyze the three concepts, show their core characteristics, and identify their common key similarities. TA and RRI have rarely been connected to transformative sustainability research in general or RwLs in particular. Based on the key similarities and respective strengths of the three concepts, we suggest four ways to integrate the approaches, including the novel endeavor of a Reflexive Sustainable Technology Lab as the highest level of the concepts' synthesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last two decades, scholars have designed various types of bibliographic-related indicators to identify breakthrough-class academic achievements. In this study, we take a step further to look at the performance of the promising disruptive index (DI) in reference (Wu et al. in Nature 566(7744):378-382, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-0941-9, 2019), thus deepening our understanding of the DI and further facilitating its wise use in bibliometrics. Using publication records for Nobel laureates between 1900 and 2016, we calculate the DI of Nobel Prize-winning articles and benchmark articles from each year, use the median and mean DI to denote the central tendency in each year, and analyze the variation of the DI since publication. We find that Nobel Prize-winning articles are not necessarily more disruptive than benchmark articles. Results based on DI depend on the length of their citation time window, and different citation time windows may cause different, even controversial, results. As a result, research assessment should balance between short- & long-term scientific impact; Also, discipline and time play a role in the length of the citation window when using DI to measure the innovativeness of scientific work. The study also discusses potential research directions around DI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This transformative study aimed to explore how people who practice BDSM (bondage, discipline, dominance, submission, sadism, masochism) experience therapy; specifically, what sort of therapist responses and qualities they described as problematic and desirable in relation to addressing BDSM in therapy. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 27 Swedish BDSM practitioners with experiences of psychotherapy. The interviews were analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Three themes were identified: 'A professional stance', relating to how therapists handled their professional roles when BDSM was addressed, 'Therapists' approaches towards BDSM', regarding therapists' opinions and attitudes towards BDSM, and 'Conversations about BDSM', regarding how therapists handled conversation about the topic. Participants reported negative experiences where therapists expressed prejudice, judgment or pathologizing attitudes, failed to contain their own emotions, questioned their clients about BDSM, used their clients to inform themselves about BDSM, avoided or focused excessively on the topic. Positive experiences were characterised by non-judgement, asking client-centred questions, and stimulating a collaborative exploration of matters relevant to the client. BDSM practitioners' experiences of therapy were related to those documented in the literature on other minoritized identities. This study contributes to the growing literature on kink-aware therapy, which makes psychotherapy more affirmative, accessible, and rewarding to BDSM practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to explore if elite scientists play a key role in the genesis of transformative research. As there exist different types of transformative research, this paper focuses on one type of work, i.e. under-cited influential work,referred to as "sparking" articles. A comparative study between the h-indices of authors citing Nobel Prize-winning papers of sparking type and those of authors citing ordinary ones is conducted, focusing on the first author and the corresponding author of each paper. The results show that the citers of the Top 1% or Top 10% Citations Sets in the sparking group have much higher h-indices than those in the ordinary group. These findings imply that elite scientists, operationalized as those with a high h-index in the corresponding fields, are more sensitive to sparking work and, as such play a pivotal role in the genesis of transformative research. This investigation provides new insight into the study of detecting transformative research, and hence, contributes to the science of science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an imbalance across design disciplines in how the user is theorised, represented and ultimately configured. It is suggested that normative user-centred design, as practiced in product design and human-computer interaction (HCI), can lead to a lack-based approach which, when applied in a health and wellbeing context, tends to align unreflexively with a medicalised view of the person. In contrast, the use of self in research is a concept well-developed in health care ethics and care professions, while the interpersonal relationship is valued and analysed in psychotherapy and counselling research and practice. Inspired by these, this article presents a discussion on the sometimes deeply relational nature of doing design with users when viewed through the lens of the Person-Centred Approach (PCA) (Rogers 1961/1967). A case study is used to illustrate an encounter of relational depth as experienced by students working directly with individuals to design prosthetics. Lifelines is a creative project brief developed by Jivan Astfalck (2008; 2011), which asks students to represent ten significant moments in their own lives through the creative use of materials and found objects. In this case, the brief was altered so that another person (the ‘user’) would be represented. The aim was that the student designers would experience moving beyond implicit conceptions of the user as defined by a need or perceived (dis)ability, and that the intimate and personal nature of identifying and representing significant moments would raise questions about expectations of objectivity in design and research. The case study demonstrates that working in this way can be experienced as profoundly moving, with powerful moments of personal transformation and interpersonal growth. In discussion, it is suggested that through such moments of encounter, it becomes possible to examine the qualities of the relational in action, and to analyse not only problematic processes of othering, but also their converse - meetings at relational depth. The Lifelines brief is proposed as a transformative way for designers to re-engage with the whole person, as both substantial (self-realising) and relational (in time, with others and the world), and as one creative exercise in a potential suite of tools for the strengthening of the “ethical reflex” necessary in Design and HCI (Vandenberghe and Slegers 2016, 514).

Copyright of GAIA: Ecological Perspectives for Science & Society is the property of Oekom Verlag GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A growing amount of educational research employs participatory methods in which young people actively gather and analyze data in collaboration with the investigators. Considering the diverse use of the label “participatory,” we examined participatory studies with young people to understand how researchers justify using this approach and conceptualize its purposes and goals, as well as these studies’ contributions to scholarship and youth’s civic learning. We conducted an interpretive meta-ethnography of 95 studies, identifying four distinct types of participatory studies with youth: technical, capacity building, justice-oriented, and transformative. We conclude that research that labels itself “participatory” but does not benefit the participants and their communities puts the approach’s credibility at risk. To challenge structural inequalities and power relations between participants and researchers, academic studies should better align with the transformative approach that has the potential to support youth in becoming agents of change by engaging them in self-directed civic learning and activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The challenges of achieving just, equitable and sustainable ocean futures require a new type of transdisciplinary and action-oriented science that integrates across disciplines and knowledge systems. Scientists and researchers in academia, industry or government, who contribute to knowledge creation, innovation, and policy development for the ocean, must be empowered with a fresh set of competences. This paper maps the knowledge, skills, and attitudes required to enable such a shift. The proposed skillset serves as a foundation for the design and operationalisation of modern training for ocean sustainability and is envisaged to be used by researchers both individually and in teams. It also highlights the potential for career diversification beyond the traditional 'blue jobs' legitimated by existing sectors. To ensure the short-term practical implementation of the competence framework, self-awareness and self-reflection are encouraged among learners and teachers, along with pragmatic actions to overcome barriers to transdisciplinarity. For long-term impact, system interventions will be necessary to improve organisations' readiness to absorb and valorise researchers trained in this new framework. This will require re-training the current pedagogical workforce as well as reframing existing knowledge systems and incentives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this contribution, we conduct a multi-angular analysis of the interdisciplinarity of Nobel Prize winning research compared to non-Nobel Prize winning articles, based on a large data set. Here interdisciplinarity is measured by the diversity of references, using two true diversity indicators. Articles mentioned by the Nobel Prize committee in Physiology or Medicine (in short: NP articles) awarded during the period from 1900 to 2016 are the focus of our research. These articles are compared with those in a dataset of articles that do not include a Nobel Prize winner among their authors. Moreover, these non-NPs articles were not only published in the same year and in the same research field as the NP ones but were also dealing with the same research topic (such articles are referred to as non-NP articles). The results suggest that the topic-related knowledge included in Nobel Prize winning work is higher than that in non-NPs, hence with lower interdisciplinarity than the latter. Our findings provide useful clues to better understand the characteristics of transformative research, here represented by key publications by Nobel Prize laureates in Physiology or Medicine, and their pattern of knowledge integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the book, Questions in Qualitative Social Justice Research in Multicultural Contexts, the authors, Anna CohenMiller and Nettie Boivin, ask provocative questions meant to stimulate us as qualitative researchers to strengthen options for conducting "better" research which is likely to advance inclusion and equity for communities who have been historically marginalized, colonized and/or oppressed. The book is adeptly structured so to invite us to (re)consider possible answers to their questions posed. As part of explicating the diversity of approaches to questions that can and should be asked regarding the doing of inclusive qualitative research, they include vignettes of a range of additional contributors who thoughtfully present/narrate their "reflections from the field" towards the end of each chapter. The book re-opens discussion on topics such as: owning our power (and rebalancing power relations), developing trust through building relationships, reconsidering the "insider/outsider" divide, activating transformative research, working with cross-disciplinarity in a research team, undertaking ethical online research, and credentializing different ways of "knowing," including arts-based productions. Readers of this book should surely be inspired to consider new possibilities for practicing social justice research. The book is about social justice research and as such does not directly address ecological justice from a non-anthropocentric perspective, but some of the reflections from the field refer to caring for non-sentient beings and other "being," thus paving a way for us to include this in our considerations when pursuing a justice agenda in the research process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article gives insight into two research projects dealing with urban climate change that used laboratories in real-world contexts as a research mode. The article's objective is to investigate the challenges we experienced based on a reflective comparison of the projects' labs. Challenges occurred regarding the lab's core elements, i.e. real-world experiments, the cooperation of scientists and practitioners (transdisciplinarity), the intervention methods (transformation-oriented research), and long-term character and transferability. We suggest that promoting constant communication and reflection, downscaling scope, accepting failure and going beyond the limiting conditions of scientific research may advance the concept of laboratories in real-world contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autoethnography is a transformative qualitative research method that has the power to heal self and society after traumatic events (personal and collective). It is a bridge between the subjective inner world of spirit and memory with the outer world of objectivity and culture. Autoethnography is a powerful tool for manifesting change in the world. In this paper, I will address autoethnography as a transformative methodology in relationship to my father's death when I was a young child, demonstrate the therapeutic aspects of personal narrative, and quickly address some of the ethical challenges with the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transdisciplinary Sustainability Science has emerged as a viable answer to current sustainability crises with the aim to strengthen collaborative knowledge production. To expand its transformative potential, we argue that Transdisciplinary Sustainability Science needs to thoroughly engage with questions of unequal power relations and hierarchical scientific constructs. Drawing on the work of the feminist philosopher María Puig de la Bellacasa, we examine a feminist ethos of care which might provide useful guidance for sustainability researchers who are interested in generating critical-emancipatory knowledge. A feminist ethos of care is constituted by three interrelated modes of knowledge production: (1) thinking-with, (2) dissenting-within and (3) thinking-for. These modes of thinking and knowing enrich knowledge co-production in Transdisciplinary Sustainability Science by (i) embracing relational ontologies, (ii) relating to the 'other than human', (iii) cultivating caring academic cultures, (iv) taking care of non-academic research partners, (v) engaging with conflict and difference, (vi) interrogating positionalities and power relations through reflexivity, (vii) building upon marginalised knowledges via feminist standpoints and (viii) countering epistemic violence within and beyond academia. With our paper, we aim to make a specific feminist contribution to the field of Transdisciplinary Sustainability Science and emphasise its potentials to advance this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a 2016 special issue on the relationships between ethnography of education and social, economic, and material precarity, Geoff Bright and John Smyth were critical of ethnographic researchers, for concentrating on discourses and discourse production only, rather than on material conditions to develop activism and processes of transformation against oppression. Instead of only identifying and critiquing precarity, and deconstructing taken-for-granted ideas to give voice to ingrained forms of oppression and marginalization, critical ethnography they wrote, should really be about changing, not only describing and analyzing, oppressive conditions. In the present article, we attempt to identify and explore cases where researchers have overcome the reluctance toward activism and transformation. Using empirical examples we will try to illustrate what characterized these efforts and what seemed to support their success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discussion - Why and How These Trends Call for an Integration of Psychology All these trends are encountering challenges that create opportunities for psychology to contribute to sustainability-related research processes. The Systems View - On the Challenge of Integrating Human Subjectivity In the context of developing a systems-based theory of change, psychology can contribute a rich spectrum of empirical I methods i for investigating deeper systemic leverage points. Keywords: transformative research; transdisciplinarity; relationality; mental model; leverage points EN transformative research transdisciplinarity relationality mental model leverage points 1 4 4 06/23/21 20210617 NES 210617 Introduction - Essential Trends in Sustainability Research Over the last decades, the field of sustainability science has experienced trends toward (1) a transdisciplinary (Hirsch Hadorn et al., [13]; Jahn et al., [16]) and (2) systemic, relationship-based understanding of transformation (Clark and Harley, [8]) and (3) transformative research (Schneidewind et al., [32]; Fazey et al., [12]; Clark and Harley, [8]). [Extracted from the article]

Three key transitions leading to a “safe and just” operating space, with a focus on food systems, emerged during the development of a Foresight study promoted by SCAR (Standing Committee on Agricultural Research1): (a) sustainable and healthy diets for all; (b) full circularity in the use of resources; (c) diversity as a key component of stable systems. As consequence of COVID-19, food emerged again as a central element of life, along with health, after decades in which food security was taken for granted, at least in most developed countries. The COVID-19 outbreak offered the opportunity for a reflection on the importance of resilience in emergencies. Sustainable and healthy diets for all, was shown, during the pandemic, to depend much more on social and economic conditions than on technical aspects of food production and processing. Agriculture and the agro-industry have now a potential to absorb, at least temporarily, workers laid out in other sectors; the pandemic could be an opportunity to re-think and re-value labor relationships in the sector as well as local productions and supply chains. A full circularity in food systems also would benefit from stronger links established at the territorial level and increase the attention on the quality of the environment, leading to the adoption of benign practices, regenerating rather than impoverishing natural resources. Diversity is a key component of a resilient system, both in the biophysical sphere and in the social sphere: new business models, new knowledge-sharing networks, new markets. The three transitions would operate in synergy and contribute to the resilience of the whole food system and its preparation for a possible next emergency. Science can support policy making; however, science needs to be better embedded in society, to have a clear direction toward the grand challenges, to address the social, economic, behavioral spheres, to aim clearly at the common good. We need to re-think the conundrum between competition and cooperation in research, devising ways to boost the latter without sacrificing excellence. We need to improve the way knowledge is generated and shared and we need to ensure that information is accessible and unbiased by vested interests.

Earth System Law has been proposed as an alternative conceptual framework to animate and support more adequate legal responses to planetary change. The emerging Earth System Law literature has sketched the contours of this new legal paradigm and reflected on its implications for the legal scholarly community. However, to date, less attention has been paid to the challenges of harnessing the transformative potential of Earth System Law; that is, its promise to evolve from a theoretically innovative perspective to facilitating positive, on-the-ground change. In this paper, we therefore ask: Which issues and questions will the Earth System Law research community have to engage with to ensure that Earth System Law is able to initiate and drive the processes of transformative change which it purports to support? And, which starting points can we identify for productively engaging with these issues? Responding to these questions, we articulate a theory-to-practice agenda which sets out departure points for working towards Earth System Law finding resonance in practice.