Transdisciplinarity Emerges as the New Frontier in Socio-Environmental Research
The new efforts in socio-environmental research invest in transdisciplinarity through the São Paulo School of Advanced Science in Transdisciplinarity for Transformative Changes, a Fapesp financing line. The objective is to unite the efforts of different actors to face contemporary environmental challenges. Cristina Adams, professor at the School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities (EACH) at USP and researcher at the Institute of Energy and Environment (IEE) and the Forest Governance Research Group, talks about research advances.
The professor explains that transdisciplinarity is a step forward in relation to interdisciplinarity in research. While interdisciplinarity is the dialogue between scientific areas of knowledge, transdisciplinary research seeks sources within and outside academia, using a wider range of knowledge. “The complexity of the contemporary world is what leads to this need. We need to leave the walls of the university and dialogue with other forms of knowledge in society”, she says.
Regarding the initiative, the researcher states that it was based on the sum of her experience with that of Cristiana Seixas, from the Center for Environmental Studies and Research at Unicamp. “We realized that there is a large gap in the training of researchers in the socio-environmental area within this transdisciplinary approach. So we started with this initiative to finance studies in this area and train new researchers for an innovative approach”, she adds.
The practice
The professor warns that what were once theoretical modeling and predictions made decades ago are now climate effects that we are having to deal with. She cites the pandemic as an example of a complex problem arising from human actions. Economy, public management, health, all these areas of knowledge had to be consulted so that the situation could be controlled.
In another example, she cites the excessive use of cars in São Paulo. She explains that it is a habit with complex reasons, involving urban planning and public mobility and affecting the city’s environment and the health of citizens in different ways, especially the most socially fragile. Therefore, this is an issue that requires an approach that addresses all these areas of knowledge.
“We have to look at our country or region as a territory immersed within a complex system. Human activities such as the economy and our ways of life influence nature, physical, geological and atmospheric conditions, these conditions that the world needs to deal with.”
Build and collaborate
Cristina Adams ends by explaining the main objectives of the event, which will continue. The main point, according to her, is to provide critical, theoretical, methodological and practical training for this co-production of knowledge. “In other words, the production of knowledge by these various social actors, this interaction between researchers and other actors in society, it is through the construction of this network that we will achieve transformative solutions”, she states.
“Most of those undergoing training are already producing transdisciplinary project proposals in groups, which are contributions to promoting what we call transformative changes. These are the changes that will truly reorganize our social system, the economy and social technological factors. We need a way in which we can move towards sustainability and human well-being”, he concludes.