R E P O R T - Leuphana

R E P O R T

AGENDA SETTING WORKSHOP

TRANSDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH AND SUSTAINABILITY

WITHIN AN INTERCULTURAL ORIENTATION

September 11th to 13th 2018

Leuphana University Lüneburg

Maria De Eguia Huerta, Juliana Merçon, Esther Meyer, Ulli Vilsmaier

‘Complexity or Control? Paradigms for Sustainable Development (CCP)’

Agenda Setting Workshop – Td research and sustainability within an intercultural orientation September 11-13, 2018, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg

CCP – Complexity or Control? Paradigms for sustainable development

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0. Index

Content 0. Index ................................................................................................................................................ 2

1. Agenda Setting Workshop in a nutshell .......................................................................................... 2

2. The background and aims of the Agenda Setting Workshop .......................................................... 3

3. Preparation Process ........................................................................................................................ 5

4. Workshop Program .......................................................................................................................... 6

5. Activities Summaries ........................................................................................................................ 7

5.1. Reformulating the invitation-questions ....................................................................................... 8

5.2. World Café .................................................................................................................................... 9

5.3. Agreeing on priorities: Cards – Clustering .................................................................................. 12

5.4. Exploring forms of ongoing exchange and collaborative research: Concrete Action ................ 13

5.5. Further research questions ........................................................................................................ 15

Annex 1. Participants ............................................................................................................................. 17

Annex 2. Images .................................................................................................................................... 18

1. Agenda Setting Workshop in a nutshell

The Agenda Setting Workshop – Transdisciplinary Research and Sustainability within an

Intercultural Orientation took place at the Leuphana University Lüneburg from September

11th to 13th 2018. The workshop was organized by the project ‘Complexity or Control?

Paradigms for Sustainable Development (CCP)’, a cooperative project of the Methodology

Center, the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, and the Faculty of Sustainability,

Leuphana University Lüneburg, and Arizona State University. It is funded by the

Volkswagen Stiftung and the Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur.

The workshop aimed at creating a space for joint exploration of ways of understanding and

further developing transdisciplinary research and sustainability. The rationale behind this

event was to challenge a westernized perspective of researchers and policy makers with

regards to the two core concepts of the workshop: transdisciplinarity and sustainability.

Therefore, a heterogenous group of people in terms of knowledge(s) area(s),

methodologies, (work-) cultures and place of origin(s), amongst others, was invited to



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jointly explore concepts, perspectives and methodologies as well as possible forms of

collaborative research work in the future.

The 22 participants came from 12 countries, including Nigeria, Brazil, Chile, Mexico,

Bolivia, Zimbabwe, Nepal, Kenya, India, Germany, Austria and Spain. The workshop

benefited from the Td Summer School 2018 [https://www.leuphana.de/en/research-

centers/center-for-methods/training/td-summer-school-2018.html], which took part the

previous week and brought together 30 participants from 26 nations. Some of them took

part in the workshop as a side event of the Td Summer School.

Beyond sharing and developing a culturally sensitive look to transdiciplinarity research and

sustainability, the workshop ended with concrete agreements on working steps for the

formed working groups. These will conceptually and methodologically explore

transdisciplinarity, sustainability and interculturality in established collaborative formations

that shall be further strengthened and accompanied by CCP until the end of project, such

as virtual meetings to deep in specific concepts (such as “territorio” from diverse cultural

perspectives) or the development of case-based mutual learning research workshops.

CCP perspectives were broadened during the Agenda Setting Workshop, while some blind

spots were pointed at. It became clear that the formulation of research questions on

discourses in sustainability sciences, which, in the case of CCP, is informed by mainly

European philosophy, is the subject of situational- and position-dependent communication

relationships. Transdisciplinarity and Sustainability were critically and interculturally

analyzed, allowing content and methodological questions to arise. The danger of new buzz

words serving neoliberal structures based on unequal and unjust (global) relationships was

present throughout the discussions. Td was put in dialog with other researching traditions

such as PAR and connections were traced.

2. The background and aims of the Agenda Setting Workshop

This workshop aimed to create a space for joint exploration of how transdisciplinary

research and sustainability can be researched, understood and transformed. It was based

on the hypothesis that both concepts, transdisciplinarity and sustainability, are strongly

informed by western thinkers, researchers and policy makers, and accordingly, framed

dominantly by western world-views. As there is no escape from a certain situatedness and

(researcher) positionality, a polylog is needed, where explorations and analysis of the

concepts and according practices are realized in community. Our understanding of a



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polylog is based on intercultural philosophy and follows the minimal rule, formulated by

Franz Wimmer:

“Wherever possible, look for transcultural overlapping of philosophical concepts, since it is

probable that well-founded theses have developed in more than one cultural tradition” (Wimmer

2004, p. 67, own translation).

This Agenda Setting Workshop was a starting point for developing an international

research agenda on transdisciplinary research and sustainability. We envisioned the

formation of an intercultural research consortium that critically explores and contributes to

consolidating transdisciplinary research and sustainability/sustainability practices,

emphasising differences in how these concepts and associated practises are formed and

informed in different world regions, under different socio-cultural, economic, political,

historical and geographical conditions. The main objective of this workshop was to learn in

an intercultural group how to explore within an intercultural orientation, to identify

appropriate questions that help to practice a culturally sensitive look at transdisciplinary

research and sustainability and to work with hegemonies within discourse and policies.

Methodological and conceptual questions with deep cultural, historical and political roots

were approached during this event to encourage not only a valuable common

understanding of this field and its richness but also to draw upon critical questions.

Interwoven challenges and potentials of working on the edges of diverse spheres

(academic and non-academic) and creative common ways were discussed. On a more

practical level, we aimed at identifying formats for achieving continuous exchange and

comparative research.

The CCP research team, a consortium of researchers from the Methodology Centre, the

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Faculty of Sustainability, organized the

Agenda Setting Workshop. The CCP project, ‘Complexity or Control? Paradigms for

Sustainable Development’, has an overall objective to contribute to consolidating

epistemological and methodological foundations of transdisciplinary sustainability

research. It became obvious during the research project that there was a need to tackle

the challenges arising from the co-existence of different socio-cultural (research) traditions,

political and economic conditions. In cooperation with Latin American partners, we have

undertaken several activities that offered important learning opportunities in intercultural

settings. In 2017 we organized the International Transdisciplinary Conference in

cooperation with the Swiss td-net, looking at transdisciplinary research and teaching as

intercultural endeavours.



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The CCP research team was able to build on extensive experiences working in intercultural

contexts and on the network work with people and organizations from Latin American

countries (Colombia, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Nicaragua,

Guatemala, Ecuador) that were established by Ulli Vilsmaier and Esther Meyer within CCP

in recent years. An intensive collaboration was developed with Juliana Mercon from the Td

Escuela de Primavera 2019 in Xalapa, Mexico and a PhD co-supervision between her and

Ulli Vilsmaier. Therefore, Juliana Mercon joined as a CCP fellow and co-organizer of the

Agenda Setting Workshop. This provided an opportunity to discuss Juliana's work, in

preparation for the Agenda Setting Workshop within the CCP team, and thus to exchange

views in a polylogical orientation on the political nature of theories and practices of

transdisciplinary research.

With the Agenda Setting workshop we took a next step in learning how to collaborate and

develop research agendas in intercultural teams and how to start building an intercultural

research consortium. We benefited from the co-presence of participants and trainers from

different world regions that took part in the Td Summer School 2018. CCP is funded by the

Ministry of Science and Culture of the Federal State Lower Saxony and the Volkswagen

Foundation.

3. Preparation Process

In preparation to the workshop, participants were asked to elaborate on the following

questions. They served as a starting point and collaborative (re)formulation of questions to

address during the workshop.

• How can we address transdisciplinary research and sustainability within an

intercultural team? And, subsequently, how can we develop critical explorations

and intercultural as well as comparative research spaces?

• How are different discourses and practices around the universal political principle

of sustainability, as declared by the UN, formed in different socio-cultural contexts

and world regions, as well as economic, political and geographic conditions? And,

as a corollary, are there hybrid forms that incorporate and transform the principle

of sustainability? And are there forms of resistance?

• Where, and in which languages, is the notion of transdisciplinarity used in scientific

and public discourses? How is the concept of transdisciplinarity informed in different

socio-cultural contexts and world regions? Are there other concepts that address



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similar practices of transdisciplinary research? (here, an iterative process and

mapping of the semantics of transdisciplinarity and similar practices will be

necessary as there is neither a fixed starting point nor a centre).

4. Workshop Program

The Agenda Setting Workshop Program was an open proposal that was developed to

serve as a structuring framework. However, its conception was primarily oriented towards

allowing organic, spontaneous and dynamic discussions and working practices to arise

and be integrated. The program was adapted as activities were happening and they were

previously announced, explained and agreed upon by the group.

The workshop program was sent to the participants as follows:

Agenda Setting Workshop Program

Tuesday 11th September 2018

18:00h Evening Event – Getting to Know Each other: people, places, institutions and

experiences

Wednesday 12th September 2018

09:00h – 10:30h Getting on board. Presenting the CCP-project

10:30h – 11:00h Coffee Break

11:00h – 12:50h Developing our common objectives and preparatory work

12:50h – 14:00h Lunch Break

14:00h – 16:00h Concept work: Transdisciplinarity, transdisciplinary research, sustainability


16:30h – 18:00h Positionality

Thursday 13th September

09:00h – 10:30 h Connecting to day 1


11:00h – 12:50h Agreeing on priorities

12:50h – 14:00h Lunch Break

14:00h – 16:00h Exploring forms of ongoing exchange and collaborative research



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16:30h – 17:30h Closing

5. Activities Summaries

11th September 2018

The Agenda Setting Workshop began with a welcome dinner on the 11th September, in

which we had the opportunity to get to know each other. Those already sharing the past

days together with the TD Summer School 2018 had the chance to deep in some

conversations that had already started some days ago or simply enjoy the great

flourishment of international friendships.

12th September 2018

The second day we met we had our arrival and welcome, as well as a short introduction of

the outline, which was presented as dynamic and open, so that the group would be the one

deciding the rhythm, the content and the final outcome of our intercontinental gathering. A

presentation of the CCP project as the initiator of the Agenda Setting Workshop followed

and some questions were clarified.

Our common work began by building groups. The questions that were sent with the outline

in the invitation Email were discussed, revised and negotiated. At the end, some new

questions were formulated and presented by the working groups.

The afternoon was devoted to concept work. An explorative approach to “sustainability”,

“transdisciplinarity” and “interculturality” was chosen. The activity World Café was a great

chance to deep in those concepts from very diverse perspectives within each group and

amongst the groups.

13th September 2018

In the last day of the Agenda Setting Workshop priorities were shared, organised, and

agreed upon. The first part of the day was dedicated to a more theoretical or abstract

perspective on that, while in the afternoon the objective was to come to very concrete

proposals and agreements, as the first steps to build a collaborative research network.



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In what follows we present the most important activities and results. It is our perception

that many enriching interactions happened during the whole Agenda Setting Workshop

which were not included in the descriptions offered in this document. Also, we would like

to point out that the very conscious decision of not intensively protocolling the working

groups and other settings during the workshops implies that the report is less dense than

if this would have been done.

5.1. Reformulating the invitation-questions The groups discussed intensively about the invitation questions. These were the following:

▪ How can we address transdisciplinary research and sustainability within an intercultural

team? And, subsequently, how can we develop critical explorations and intercultural as

well as comparative research spaces?

▪ How are different discourses and practices around the universal political principle of

sustainability, as declared by the UN, formed in different socio-cultural contexts and

world regions, as well as economic, political and geographic conditions? And, as a

corollary, are there hybrid forms that incorporate and transform the principle of

sustainability? And are there forms of resistance?

▪ Where, and in which languages, is the notion of transdisciplinarity used in scientific and

public discourses? How is the concept of transdisciplinarity informed in different socio-

cultural contexts and world regions? Are there other concepts that address similar

practices of transdisciplinary research? (here, an iterative process and mapping of the

semantics of transdisciplinarity and similar practices will be necessary as there is

neither a fixed starting point nor a centre).

Most of the groups had to spend a considerably big amount of time decoding the questions,

creating a common understanding about what they may mean or point at. After that, critics,

questions about the questions, and new proposals were developed within the groups. Here,

the most valuable was the dialogue within each group. The resulting questions were only the

last step. These were discussed and reformulated. One group presented a total reformulated

version of the questions after they discussed: “How does the context shape people’s

understandings of sustainability? How do these understandings relate to the UN concept?

Where and how are notions and practices of Td being used? Which other notions and practices

exist that interact with Td?”. The other two groups presented an overview of their analysis,

critic and some proposals, which are listed in what follows:

• It is necessary to “substitute principle by notion”.



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• Clearer questions are needed, and they should not be that long, for it makes it hard to

follow.

• Caution is purposed to avoid taken for granted of meanings in terms such as “culture”.

• The problem of language has to be adressed: What is gained/lost in translation? How

can we establish mutual understanding, if communication is permanent interpretation?

Are there other forms of representation?

• “Questioning the western perspective is very western”

• From thinking to doing Td: Very few experiences where this is applied

5.2. World Café The World Café activity aimed at engaging in a very open and dynamic way with the concepts

sustainability, interculturality and transdisciplinarity. Comments, lived experiences, related

concepts, questions, definitions, characteristics, possible deviations had space to arise, be

spoken out and be written down or drawn. As the World Café possibilities, the discussion not

only took place between the members of one group but between the groups, as they had the

chance to see fin the poster and listen from the table convener what the previous groups

discussed and answer back by talking, drawing and writing down, too. To have an idea about

the richness as well as for documentation purposes, the picture of the resulting posters suits

best. The richness of this result is the outcomes of intense discussions amongst very differently

located and socialised people from all over the world. For by having a closer look, one can see

that many possible questions are already there to be found or to be developed.

Sustainability

The Sustainability table asked, “Sustainability for whom?” “What for?” and “How?”.

Sustainablility was at times explained as a buzz word containing the risks of being used in

discourses to gain legitimacy but remaining empty in terms of transformativity and radicality.

Issues of power were mentioned as well as possible uses of “sustainability” for consumerism

promotion (e.g. supermarket products announced as “sustainable”). Resilience and a critic to

the scarcity discourse were analysed and de-growth was for most of the participants a key

concept to take into account when thinking of sustainability. The Sustainability table asked if

there is a way of thinking of sustainability in a non-economicist way and questions on social

classes and inequalities as well as ways of relating to other human being were posed as part

of the Sustainability discussion.



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World Café Results on Sustainability – Agenda Setting Workshop CCP September 2018, Leuphana

Transdisciplinarity

The discussion about transdisciplinarity referred to a contested and fluid concept, a different

way of doing science, embedded also in traditional knowledge, acknowledgment of different

kinds of knowledge. Also, there were references to Td as a mode of domesticating research

and stakeholders. Td was seen as solving practical problems “in the real world”. At one point

there was the question about its novelty: is Td something new or just a different way to name

practices that have been existing for decades? In this sense, Td was also explained as the

European version of the Latinamerican IAP (PAR). Clear critiques were presented, such as a

way of doing research that is intensively time consuming. At the same time, however, Td was

also explained as one that needs and promotes dialogue, mutual understanding, fluidity,

(de)construction of fixed concepts and work based on collaborative procedures.



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World Café Results on Transdisciplinary – Agenda Setting Workshop CCP September 2018, Leuphana

Interculturality

The Interculturality table had a key discussion about what is culture. Despite it not being

possible to agree on one single and fixed definition, diverse notions of culture were put next to

each other. Culture was explained as worldviews, as always hybrid, and culture borders as

virtual, flexible and permeable. Culture was understood closely to identities, gender and caste,

amongst others. Someone asked if Interculturality masks power relations and in any case

power and inequalities were of central meaning within the table discussion. Conflict was a key

issue that arose oft. Critical voices warned about the danger of interculturality as being a

current fashion and relations were traced to a neoliberal discourse of multiculturality.



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World Café Results on Interculturality – Agenda Setting Workshop CCP September 2018, Leuphana

5.3. Agreeing on priorities: Cards – Clustering In the morning of the 13th September, each person thought of the topics and methodologies

(in relation to sustainability, transdisciplinarity, intercultural orientation) that would be a priority

for him or her to work on. In that way the topics and methodologies were clustered organically

and accompanied by a whole-group-debate.

List of the topics as structured at one point of the process

Clustering 1: Scarcity; Blue Economy; Talking about Economics; Economy as social relationships

Clustering 2: Support empirical practices; (research on) cooperative, transformative, research

practices; co-construction and transmission of knowledges; Indigenous local knowledge, bottom up;

Transdisciplinary, integrated knowledge concept, sustainability balance renovation; mutual learning

about challenges and tensions in Td research and ways to deal with them; what are the best ways

to measure sustainability for goa setting of accountability?

Clustering 3: (de)construction of (tired) ideas; cultures as path dependencies, as barriers slowing

down sustainability, how we overcome those barriers?; The politics of methodology, how to

perform Td in a way that is truly fostering social justice?; experimenting with and reflectiong on

differences for socio-ecological justice.



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Clustering 4: Multiple actors, different visions, potential of conflicts; Which are some of the specific

Td aspects to consider in cases of environmental conflict?, theory and methodology; conflicts of

diverse knowledge chains in Td research and de-construction role plays in conflict management.

Clustering 5: How can we foster sustainability thinking through Nexus approach?; Co-management

of common pool resources (water); Territory co-management.

These are some impressions of this process:

5.4. Exploring forms of ongoing exchange and collaborative research: Concrete Action At the end of the workshop groups rearranged the clustering of cards they took to their working

table, they played with the cards to see alternative structures, connections and questions



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behind the mentioned themes. In what followed, the groups discussed about possible specific

forms of collaboration and developed an action plan. It was strongly encouraged that very

concrete steps would be developed with names and tasks, as well as a rough timeline.

The groups presented to the plenary their action plans or proposals so that those interested to

join them would be able to listen to the concrete plan.

Some of the specific proposals that were developed are listed in what follows:

• A virtual seminar: local groups in different countries, 6 months with two meetings per

month, co-organized by diverse institutions and multi-actor groups.

• A platform of cooperation and a Td-Study to transform education via comparative

research on transformative methodology. This shall be made, amongst others through

the coordination of M.A. students and a research workshop in Brasil (casecase-based

mutual learning). The cases shall be from Brasil, Chile and Bolivia.

• Building understandings of the concept “territorio”: Virtual meetings for sharing

concepts and new insights. Virtual meetings to discuss: Are there

similar/neighbouring/connecting concepts around the world? Under what conditions is

“territorio” co-management successful or a failure? Based on these discussions

broaden indicators shall be explored that could contribute to this debate.

• Water scarcity: concept work, collect cases through virtual meetings.

These are some images of this activity:



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5.5. Further research questions During the Agenda Setting Workshop the participants had the opportunity to write down

possible further issues to research, that were meaningful within the constellation of the group.

The poster stood in a corner of the room and it was possible to add issues as they appeared

in people’s mind. Some people decided to add their name, so that everyone knows who

purposed that specific issue, others decided not to do so. This is the resulting list:

Further issues: - Sustainability as an oblique (indirect) goal - Normativity of sustainability and the other normative worlds (conflicting values) - Making transdisciplinarity more accessible (Stefan) - Democratization of knowledge + don’t forget the alternative worldviews (Inta) - Alternative ways of sharing/co-creating knowledge (?) journal pagers (Stefan) - Open science (Stefan) - Td to solve real world problems - Td integrated knowledge conception - Sustainability-balance, renovation - Bio-diversity conservation (Fonda) - Non-verbal research approaches (Moritz) - Societal conditions for collective research (Moritz) - Intercultural challenges and strategies found in “Td for sustainability” experiences in

different world regions - Knowledge “integration” and/or “cocreation” processes wjere traditional knowledge is

involved - Social learning (Rodrigo) - De-growth (Rodrigo) - Questioning societal assumptions through Td Research (Moritz) - Up-welling sustainability through Td research (Sola) - Conditions for collective action (Ranjini) - Local management practices and corresponding ecological outcomes (Ranjini)



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- What is knowledge in an intercultural and Td context? (Paolo) - How to horizontalize academy-society relations for knowledge co-construction? (Paolo) - Build organizations for alternative economies (Paolo) - Which relationships do we need to build, nurture and foster for a sustainable future?

(Paolo) - Value different forms of knowledge without romanticize or essentialize (Paolo) - Governance of sustainability? Global? UN? - Growth waits? - SDG’S - Indigenous local knowledge – intercultural dialogue (Marcus) - Decolonizing sustainability research (Sola) - Decentralizing sustainability science through advancement of shared best practices (Sola)



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Annex 1. Participants

Given name

Surname Country of origin

Institutional background

Olusola Matthew

Adeoye Nigeria Foundation for Environmental Mediation, Nigeria (Co-Founder)

Fonda Jane

Awuor Kenya Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute, National Aquaculture Research Development and Training Centre (NARDTC), Socioeconomist

Marcus Vinícius

Carvalho Garcia

Brazil Inventário Nacional da Diversidade Linguística/CGIR/DPI, Brasília/DF

Beatriz Delgado Aranda

Bolivia Universidad Mayor de San Andres (UMSA), Bolivia

Angel Rodrigo

Gonzalez-Gonzalez

Mexico National Autonomous University of Mexico, Master Student - Sustainability Science

Gregory Mero Dowo

Zimbabwe PhD Candidate, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Zimbabwe

Ranjini Rebecca

Murali India PhD Candidate, Snow Leopard Trust and Nature Conservation Foundation, in affiliation with Manipal University

Heliodoro Ochoa-García

Mexico PhD Candidate at Centre for Development and Environment (CDE), University of Bern, and ITESO Jesuit University of Guadalajara

Paolo Eugenido

Perasso Cerda

Chile Ethnographic Researcher, Pontifica Universidad Católica de Chile, Campus Villarrica

Januária Pereira Mello

Brazil Instituto Nacional de Colonização e Reforma Agrária, Superintendência Regional do Rio de Janeiro

Badal Pokharel Nepal PhD Candidate, Tri-Chandra Multiple Campus, Tribhuvan University, Nepal

Inta Rivas Chile Universidad de Chile, Project Coordinator, Vice-Rectory for Research and Development

Juliana Mercon Brazil Universidad Veracruzana, Mexico, Professor at the Institute of Educational Research

Beate Littig Germany Institute for Advances Studies Vienna, Head of the Department of Sociology and Senior Researcher of the division Socio-ecological transformation

Julian Parra Fernández Chile PhD candidate, Universidad Católica de Chile, Public Management Master

Daniela Peukert Germany PhD Candidate, Leuphana - Project: Leverage Points for Sustainability Transformation

Esther Mayer Germany PhD Candidate, Leuphana - CCP Project, Center for Global Sustainability and Cultural Transformation

Ulli Vilsmaier Austria Prof. Transdisciplinary Methods, Leuphana - CCP Project, Center for Global Sustainability and Cultural Transformation

Maria De Eguia Huerta Spain

Postdoc Researcher, Leuphana - CCP Project, Center for Global Sustainability and Cultural Transformation (CCP Project)

Steffan Hilser Germany PhD Candidate, Leuphana - Robert Bosch Research Group, Processes of Sustainability Transformation

Moritz Engbers Germany Postdoc Researcher, Leuphana - Project: Leverage Points for Sustainability Transformation



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Annex 2. Images

These are some impressions of the participants fully engaged in enriching, complex

challenging debates:



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Lüneburg, 03.12.18

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