Göteborgs universitet
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International Transdisciplinarity Conference 2019

The aim of this conference was to bring together actors from different disciplines, sectors and professional mandates to engage and discuss practical examples and case studies that approach societal transformation through boundary breaking collaboration. The conference was co-organised by the Network for Transdisciplinary Research td-net together with the University of Gothenburg School of Global Studies and Mistra Urban Futures.

JOINING FORCES FOR CHANGE

About the conference

Our societies are facing critical points in their development, where large challenges are becoming increasingly difficult to handle. Numerous conflicts and complexities are surfacing – to which we can see societies responding with fragmentation, intolerance and exclusion. One way to address such developments is through societal transformation processes that implicitly include a variety of interest groups, stakeholders and organisations.

Transdisciplinary (TD) research is one approach that focuses specifically on co-producing and integrating knowledge and expertise from a variety of sources, including communities, research, cities and businesses. It is an approach that is driven by the need to create processes where values and transformations towards a more just and sustainable society are openly debated.

The aim of this conference, Joining Forces for Change, was to bring together actors from different disciplines, sectors and professional mandates to engage and discuss practical examples and case studies that approach societal transformation through boundary breaking collaboration. The conference invited practitioners and researchers from government and administrative organisations and agencies, interest groups from community and business, and researchers and students from across the university.

The overall focus was on what we can learn from our collaborative experiences, case studies and practices regarding wider societal transformation, methodological innovations and theoretical development. We specifically searched for “sites for change” in terms of spaces, practices and learnings where TD research and co-production play a crucial role.

The ITD 2019 conference was co-organised by the Network for Transdisciplinary Research td-net together with the University of Gothenburg School of Global Studies and Mistra Urban Futures.