A lecture exploring interdisciplinarity and sustainability science

1. Gregory Borne

2.  1.Sustainability science and inter-
disciplinarity
 2.
Education for sustainable
development

3.  1. Discuss the similarities and differences
between sustainability science and science for
sustainable development?
 2.What is the difference between education about
sustainable development and education for
sustainable development. How does this
difference impact on the way education is
delivered and received?

4. Question 1: Discuss the similarities and differences
between sustainability science and science for
sustainable development?
 Today's talk is just the tip of the iceberg- An introduction to the
main themes
 Tomorrows seminar opportunity for questions and clarification
 Make sure you look at the recommended reading

5. 1. Sustainable Development- the pro‟s and
cons
2. Wicked Problems- a new kind of interaction
3. Disciplines and inter disciplinarily
4. Sustainability Science- An orchestration
of the science

6.  Development that meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs
(Brundtland 1987-Our Common Future )
 Development?
 Needs?
 Compromise?

7.  Oxymoron- Contradiction in terms
 Fuzzy concept –means all things to all people
no real world relevance, ineffective for policy
development
 Worse still - A means for continuing
legitimisation of global strategies of development
which will continue the hegemony of the northern
industrialised countries

8.  Acceptance- of the unsustainable nature current
developmental pathways
 Focal Point- A concept that disparate organisations and
institutions can come together around and try to look for
solutions
 Orchestration of the sciences – Promotes inter-
disciplinarity –New world views that reflect real world
problems

9.  2. Wicked Problems

10.  Why are today's problems different from
previous centuries or even decades problem
Climate Change
 Complex
 Uncertain
 Ambiguous
 Non –linear

11.  The very nature of these problems causes
challenges traditional disciplines
 As Jeffrey Sachs recognises
 „The problems just refuse to arrive in the neat
categories of academic departments‟
 Sachs, J. (2008) Common Wealth, Economics
for a Crowded Planet

12. 3.Disciplines and
Inter-disciplinarity

13. Structuring modes of academic practice
Communities of scholars who:
 Specialize in some aspects of knowledge;
 Share interests, concepts, methods and ways
of knowing the world
 Share a particular way of thinking about the
nature of reality and knowledge

14. Thought domains, consisting of
problems, theories and methods of
investigation
Survey
Interview
Telescope
Haldron Collodor

15. Mono-disciplinarity Research using one discipline alone
Uni-directional disciplinarity Research driven largely by one
discipline
Multidisciplinarity Involvement of multiple disciplines but
with little or no integration of
knowledge. Competition
Interdisciplinarity Several disciplines working together to
produce knowledge greater than the
sum of the whole. Cooperation
Transdisciplinarity Integrated knowledge across several
disciplines that leads to new
knowledge paradigms within the
disciplines themselves as well as
research results

16.  Hinders communication
 Leads to incomplete view of reality
 Methodology determines problems
 Methodologies driven the discipline.
(closed cycle)

17.  Avoids partial framing of a problem
 Socially contextualises environmental and
technological constraints and opportunities
 Provides holistic solutions
 Enhances potential for stakeholder interactions
and a more „sustainable‟ knowledge approach
(participation, methods, monitoring and analysis of
the social side of process)

18. 4. Sustainability Science
an orchestration of the
sciences

19. Sustainability
Goals
Social Environmental
Systems systems
Sustainability Science

20. Is it a science which seeks to maintain the scale
of human society within physically defined
carrying capacity of planet?
◦ Interdisciplinary endeavor: ecology, biology,
physics, chemistry, etc. plus policy sciences
◦ Transdisciplinary endeavor: ethics,
philosophy, psychology, economics, cultural
values, etc.

21.  Multiple issues have to be considered
Apossible approach is the following
matrix

22. Meeting Human Needs for…
while Preserving Life Support Systems of…

23. The Question
Sustainability science or
science for sustainable
development?

24. What‟s missing from the
matrix model?
 Relationship
 Context
 Difficult
to incorporate
wicked problems

25. • Uncertainty,
complexity and
ignorance
• Values matter
• Decisions are
urgent
• Stakes are high

26.  Introduced by Gregory Batesman 1958 – A Science that as
yet has no satisfactory name
 Sustainable Development has provided the language
 Post-normal science is a term that is used by Jerrome Ravetz
and others to describe, complex value laden, socially
engaged science
 Post-normal science to precautionary science

27.  A system is a perceived as a whole whose elements are
interconnected
 Systems thinking has developed a substantial body of
knowledge drawn from a number of areas of study including:
 Cybernetics, ecology and complexity theory
 Emphasises the positive and the negative interactions within
a system.

29.  The use of pesticides on crops is one
example of how a solution to one problem
has created greater problems. While
trying to combat a pest or disease to
improve food production, pesticides in
many cases have disrupted
ecosystems, some of which indirectly
support the crop being grown and have
had adverse health effects on people from
pesticide residues on food crops

30. TRADITIONAL SCIENCE  SUSTAINABILITY SCIENCE
 Mechanistic  Evolutionary
 Curiosity-driven  Problem-driven; problem-solving
 Value free  Value inclusive
 Divide and conquer  Integrate and be open
 No direct policy user  Potential users included
 Reduce and eliminate the rest  Systemic, complex system
 Expert / corporate dominated  Extended peer-reviewed
 Profit /prestige seeking  Socially relevant
 Linear evolution of  Non-linear evolution of knowled
knowledge  Place-based analysis
 Product focused  Process focused, capacity buildin
(paper, patent, …)

31.  Integrate stakeholder into every aspect of
the problem
◦ Framing the problem
◦ Local knowledge
◦ Stakeholder values
 Also need to work with unbiased
„stakeholders‟, those who care about the
problem but are not directly affected by it.

32.  Normative questions
◦ valuing, evaluating, measuring
 Analytic questions
◦ causes, consequences, control
 Operational questions
◦ models, methods and data
 Strategic questions
◦ engaging real world problems

33.  Sustainability science confronts new
problems, demands new approaches
from academia
 Move away from study of disciplines
and towards study of problems
 Values matter: we need to integrate
“non-expert” opinion
 Sustainability science needs to be
action-oriented
 Moving in the right direction, but a
long ways to go

34.  What are the values shaping interactions
between human development and the natural
environment?
 How, and with what consequences for
sustainability, do these vary across
space, time, and social groups?
 How should we evaluate progress toward
sustainability in ways that fully account for
the dependence of human well-being on the
natural environment? (eg. „Green GDP‟)
 What should be the human use of the earth?

35.  Driving forces (long term, large scale)
◦ What are the principal shapers of the “longue duree”
relations between humans and the environment?
◦ What are the origins of fundamental “transitions” in
those long term trends (beyond the demographic)?
◦ How, and with what implications for sustainability, are
spatial relationships of production and consumption
changing under the impetus of globalization?
 Impacts / consequences
◦ How can we build a rigorous understanding of “limits,”
carrying capacities, tipping points in H-E systems?
◦ What determines the vulnerability and resilience of
couple H-E systems to multiple stresses?
◦ How do humans adapt to environmental change?

36.  Borne, G., (2010) A Framework for Global Sustainable
Development and effective Governance of Risk, New
York, Edwin Mellen Press
 Kates, et al. (2001). „Sustainability Science‟.
Science, 292:641-2.
 Clark, W., et. Al. (2005) Science for global sustainability
towards a new paradigm, Cambridge, Harvard University
Press
 Jager, J., (2009) The Governance of Science for
Sustainability, In Adger & Jordon, Governing
Sustainability, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press