Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Failures

Dena Fam is Associate Professor and Research Director at the Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney. She has a decade of experience developing transdisciplinary programs and projects with an interest in negotiating the challenges of cross sectoral integration of knowledge.Michael O’Rourke is Professor of Philosophy and faculty member in AgBioResearch and Environmental Science and Policy at Michigan State University. He is Director of the Center for Interdisciplinarity and Director of the Toolbox Dialogue Initiative, an NSF-sponsored research initiative that investigates philosophical approaches to facilitating interdisciplinary research.

• Theoretical and empirical perspectives on failure: an introduction Rethinking failure: using design science theory and methods, including design thinking, for successful transdisciplinary health and social interventions Part 1: Institutional environments associated with failure Stem cells and serendipity: unburdening social scientists’ feelings of failure A fragile existence: a transdisciplinary food systems research program cut short Over-promising and under-delivering: institutional and social networks influencing the emergence of urine diversion systems in Queensland, AustraliaPart 2: Failures and responses associated with collaboration and stakeholder engagement Failure and what to do next: lessons from the Toolbox Dialogue Initiative Failure to consider local political processes and power relations in the development of a transdisciplinary research project plan: learning lessons from a stormy start A week in the life of a transdisciplinary researcher: failures in research to support policy for water quality management in New Zealand’s South IslandPart 3: Personal reflection on failed initiatives through an autoethnographic lens Reframing failure and the Indigenous doctoral journey Transdisciplinary research: challenges, excessive demands, and a story of disquiet Part 4: Failure in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary educational programs The challenges of studying place: learning from failures of an experimental interdisciplinary and community-engaged environmental studies course Transdisciplinary learning within tertiary institutions: a space to skin your knees Learning to fail forward: operationalizing productive failure for tackling complex environmental problems Failing and the perception of failure in student-driven transdisciplinary projectsCoda Failure is an option: lessons for success