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The undisciplinary journey: early-career perspectives in sustainability science
Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University.
Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University.
Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-0179-2540
Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University.
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2018 (English)In: Sustainability Science, ISSN 1862-4065, E-ISSN 1862-4057, Vol. 13, no 1, p. 191-204Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The establishment of interdisciplinary Master’s and PhD programs in sustainability science is opening up an exciting arena filled with opportunities for early-career scholars to address pressing sustainability challenges. However, embarking upon an interdisciplinary endeavor as an early-career scholar poses a unique set of challenges: to develop an individual scientific identity and a strong and specific methodological skill-set, while at the same time gaining the ability to understand and communicate between different epistemologies. Here, we explore the challenges and opportunities that emerge from a new kind of interdisciplinary journey, which we describe as ‘undisciplinary.’ Undisciplinary describes (1) the space or condition of early-career researchers with early interdisciplinary backgrounds, (2) the process of the journey, and (3) the orientation which aids scholars to address the complex nature of today’s sustainability challenges. The undisciplinary journey is an iterative and reflexive process of balancing methodological groundedness and epistemological agility to engage in rigorous sustainability science. The paper draws upon insights from a collective journey of broad discussion, reflection, and learning, including a survey on educational backgrounds of different generations of sustainability scholars, participatory forum theater, and a panel discussion at the Resilience 2014 conference (Montpellier, France). Based on the results from this diversity of methods, we suggest that there is now a new and distinct generation of sustainability scholars that start their careers with interdisciplinary training, as opposed to only engaging in interdisciplinary research once strong disciplinary foundations have been built. We further identify methodological groundedness and epistemological agility as guiding competencies to become capable sustainability scientists and discuss the implications of an undisciplinary journey in the current institutional context of universities and research centers. In this paper, we propose a simple framework to help early-career sustainability scholars and well-established scientists successfully navigate what can sometimes be an uncomfortable space in education and research, with the ultimate aim of producing and engaging in rigorous and impactful sustainability science.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2018. Vol. 13, no 1, p. 191-204
Keywords [en]
Interdisciplinary, Education, Sustainability science, Undisciplinary, Methodological groundedness, Epistemological agility, Other Natural Sciences, Annan naturvetenskap, Other Social Sciences, Annan samhällsvetenskap
National Category
Other Natural Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-31036DOI: 10.1007/s11625-017-0445-1OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hig-31036DiVA, id: diva2:1372281
Available from: 2019-11-22 Created: 2019-11-22 Last updated: 2019-11-22Bibliographically approved

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Citation style
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