Christelle Liversage

Currently, the world is a sea of tumultuous change and transformation. When struggling in these waters of uncertainty, we often direct our limited-knowledge-rescue-buoys towards preventing drowning instead of drawing from a diverse pool of expertise. As no one is immune to the to-and-fro rocking of the survival boat sailing the unknown waters in the sea of life with its profound wicked challenges, a transdisciplinary compass may give us direction to reach our desired sustainable solution destinations.

Present-day novel personal, societal, and environmental challenges necessitate the crafting of new steps to untrodden paths. Historically, unilateral or silo approaches toward addressing mono challenges may have been effective, but as we face the age of unparalleled uncertainty, there is an urgent drive to unlearn and relearn.

As linked cogs in a wheel of interconnectedness, key role-players addressing challenges range from academic to non-academic stakeholders. The unprecedented complexities faced may have no established research trails, prompting the removal of boundaries separating and distinguishing these stakeholders, allowing for the harnessing of different knowledge domains. From ship-to-shore, stretch your comfort zone from embedded thinking to welcoming and unifying knowledge from distant sources we may not have consulted to date. Transversely, a lack of diverse voices in a research process during these changing times may detract us from effective and sustainable solutions.

Ahoy! We need to take hands in uniting knowledge, transcending segregated disciplinary boundaries, and involving society to tackle complex, real-world, multi-faceted challenges with a transdisciplinary approach – it seems to be the only viable way forward.