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L. Diaz and A. Potvin
5.2 Participatory and Interdisciplinary Action-Creation
Finding solutions to achieve sustainable development requires the mobilization of
all disciplines. Intense collaboration between sciences is needed to understand interactions between social and natural systems and to find ways to harmonize them.
The ability to work in an interdisciplinary way is a skill that is increasingly required
for researchers and professionals. However, most university curricula remain disciplinary based and do not offer many opportunities to develop interdisciplinary skills.
The first condition for interdisciplinarity is communication. The EDS-IA mobilizes participation techniques that focus on listening and respect for the spoken word
and collective decision-making. It encourages the sharing of all types of knowledge
(practical, scientific or traditional), which implies that participants should make the
effort to communicate their knowledge in an accessible and precise language.
The identification and choice of projects is a collective creation exercise that aims
to promote action. Inspired by the intense creative exercises practiced by conceptual
disciplines such as “architectural charrettes”, this approach aims to maximize the
power of mobilization or generation of knowledge to reach a collectively designed
goal.
5.3 A Qualitative Approach to Complete Quantitative Ones
An important aspect of the SDGs is its quantitative nature, expressed in its targets and
indicators as a global monitoring effort with a common frame of reference. These
data are the basis of the work of many international research teams that are deeply
analyzing interactions between SDGs and their targets, as well as the impacts of these
interactions for policy research and decision-making (Nilsson et al. 2016; Dodds and
Bartam 2016).
These analytical approaches, based on granular data, make it possible to formulate
models of interaction between SDGs to foresee the possible effects of sustainable
decisions. Their results can be very useful tools to evaluate policies and to choose
between several possible actions in planning exercises. However, the information
generated with this kind of approaches may be difficult for a broad population to
access, which does not facilitate participatory processes.
Unlike analytical and quantitative approaches, EDS-IA builds on the SDGs as
a comprehensive framework for action to integrate the three pillars of sustainable
development. Moreover, by adding the concepts of environmental limits and social
floor, it forces to take into account global scientific and statistic data. Based on a
qualitative approach and on the knowledge of the participants, this approach allows
both novices and experts to realize the contribution of their own actions to a global
process and to identify ways to improve existing initiatives to make them more
meaningful and effective.
L. Diaz and A. Potvin
5.2 Participatory and Interdisciplinary Action-Creation
Finding solutions to achieve sustainable development requires the mobilization of
all disciplines. Intense collaboration between sciences is needed to understand interactions between social and natural systems and to find ways to harmonize them.
The ability to work in an interdisciplinary way is a skill that is increasingly required
for researchers and professionals. However, most university curricula remain disciplinary based and do not offer many opportunities to develop interdisciplinary skills.
The first condition for interdisciplinarity is communication. The EDS-IA mobilizes participation techniques that focus on listening and respect for the spoken word
and collective decision-making. It encourages the sharing of all types of knowledge
(practical, scientific or traditional), which implies that participants should make the
effort to communicate their knowledge in an accessible and precise language.
The identification and choice of projects is a collective creation exercise that aims
to promote action. Inspired by the intense creative exercises practiced by conceptual
disciplines such as “architectural charrettes”, this approach aims to maximize the
power of mobilization or generation of knowledge to reach a collectively designed
goal.
5.3 A Qualitative Approach to Complete Quantitative Ones
An important aspect of the SDGs is its quantitative nature, expressed in its targets and
indicators as a global monitoring effort with a common frame of reference. These
data are the basis of the work of many international research teams that are deeply
analyzing interactions between SDGs and their targets, as well as the impacts of these
interactions for policy research and decision-making (Nilsson et al. 2016; Dodds and
Bartam 2016).
These analytical approaches, based on granular data, make it possible to formulate
models of interaction between SDGs to foresee the possible effects of sustainable
decisions. Their results can be very useful tools to evaluate policies and to choose
between several possible actions in planning exercises. However, the information
generated with this kind of approaches may be difficult for a broad population to
access, which does not facilitate participatory processes.
Unlike analytical and quantitative approaches, EDS-IA builds on the SDGs as
a comprehensive framework for action to integrate the three pillars of sustainable
development. Moreover, by adding the concepts of environmental limits and social
floor, it forces to take into account global scientific and statistic data. Based on a
qualitative approach and on the knowledge of the participants, this approach allows
both novices and experts to realize the contribution of their own actions to a global
process and to identify ways to improve existing initiatives to make them more
meaningful and effective.