Page 58 - Sustainability Communication Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Theoritical Foundations

4 Sustainable Communication as an Inter- and Transdisciplinary Discipline 41

Weaker versions include the exchange of ideas and opinions, literature reception
and the use of sources outside one’s own discipline, while stronger versions involve
working together on a common problem. And, fourth, interdisciplinarity serves the
research goal, and a goal should attain results that a single disciplinary approach
alone could not achieve.
The latter aspect of viewing a problem across disciplinary borders and broaden-
ing perspectives shows clearly that interdisciplinarity must be judged by the level of
integration of knowledge it achieves. In the literature there are a number of different
models that can be classified along a continuum from less to greater knowledge
integration. Lattuca (2001: 112ff.) describes four levels of interdisciplinarity (a) as
informed disciplinarity, in the sense that disciplines borrow methods and instru-
ments from each other. This form of interdisciplinarity cannot ultimately be classi-
fied as such since other disciplinary perspectives are not integrated but merely
adapted for use (b) as synthetic interdisciplinarity, which implies a closer relation-
ship of disciplines with the research question being considered from different disci-
plines. This model however also does not involve an integration of disciplinary
perspectives. Questions affecting more than one discipline are discussed, but the
perspectives on the problem are additive, aligned side by side (c) as transdiscipli-
narity, understood as a principle that is beyond any disciplinary borders, existing
above the problem as a unified worldview. The goal is to unite knowledge and
develop a generalized and axiomatic transcendence of disciplines (d) as conceptual
interdisciplinarity, which focuses on the problem and makes use of a number of
disciplines to contribute to a solution. This involves critical reflection on and inte-
gration of disciplinary knowledge
Lattuca has systematised the prevailing terminology in the literature (for exam-
ple, Jantsch 1972; Kockelmans 1979; Thompson Klein 1990) and ordered them in
relationship to their typology. This typology is especially helpful for the evaluation
of inter- or transdisciplinary collaboration. It shows that the term covers different
levels of disciplinary perspective integration and that these have a corresponding
effect on the results or product of research.

Transdisciplinary Collaboration

Within the context of sustainability research, the term has been used in a still
broader sense than described by Lattuca (Table 4.1) (Hirsch Hadorn et al. 2008).
Interdisciplinarity is an approach that transcends the boundaries of a segmented
thinking within science. The transdisciplinary approach also involves a non-scientific
perspective: “Transdisciplinarity moves beyond ‘interdisciplinary’ combinations of
academic disciplines to a new understanding of the relationship of science and society”
(Thompson Klein 2004: 517). The term transdisciplinarity became popular during
the mid-1990s in the discussion about a new type of knowledge production and a new
understanding of science. Traditional scientific practice (mode 1) is confronted with
a new mode of research and it becomes clear that the new problem-related mode of