Page 64 - Sustainability Communication Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Theoritical Foundations

4 Sustainable Communication as an Inter- and Transdisciplinary Discipline 47

It remains to be seen how well experts, considering the availability of their own
proven perspectives, are able to take into account the perspectives of their interaction
partners. In a further step experts must be able to anticipate the lay perspective and
then communicate their knowledge in a suitable fashion to laypeople. Contributions
to the development of this kind of skill can be generated by inter- and transdisci-
plinary studies on sustainability (Godemann 2006).
In such learning processes competences can be enhanced that enable mutual learn-
ing. Those include learning to
• differentiate, i.e. learn different disciplinary perspectives;
• compare, i.e. compare knowledge of a different provenance and broaden one’s
own horizon;
• tolerate ambiguity, i.e. accept that there are different perspectives and solutions;
• synthesize and integrate, i.e. find compromises and develop solutions that are
acceptable to all parties and are based on common ground;
• be sensitive, i.e. develop an awareness for ethical issues and the ability to pro-
mote sustainability.
The following section shows the steps in a process that would develop the ability
to collaborate in inter- and transdisciplinary teams.

Enabling Integration

Thompson Klein (1990: 188) und Newell (2001: 248ff.) have formulated a frame-
work for promoting knowledge integration, which will be drawn on and adapted in
this section. It offers an orientation for collaboration in inter- and transdisciplinary
groups and supports the process of knowledge integration. In order to develop teach-
ing programmes, it would be appropriate to relate the individual steps to the meth-
odology developed by the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU
1996) for future-oriented research activities so that a basis for both content and
methodology could be created. The first steps enable a transdisciplinary perspective
of the problem and include:
• Defining the problem: Inter- and transdisciplinary problem-solving becomes
necessary for the complex problems that research projects entail. The WBGU
‘syndrome concept’ entails a variety of central issues demonstrating the interde-
pendence of global problems. Expert knowledge is used to identify global ‘clini-
cal patterns’ that reflect critical changes (e.g. the global greenhouse effect, soil
erosion, mass tourism). The approach specifies trends that are relevant to global
change. These trends in human behaviour as it impacts on the environment form
patterns of unsustainable development. Because of the linkages between disci-
plines, this approach relates the different areas of knowledge of the people
involved (e.g. economics, political science, sociology, psychology, law, philoso-
phy, engineering) in an inter- or transdisciplinary team.