What Is That Thing Called ‘Transdisciplinarity for Transformation’?

Unprecedented challenges in the spheres of health, global justice, environmental degradation and climate change characterize our current era. This situation constitutes a call to all of humanity to respond. Arguably it comes with an even greater call to those in privileged positions, including academics. In other words, today’s complex problems call for societal transformation, and this in turn calls for not only new knowledge, but also new ways of producing knowledge and new ways of dealing with different knowledges—it calls for transdisciplinarity for transformation. This chapter sketches different ways of understanding multi-actor, reflexive responses to complex societal challenges, whether under the banner of transdisciplinarity or otherwise, and presents what we take Transdisciplinarity for Transformation to mean. Building upon learning questions of early career researchers, it presents the agenda for the three parts of the book: Design and Evaluation, Diversities and Inclusion, Roles and Competencies.