Transdisciplinarity

Document prepared by William Fisher, PhD and Maria De Koninck, PhD for STIRHS.

Transdisciplinarity :
Transdisciplinarity is a challenge. It is demanding. It requires from researchers to leave their territory to try to learn about others', to admit that others have a say in their area of research interest that, although different, may be as valuable as their own,. It puts into question a dominant paradigm according to which specialization is the best way to develop scientific knowledge. It has also become a necessity, since scientific advances have demonstrated that many (if not most) problems are complex, multidimensionnal and that no single discipline can deal with such complexity.
Transdisciplinarity does not refer to "general" or "global" knowledge. It refers to integrated specialized perspectives and to knowlege that produce a complex and more comprehensive interpretation of reality. To be able to do this, tenants of different disciplines must work together, not by sacrificing their expertise or their methodologies, but by bringing their skills into real complementarity with those of other researchers. This implies that they make an effort to identify when and how other disciplines (and which) can contribute to a study and, in practice, to try to integrate the different inputs. The expected output is better science.

Why?
So why propose a transdisciplinary perspective ? Because such a perspective is necessary to describe, to analyse and to explain complex problems.

Why in reproductive sciences ? The field of reproduction and of reproductive health is one where problems are, by definition, complex and raise questions of different nature (biological, physiological, mental, social...). Therefore, while specialized monodisciplinary expertise is still needed, only a combination of different disciplines can raise appropriate questions and propose comprehensive explanations and interpretations. Whether it be in the area of sexual health, in fertility, in maternal and newborn care... the issues all involve at some point biomedical, behavioural, psychological and social (including economic, legal etc.) aspects.

Multidisciplines and transdisciplinarity
What disciplines are concerned ? Many disciplines coming from biomedical, behavioral and social science can contribute to understanding complex problems in reproductive health sciences. Their input may vary according to the specific research question and they may work at different levels, It is not necessary that they all be involved, but the transdisciplinary approach requires the competency to analyze complex reproductive health science problems in relation to the potential contributions of many specializations, the competency to conceptualize these problems in terms of the biomedical, behavioural, and social dimensions they may involve, and the readiness to work cooperatively with specialists from disciplines that are relevant to the solution of complex problems in reproductive science.

The question to be asked here is : what disciplinary points of view are needed to answer in a comprehensive fashion ? The answer can only be given if their is some knowledge about what the other disciplines are about and what they can contribute.

How does "transdisciplinary" differ from "multidisciplinary?" Transdisciplinarity is multidisciplinarity done well and more... A transdisciplinary approach involves sensitivity to the fact that multiple disciplines must contribute to research on complex reproductive health problems; an awareness of the core contributions potentially made by relevant disciplines; and training in conceptualizing research problems and organizing research teams to reflect the multiple disciplines relevant to studying complex questions in our area and an effort to go beyond sharing perspectives, knowledge and ways of doing to finally share a common langage.

Where do we go from here?...
There is a need to start now with the training of a new generation of scientists to ensure their openness to the challenges of transdisciplinarity and to ways of building such practices in producting science.

Answering the simple following question: what other disciplines should you sollicit to help you in your research in order to bring about significant new knowledge ? This may be enough for a start. But, to answer such a question, one must know at least a little about other disciplines and their ways of doing research. Discussing a theme from different disciplinary standpoints is a useful way to discover how a problem can be explored and to propose interdisciplinary alliances.

A simple approach, and if well done, a very productive one, is to match different disciplines in the supervision of graduate students. Another approach is to bring together students and mentors from diverse disciplines around a complex problem. This could be achieved in the context of a seminar series. Another approach is to ask students to interpret the results of their specific research in the context of the resolution of a broader health issue. In fact, it is a goal of STIRRHS mentors to develop and assess different avenues for the development of transdiscipinary training.