John van Breda from the Centre for Complex Systems in Transition and I have worked for ten years now to develop a unique approach to transdisciplinary research that is appropriate for our African context. As he brings his Phd to a close, all this work is now being consolidated in to journal publications and conference presentations. Recently John presented this work at a conference in Brazil. Below are his notes:

From John van Breda:

I was invited by the Institute of Advanced Transdisciplinary Studies (IEAT) at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG) in Belo Horizonte (Brazil) to give a keynote address on 10 June at an international BRICS symposium. The title of my talk was “Transdisciplinarity – creating new research opportunities for collaboration”. Leading up to this keynote address I also participated in two other related events, an informal discussion with a group of interested academics on Monday 6 June as well as another formal presentation and panel discussion hosted by the Faculty of Education on Tuesday 7 June. In all three of these talks I shared with them our understanding and approach of doing practical, solution-oriented transdisciplinary research that we have developed over the last ten years at Stellenbosch University, with special emphasis and reference to what we have learnt in the Enkanini case study over the last five years. These talks were not only extremely well received, but it also illustrated the different approaches that we have developed at our respective universities. In their own words, they said that it was clear that, by comparison to our empirical case study approach, they have followed more of an interdisciplinary approach, because they have not really ventured beyond the boundaries of academia by engaging with social actors on real-world, societal challenges. They therefore found our approach to transdisciplinary research not only refreshing and innovative, but also very appropriate for the developing world context in which they find themselves. Their interest in our work was very positive indeed, indicating a strong willingness to collaborate closely with us in the future, possibly starting with another longer visit to them again in 2017 with a view to co-hosting a TD Summer or Winter School and also assisting them in initiating a first transdisciplinary case study around either water- or soil-related challenges they are facing in their part of the world. This would certainly be the first of this kind of collaboration amongst the BRICS members that met at this conference, and the hope would be that this might lead to further similar initiatives within this emerging network of countries.