The 9th Summer/Winter School in Transdisciplinary Research has taken place this week – the pic captures them in all their stunning African colours. They come from all over, and include researchers from Professors to Masters students. All arrived with their research topics to explore with our transdisciplinary research team practical methods for conducting qualitative research using the Sensemaker software. Professor Bagele Chilisa was part the teaching team – the author of the pathbreak book published by Sage called Indigenous Research Methods. To think that this group spent a week at the Sustainability Institute doing a course that synthesized transdisciplinary research, indigenous research methods and the Sensemaker software (developed by the complexity theorist Dave Snowden). A truly remarkable impactful achievement that really captures what will be the core methodological discipline in our newly established Centre for Complex Systems in Transition.

Some of the research topics of the participants (apologies to those I have missed):

green house gasses and air pollution at Julius Nyere airport – Tanzania
impact of denge feaver caused by a certain strain of mosquito – Nigeria
environmental impact of poverty – Nigeria
water quality measurement, water is life – Tanzania
how indigenous music and knowledge is embedded in dance – Ghana (when asked ‘where is your instrument’, he said ‘I am the instrument’)
sustainable agriculture and youth employment – SA
climate change and nature-based tourism – Ghana
how society depends on natural resources – Ghana
environmental sanitation and climate change – Ethiopia
appointment of public prosecutors in SA – SA
corruption in SA – SA
indigenous knowledge research methods, with special ref to HIV AIDS – Botswana
respiratory viruses in children – how to develop an indigenous vaccine – Ghana
fisheries and fishing communities and the impacts of climate change – Ghana
scenic spaces, artistic performance and nature – Ghana
potential traditional nutrient rich crops – Nigeria
food security and local communities – SA
tourism and local communities: sustainable community camp sites- Botswana
international law and international health regulations and non-communicable deseases- SA
public policy and sustainable livelihood with respect to mining – Ghana
values affecting cancer screening amongst women – Botswana
improvement of chocolate flavours – Ghana
cross-border trafficking of drugs and children – Ghana
impact of land restitution on food security – SA
green jobs in the informal economy in informal settlements – SA
rural-urban migration – Mali
talent retention in the Free State goldfields – SA