290394 PS Transdisciplinary Methods in Urban Studies (2021S)

Living in the urban age, great societal challenges exist that relate to socio-ecological-technical interactions in cities and which call for transformations towards sustainability. To address the challenges and to develop solutions for “real-world” problems, there is a need for not only inter- but particularly transdisciplinary approaches. Those aim at a strong collaboration with non-academic actors to produce needs- and user-oriented knowledge and to enhance mutual learning between science and practice. Urban real-world laboratories (Reallabore) have gained currency in this context.

The seminar introduces a range of transdisciplinary methods, stemming from different research strands. The overall aim is to combine those methods with conceptual insights on transdisciplinary research designs, and to translate this into real-world laboratories during the seminar (topic(s) to be jointly decided on). As under the current COVID-19 situation the direct interaction with non-academic actors won’t be possible, students are going to take over roles in the course of the different real-world-laboratories, similar to a role-playing game. In groups, relevant actors for the real-world laboratories will be defined (stakeholder-mapping) and the real-world laboratories will be designed. On the “lab-days”, starting from discussions on the challenges of the topic to be addressed, students in the role of different actors will agree on a common problem statement and a desired vision with regards to problem solving by applying different transdisciplinary methods. Thereby, students will learn by doing about the benefits and challenges of transdisciplinary research.