The complexity of the current global socio-ecological crisis highlights the limits of modern science and the need to rethink its social role; forging new bonds not only with society at large, but also and concurrently with ecological systems. Questions related to the governance of science are intermingled with questions about democracy and inequalities, and the increasing risks to human life on the planet. As Bruno Latour (2018) reminded us, such 'climate' of tensions, social and ecological, is not simply an externality to be monitored and measured; rather, it can be understood in the broader sense of "the relations between human beings and the material conditions of their lives" (p.1). Such a shift requires greater collaboration amongst disciplines and research traditions, across the sciences, arts and humanities, and between experts and non-experts. However, this approach is rarely present in the education and training of future and professional scientists nor incentivised as part of their research practices. In this seminar, we will present some of the experiences and reflections that emerged during BRIDGES, a multi-partner project aimed to elaborate tools for supporting participatory approaches for addressing complex socio-ecological problems that are personally and collectively relevant. Set in the Italian context, BRIDGES is inspired by post-normal science towards the creation of extended research communities. It focuses specifically on the topic of soil fertility, not only because of its global, economic relevance but because its management and care requires new visions and new relationships between science and society, and between humans and non-human actors. Starting from the results of a national survey investigating the narratives held by Italian researchers on science and society relationships, the project unfolded through a series of transdisciplinary, participatory workshops in rural and urban areas involving different actors. Young researchers, educators, artists, science communicators, soil scientists were all engaged in reflecting, discussing and co-producing indicators of soil fertility. While the project is still ongoing, we will share one of the experiences that centred on the action of digging, both as a practical, symbolic and metaphorical action, which involved different BRIDGES communities for different periods and at different times over the course of the project. Led by two artists, digging in the soil acted as an initiation, bringing participants in close contact with the materiality and generative nature of soil, and its cyclical time dimension; it also surfaced the different and multiple narratives of research, giving participants the experience of doing transdisciplinary research in practice. an experiment of transdisciplinary research - Reflections from an ongoing research project
Soil digging as an experiment of transdisciplinary research - Reflections from an ongoing research project
Alba L'Astorina;
2022
Abstract
The complexity of the current global socio-ecological crisis highlights the limits of modern science and the need to rethink its social role; forging new bonds not only with society at large, but also and concurrently with ecological systems. Questions related to the governance of science are intermingled with questions about democracy and inequalities, and the increasing risks to human life on the planet. As Bruno Latour (2018) reminded us, such 'climate' of tensions, social and ecological, is not simply an externality to be monitored and measured; rather, it can be understood in the broader sense of "the relations between human beings and the material conditions of their lives" (p.1). Such a shift requires greater collaboration amongst disciplines and research traditions, across the sciences, arts and humanities, and between experts and non-experts. However, this approach is rarely present in the education and training of future and professional scientists nor incentivised as part of their research practices. In this seminar, we will present some of the experiences and reflections that emerged during BRIDGES, a multi-partner project aimed to elaborate tools for supporting participatory approaches for addressing complex socio-ecological problems that are personally and collectively relevant. Set in the Italian context, BRIDGES is inspired by post-normal science towards the creation of extended research communities. It focuses specifically on the topic of soil fertility, not only because of its global, economic relevance but because its management and care requires new visions and new relationships between science and society, and between humans and non-human actors. Starting from the results of a national survey investigating the narratives held by Italian researchers on science and society relationships, the project unfolded through a series of transdisciplinary, participatory workshops in rural and urban areas involving different actors. Young researchers, educators, artists, science communicators, soil scientists were all engaged in reflecting, discussing and co-producing indicators of soil fertility. While the project is still ongoing, we will share one of the experiences that centred on the action of digging, both as a practical, symbolic and metaphorical action, which involved different BRIDGES communities for different periods and at different times over the course of the project. Led by two artists, digging in the soil acted as an initiation, bringing participants in close contact with the materiality and generative nature of soil, and its cyclical time dimension; it also surfaced the different and multiple narratives of research, giving participants the experience of doing transdisciplinary research in practice. an experiment of transdisciplinary research - Reflections from an ongoing research projectI documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
