Title: Facilitating collaborative processes in transdisciplinary research using design prototyping

Authors: Daniela Peukert; David P.M. Lam; Andra I. Horcea-Milcu; Daniel J. Lang

Addresses: Faculty Sustainability, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Universitätsallee 1, 21335 Lüneburg, Germany ' Faculty Sustainability and Institute for Sustainable Development and Learning, Institute for Ethics and Transdisciplinary Sustainability Research, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, 21335, Germany ' Hungarian Department of Biology and Ecology, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, 400006, Romania ' Faculty Sustainability and Institute for Sustainable Development and Learning, Institute for Ethics and Transdisciplinary Sustainability Research, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, 21335, Germany

Abstract: This article explores the application of design prototyping as a creative method to support collaborative processes within transdisciplinary sustainability research and to meet the challenges they pose. By drawing on discourses on integration, mutual learning and co-production, we identified six different interrelated challenges, concerning: (1) diversity; (2) communication; (3) power; (4) epistemology; (5) personal and team; and (6) focus. We applied design prototyping in four workshops that pertained to different phases of a transdisciplinary research process and represented typical collaborative research activities. Our analysis illustrates how design prototyping contributes to addressing the challenges of collaboration, thereby expanding the methodological canon of transdisciplinary research. In particular, it helps to create conditions for future-oriented transformations and their prerequisites, such as trust, common understanding and appreciation of the other. Consequently, we argue that design prototyping can be used to facilitate knowledge integration and collaboration among the variety of actors involved in transdisciplinary processes.

Keywords: challenges; design research; design methods; integration; knowledge co-production; transition research; transformation; co-creation.

DOI: 10.1504/JDR.2021.10041108

Journal of Design Research, 2020 Vol.18 No.5/6, pp.294 - 326

Received: 12 Aug 2020
Accepted: 08 Mar 2021
Published online: 02 Nov 2021 *

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