ABSTRACT
This case of transdisciplinary collaboration raises a range of issues relevant to scientifi c research on complex twenty-fi rst-century problems associated with water security, energy consumption and climate change impacts. These problems are widely acknowledged to require more than technocentric and resourcecentred solutions, and they demand increased engagement with the people impacted by the problem, and with those who will live with the proposed solutions. This suggests a greater role for researchers from humanities and social science (HASS) disciplines in fi elds conventionally dominated by STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) knowledges. But bringing together positivist (quantitatively oriented) and interpretive (qualitative) paradigms of knowledge has its own diffi culties, not least the effort to establish ‘a basis of mutual intellectual and professional respect’ that could ground a ‘genuine’ knowledge partnership (Nowotny et al. 2013).
