ABSTRACT
An evolving understanding of transdisciplinarity that addresses its connection with practice is presented by Cynthia Mitchell, Dana Cordell and Dena Fam (Chapter 3) who introduce a novel framework for designing, undertaking and refl ecting on transdisciplinary research – the outcome spaces. They argue for ‘beginning at the end’, where the end is engagement with the world, and suggest that a transdisciplinary researcher maintains a clear view of three types of desired outcome: changing the situation being addressed; making a contribution to stocks and fl ows of knowledge; and bringing about mutual and transformative learning. The desired outcomes aim to guide research design and help clarify key decisions during the research process, and they require researchers to be clear about their worldviews and intentions from the outset. Gabrielle Bammer (Chapter 4) takes a somewhat different focus on practical resources, tools and methods for conducting transdisciplinary research. She presents a framework for thinking Systematically about transdisciplinarity by categorising tools and methods into those that are useful for (a) synthesizing disciplinary/stakeholder knowledge, (b) understanding and managing diverse unknowns and (c) providing integrated research support for policy and practice change. This collation of tools (and repositories for accessing them) will be a valuable resource for transdisciplinary researchers/practitioners.
