Bianca Vienni Baptista

Last Name

Vienni Baptista

First Name

Bianca

ORCID

0000-0003-1282-4288

Organisational unit

02351 - TdLab / TdLab

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Publications 1 - 10 of 51

Creating spaces and cultivating mindsets for learning and experimentation International Transdisciplinarity Conference 2021
Vienni Baptista, Bianca; Pearce, Bin Bin; Stauffacher, Michael; et al. (2021)
GAIA - Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society
In this communication, we present the background and core elements of the 2021 edition of the International Transdisciplinary Conference. Beginning with a brief history of how the event was initiated and the role played by saguf in supporting its development, we then detail the main features of the conference and its relevance for transdisciplinary sustainability research education.
The desirability of transitions in demand: Incorporating behavioural and societal transformations into energy modelling
Nikas, Alexandros; Lieu, Jenny; Sorman, Alevgul H.; et al. (2020)
Energy Research & Social Science
Quantitative systems modelling in support of climate policy has tended to focus more on the supply side in assessing interactions among technology, economy, environment, policy and society. By contrast, the demand side is usually underrepresented, often emphasising technological options for energy efficiency improvements. In this perspective, we argue that scientific support to climate action is not only about exploring capacity of “what”, in terms of policy and outcome, but also about assessing feasibility and desirability, in terms of “when”, “where” and especially for “whom”. Without the necessary behavioural and societal transformations, the world faces an inadequate response to the climate crisis challenge. This could result from poor uptake of low-carbon technologies, continued high-carbon intensive lifestyles, or economy-wide rebound effects. For this reason, we propose a framing for a holistic and transdisciplinary perspective on the role of human choices and behaviours in influencing the low-carbon transition, starting from the desires of individuals and communities, and analysing how these interact with the energy and economic landscape, leading to systemic change at the macro-level. In making a case for a political ecology agenda, we expand our scope, from comprehending the role of societal acceptance and uptake of end-use technologies, to co-developing knowledge with citizens from non-mainstream and marginalised communities, and to defining the modelling requirements to assess the decarbonisation potential of shifting lifestyle patterns in climate change and action.
Inter- and Transdisciplinary research in Integrated Water Resources Management: insights from a case study in Tandil, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Villalba, Luciano; Vienni Baptista, Bianca (2022)
WATERLAT-GOBACIT Network working papers ~ Producing knowledge about Water. Theoretical and methodological controversies, flows, meanders, rigidities, and the pursuit of “full transdiciplinarity”
While integrated water governance approaches, such as Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), are constantly promoted in the sustainability agenda, they face several challenges, especially in developing countries, where monetary resources are scarce and socioeconomic contexts are unstable. Moreover, the baseline is often a problematic but resilient configuration of a complex system, which calls for inter- and transdisciplinary (ID and TD) research. However, the adoption of these approaches for IWRM implementation is still limited, while their use to analyse IWRM past experiences is even less frequent. In this article, we use the TD heuristic framework developed by Vienni-Baptita et al. (2022) to study a series of IWRM workshops conducted in Tandil, Argentina. Our results show that methodological weakness can excessively extend the problem-framing phase, conditioning the process outputs. Regarding actors, our analysis suggests that the engagement of citizens is not only ethically relevant, but may be crucial to impulse the actions needed to foster IWRM.
Integration Piece: Breadth versus depth
Vienni Baptista, Bianca (2024)
Interdisciplinary Practices in Higher Education: Teaching, Learning and Collaborating Across Borders
Introductory Essay: Shaping Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Research
Vienni Baptista, Bianca; Fletcher, Isabel; Lyall, Catherine (2023)
Foundations of Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Research: A Reader
This groundbreaking reader is designed to lower the barriers to interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity in research. Edited by experienced researchers from a range of different fields, it paves the way for future scholarship and effective research collaborations across disciplines. Chapters offer extracts from key academic texts on topics such as the design, funding, evaluation and communication of research, providing those new to the field with a thorough grounding. They highlight examples of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary triumphs – and challenges. Concluding each chapter is a commentary provided by practitioners from diverse backgrounds, many of whom are themselves developing new approaches to inter- and transdisciplinarity. The book is: • the first ever comprehensive reader for interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity; • essential reading for those seeking to become effective collaborative researchers; • complete with concise introductions, extracts, commentary and further reading in each chapter. This is a much-needed primer that improves our understanding of the characteristics of interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity, unlocking their exciting potential in research and teaching within and beyond academia.
Expertise in research integration and implementation for tackling complex problems: when is it needed, where can it be found and how can it be strengthened?
Bammer, Gabriele; O’Rourke, Michael; O’Connell, Deborah; et al. (2020)
Palgrave Communications
Expertise in research integration and implementation is an essential but often overlooked component of tackling complex societal and environmental problems. We focus on expertise relevant to any complex problem, especially contributory expertise, divided into ‘knowing-that’ and ‘knowing-how.’ We also deal with interactional expertise and the fact that much expertise is tacit. We explore three questions. First, in examining ‘when is expertise in research integration and implementation required?,’ we review tasks essential (a) to developing more comprehensive understandings of complex problems, plus possible ways to address them, and (b) for supporting implementation of those understandings into government policy, community practice, business and social innovation, or other initiatives. Second, in considering ‘where can expertise in research integration and implementation currently be found?,’ we describe three realms: (a) specific approaches, including interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity, systems thinking and sustainability science; (b) case-based experience that is independent of these specific approaches; and (c) research examining elements of integration and implementation, specifically considering unknowns and fostering innovation. We highlight examples of expertise in each realm and demonstrate how fragmentation currently precludes clear identification of research integration and implementation expertise. Third, in exploring ‘what is required to strengthen expertise in research integration and implementation?,’ we propose building a knowledge bank. We delve into three key challenges: compiling existing expertise, indexing and organising the expertise to make it widely accessible, and understanding and overcoming the core reasons for the existing fragmentation. A growing knowledge bank of expertise in research integration and implementation on the one hand, and accumulating success in addressing complex societal and environmental problems on the other, will form a virtuous cycle so that each strengthens the other. Building a coalition of researchers and institutions will ensure this expertise and its application are valued and sustained.
Conclusion: A comparative framework for institutionalizing inter- and trans-disciplinary research and teaching in higher education
Vienni Baptista, Bianca; Thompson Klein, Julie; Streck, Danilo (2022)
Research and Teaching in Environmental Studies ~ Institutionalizing Interdisciplinarity and Transdisciplinarity
Going transdisciplinary. How to implement impactful transdisciplinary research and education programs in plant sciences
Dahinden, Manuela; Vienni Baptista, Bianca; Paschke, Melanie (2021)
The Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center (PSC) has implemented various research programs that provide new dimensions of curriculum development and stakeholder engagement. PSC graduate education programs aim at building a dialogue between science and policy, and co-production of knowledge through competence-oriented transdisciplinary teaching (Paschke & Zurgilgen, 2019). Thus, the programs increase students’ capacity to act as socially engaged scientists. Transdisciplinarity, in this context, is defined as a mean to cross both disciplinary and institutional boundaries, involving research partners beyond the academy in the active co-production of research; and thus, facilitating a systemic approach to research and problem-solving. More than 100 PhD students have been enrolled in the PhD Program Science and Policy since its launch in 2010. Ten of these PhD students have received a fellowship from the Mercator Foundation Switzerland. On conclusion of the PSC-Mercator Fellowship Program in spring 2021, the PSC set out to evaluate its long-term efforts. This best-practice report addresses two main questions: (i) How effective has the competence-oriented transdisciplinary teaching been? (ii) What worked well and what can be improved? The aim was to identify: (i) the impact of the PSC graduate fellowship programs, and (ii) implementation measures that may improve future programs. The report aims to stimulate thinking and action on such questions. It also serves as a “touchstone” to which curricular planning efforts, grant proposals, and articles can be connected.
Transdisciplinary institutionalization in higher education: a two-level analysis
Vienni Baptista, Bianca; Rojas-Castro, Silvia (2020)
Studies in Higher Education
In this paper, we focus on the institutionalization of transdisciplinarity (TD) in higher education institutions and how they institutionalize Transdisciplinarity (TD). As such, universities have engaged in different activities to enact TD policies that aim at incorporating TD in their research and teaching. We take the Methodology Center at the Leuphana University of Lüneburg as a case study. We analyze the institutionalization process of TD to shed light on the obstacles that TD faces to become a widespread policy and practice at universities. In adopting a neo-institutionalist approach in our research, we develop a two-level analysis that allow us to compare the formal characteristics given to TD policies with the actual TD practices taking place in universities. Our findings reveal that TD institutionalization at the Methodology Center is at a mid-level and that overall TD institutionalization is an iterative process, in which the two levels mutually can reinforce or hinder each other.
Institutionalising
Vienni Baptista, Bianca (2024)
Elgar Encyclopedias in the Social Sciences series ~ Elgar Encyclopedia of Interdisciplinarity and Transdisciplinarity
Increased interest in interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity has heightened calls for institutionalising structures and strategies that cross boundaries of expertise both within and beyond the academy. A multitude of strategies and models of change emerged along different subthemes: spanning different historical and geographical contexts, temporal and spatial organization of research and teaching, degrees of change from modifications to transformations, theories or philosophies of institutional change, and factors helping or hindering institutionalising processes and dynamics. Given the heterogeneity of practices, we should not impose a universal definition of the term “institutionalisation”. Institutionalising is here conceptualised as a verb. Therefore, embedding inter- and transdisciplinarity in organisational structures is best thought of as a process, which does not follow a predetermined formula However, the strategies and models of institutionalising can be designed, implemented, reframed and/or analysed along four practical dimensions and questions: epistemic, cultural, organisational and strategic. This framework is useful for tackling continuing and future challenges posed by different relations at the intersections of cultures, institutions, and communities in institutionalising inter- and transdisciplinarity.

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Bianca Vienni Baptista

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