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A Community-Engaged Approach to Transdisciplinary Doctoral Training in Urban Ecosystem Services
Sustainability Science
  • Heejun Chang, Portland State University
  • Elise F. Granek, Portland State University
  • David Ervin, Portland State University
  • J. Alan Yeakley, Portland State University
  • Veronica Dujon, Portland State University
  • Vivek Shandas, Portland State University
Document Type
Citation
Publication Date
2-1-2020
Abstract

Community-based projects with inclusive stakeholder engagement are increasingly important to achieve robust outcomes in the science and management of ‘wicked’ urban ecosystem service challenges. We summarize lessons learned from a transdisciplinary, team-based doctoral education program that engaged students in research on such multi-stakeholder, complex problems. The key lessons are (a) problem-based projects foster active student engagement and accelerate transdisciplinary analysis, (b) problems addressing more acute interventions by public or private organizations enable learning by clearly delineating the issues and revealing the goals and perspectives of varied stakeholders, (c) successful projects that address wicked problems require that transdisciplinary teams begin from inception to robustly frame research questions with multiple lenses and choose appropriate theories and methods to implement projects, (d) regular stakeholder engagement leads to mutually meaningful project outcomes that advance scholarly frontiers for university researchers and provide relevant solutions for community partners, and (e) university administrative investment in program faculty, students, and staff and flexibility to reward innovative collaborations across disciplinary boundaries are keys to facilitate success in transdisciplinary education. Our lessons provide guidance both for addressing wicked problems through research projects in general and for formulating transdisciplinary training approaches for graduate education.

Description

© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

DOI
10.1007/s11625-020-00785-y
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/32607
Citation Information
Chang, H., Granek, E. F., Ervin, D., Yeakley, A., Dujon, V., & Shandas, V. (2020). A community-engaged approach to transdisciplinary doctoral training in urban ecosystem services. Sustainability Science, 1-17.