Department Environmental Social Sciences

Inter- and transdisciplinary approaches have become more and more common in research proposals. However, collaborations between different disciplines and with actors from policy and practice remain a challenge – for everyone involved, including project leaders and team members. A series of cartoons humorously illustrates how integration of perspectives and people will fail for sure. After all, the best medicine for processing frustrating experiences is humour and joint laughing. Perhaps some of us can even identify with one of the depicted scenes. The cartoons have the intention to provide food for thought, and invite everyone to rethink their own behavior, to engage in conversation with other researchers and actors, and to find ways to overcome disciplinary boundaries and to achieve integration across disciplinary and sectoral borders. The cartoons have already been successfully exhibited several times, for instance at Eawag and at the International Transdisciplinarity (ITD) Conference in Utrecht (Netherlands) in 2024. They can be used for further exhibitions free of charge with reference to the authors and their work. Further information can be found below (see Usage of the cartoons).

Background of the cartoon series

The cartoon series is based on the results from a reversal technique, which we employed in a workshop setting in several ITD program contexts in order to approach the emotionally charged challenge of integration from a different and ‘lighter’ angle. Participants were asked to brainstorm concrete behaviors, attitudes, and strategies to make sure that ITD integration fails in their programs. Capturing the results of these workshops in a series of cartoons, the exhibition provides action-oriented knowledge for project/program leaders and team members about how to actively hinder integration in practice.

However, the cartoon series does not intend to stop there: it invites everyone to reflect upon the displayed scenes from ITD integration and think about how they can be modified or reversed in order to allow integration to happen. Entry points for action to improve conditions for integration and leadership strategies to deal with inherent challenges can be found in two publications resulting from the project:

(1) Creating favorable conditions for inter- and transdisciplinary integration – an analytical framework and empirical insights;

(2) Herding Cats – Integrative Leadership Strategies in Inter- and Transdisciplinary Research Programs