TY - JOUR T1 - Transdisciplinarity at the Crossroads: Nurturing Individual and Collective Learning JF - Technology Innovation Management Review Y1 - 2018 A1 - Chris Riedy A1 - Dena Fam A1 - Katie Ross A1 - Cynthia Mitchell KW - collaborative research KW - collective learning KW - learning journeys KW - transdisciplinary innovation AB - Practitioners of transdisciplinary inquiry, which we define to include research, learning, collaboration, and action, encounter innumerable tensions. Some tensions are universal, while others are unique to that particular inquiry at that point in time. Resolving these tensions requires innovative practices, which emerge through experience with transdisciplinary inquiry. In this article, we reflect on two decades of transdisciplinary inquiry at the Institute for Sustainable Futures. Drawing on that experience, we argue that one crucial innovative practice is to create space for collective, reflective learning. Such learning frequently takes place in spaces we call “crossroads”. These are formal and informal spaces where practitioners who have been on their own transdisciplinary learning journeys (experiencing diverse tensions and applying diverse approaches) come together in dialogue to share, reflect, critically and constructively question, imagine, challenge, and synthesize their experiences into collective organizational learning. Crossroads can emerge spontaneously but can also be consciously nurtured. In our experience, they help us to sustain the innovation needed for transdisciplinary inquiry and to avoid stagnation or routinization. At these reflective, and often times transformative, crossroads, we make sense of our messy, non-linear transdisciplinary journeys and develop innovations to take our transdisciplinary practices forward. PB - Talent First Network CY - Ottawa VL - 8 UR - https://timreview.ca/article/1177 IS - 8 U1 - University of Technology Sydney Chris Riedy is Professor of Sustainability Governance and Director of Higher Degree Research at the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia. Chris applies futures thinking, participatory processes, and social theory to practical experiments in transformative change for sustainability. Between 2014 and 2016, he helped the Wintec Institute of Technology in New Zealand to establish a new Master of Transdisciplinary Research and Innovation. He runs workshops on cross-disciplinary supervision at the University of Technology Sydney and experimented with a transdisciplinary learning lab to give research students a taste of transdisciplinary research. Chris is a Senior Research Fellow of the Earth System Governance project, Lead Steward of the Meta-Narratives Working Group of the SDG Transformation Forum, and a member of the editorial boards for Futures and the Journal of Futures Studies. He writes a blog on thriving within planetary boundaries called PlanetCentric (http://chrisriedy.me). U2 - University of Technology Sydney Dena Fam is Research Director and Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia. Over the last decade, Dena has worked with industry, government, and community actors to collaboratively manage, design, research, and trial alternative water and sanitation systems with the aim of sustainably managing sewage and reducing its environmental impact on the water cycle. Her consulting/research experience has spanned socio-cultural (learning for sustainability), institutional (policy analysis), and technological aspects of environmental management. With experience in transdisciplinary project development, Dena has increasingly been involved in developing processes for teaching and learning in transdisciplinary programs and projects. In particular, she has been involved in documenting and synthesizing processes/methods/techniques supporting the development of transdisciplinary educational programs and projects. Dena has led and co-led international transdisciplinary networking events, grants, and projects including an Australian-funded teaching and learning grant. U3 - University of Technology Sydney Katie Ross is a Research Principal at the Institute for Sustainable Futures (ISF) at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia. Her interest focus on ways to create meaningful and well-directed change towards sustainable futures. She specializes in transdisciplinary action research that agitates for change in social, technical, and governance systems. Katie is currently pursuing her doctorate on the philosophy, processes, and practices of transformative learning for sustainability. U4 - University of Technology Sydney Cynthia Mitchell is Deputy Director and Professor of Sustainability at the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia, where she has been pioneering transdisciplinary research since 2001, principally in learning, water services and international development. She founded, and for 13 years directed, the Institute’s higher degree research program. Her research has won national and international awards from academia and industry. She has an honorary doctorate from Chalmers University in Sweden for her interdisciplinary work for the environment, and she is a fellow of the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, a fellow of Engineers Australia, and a fellow of the Institute of Community Directors of Australia. ER -