Welcome to this book. For a long time it has been difficult to defend disciplinary-based knowledge and education for progressive purposes. The default setting in the field is that disciplinarity is the reactionary position and transdisciplinarity the progressive position. We propose that disciplinarity and transdisciplinarity are complementary aspects of a single, more complex whole: routine scholarly work . On this basis, the relationship between the two is not problematic. This is evident in the scope of interest in this form of inquiry. Topics in ecology, care , finance and gender studies have all embraced the multidisciplinary approach, not in some hegemonic way but as a process that, alongside disciplinary expertise, can render problems solvable. In this way transdisciplinarity is evolving where there are several approaches to understanding, and these are reflected in the chapters of this book.

They owe much to two critical books in the field, The New Production of Knowledge: The Dynamics of Science and Research in Contemporary Societies (Gibbons et al. 1994) and Re-Thinking Science. Knowledge and the Public in an Age of Uncertainty (Nowotny et al. 2001) . Upon release, these books pointed to the need for science and society to change their approach to knowledge production. Since then the response from universities, and in particular the professions educated there, has embraced a wider approach to knowledge production, working across the barriers in society.

It is difficult to settle on a definition of transdisciplinarity and I turn to Klein’s (2010) taxonomy of interdisciplinarity to set the book on a broad course. The multidisciplinary–interdisciplinary–transdisciplinary research environment spans a wide range of contexts and Klein’s taxonomy relates multidisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity by comparing their salient features to disciplinarity.

  • Multidisciplinarity: Juxtaposes the disciplines fostering wider knowledge, information and methods, but they remain separate, retaining their structure of knowledge and identity (Klein 2010, p. 17) .

  • Interdisciplinarity: ’When integration and interaction become proactive, the line between multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary is crossed’ (ibid, p. 18)—a blending, focusing and linking of disciplines.

  • Transdisciplinarity: A ‘common system of axioms that transcends the narrow scope of disciplinary world views through overarching synthesis’ (ibid, p. 24).

This is a rather simple rendition of Klein’s proposals but it works, I believe, to distinguish, if not to offer a compelling definition of, transdisciplinarity that will help guide the reader of this book.

The book’s purpose is to present a range of thinking about and through transdisciplinary and professional development as an educative process . However, given the ambiguity and ambition of transdisciplinarity, it is not surprising that a variety of interpretations abound, and finding an embracing definition involves Deleuzian multiplicity (Pohl and Hadorn 2007; Lawrence 2010; Nicolescu 2010; Klein 2008, 2010, are some of the most quoted authorities) . Nevertheless, rather than focusing on a delineation of the approaches offered, an analysis of these contributions points to commonality of problems that benefit from a transdisciplinary perspective . These tend towards the:

  • complex and heterogeneous

  • specific, local and uncertain

  • epistemologically pragmatic, and

  • ethically-based practical action.

These attributes suggest transcending, transgressing and transforming that is theoretical, critically integrative and morally liberating. These ideas are enshrined in the Charter of Transdisciplinarity (1994) and require rigour, openness and tolerance in their implementation (Article 14). As Manderson proposes, ‘(T)ransdisciplinarity examines a particular site or sites of interest without a particular disciplinary strategy in mind’ (1998) .

For the influential Nowotny, ‘(T)ransdisciplinarity is therefore about transgressing boundaries’ (2006) . This poses challenges for the practice of all professionals and is the core issue this book addresses. Within the boundary-spanning definitions of transdisciplinary research that emerge from and are applied to transdisciplinary problems, the attempt to resolve value-laden issues requires judgement of practical alternatives affecting others. These concerns are too important to be hampered by the constraints of disciplines in the forms of knowledge and the veracity that they sanction. The knowledge needed is both the means to solve the problem and the goal of the solution. Transdisciplinary knowledge lies in the liberation of reason from formality and in the multi-realities of the presenting problem. To seek such insights often requires collaboration, contextualization and reflection, leading to reasoning that is a collective, ethical, problem-based ‘explanatory’ engagement. The issues faced by the global economy have never been so evident or so poorly dealt with. Yet, whilst such changes are happening, in policy arenas the voices of those interested in the philosophical, sociological and theoretical consequences of these changes are seemingly hushed. This book attempts to bring leading thinkers’ voices together in one volume in a way that reflects changes necessarily within the transdisciplinary movement . Included are a conceptual chapter on methods and epistemology-driven chapters , reflective observations on professional practice and a contribution from a non-academic practitioner . The authors are drawn from three continents and a range of disciplinary and multidisciplinary backgrounds and practices so as to weave a story of transdisciplinary professionalism that we think provides a compelling narrative.

The book has three sections. The first explores ideas of transdisciplinarity and its application to professional practice. It contains contributions from the philosophical and sociological traditions and considers critical issues of pedagogy and epistemology in the forms of professional practice . In so doing it distinguishes between the derivative disciplines and their application in practice. The second section contributes to the generic area of professional workplace learning to be a transdisciplinary profession. It contains a specific discussion of pedagogy and approaches to transdisciplinary professional research and education at various levels and intensities. The third section takes on the issues and concepts discussed in the earlier sections and contextualizes them in the lived experience of transdisciplinarity.

The book opens with Sue’s chapter, powerfully discussing how professional development refers to acquiring new knowledge and skills to inform one’s practice. The chapter frames the transdisciplinary enterprise as an educative process by which people become a more complex self as they engage in transdisciplinary work using the transdisciplinary methodology . In turn this complex self, who has experienced a series of inner changes (paradigmatic, intellectual and philosophical), can better contribute to solving the problems of the world using the transdisciplinary methodology.

Tamara and Sandie conclude that, although transdisciplinary practice has been strongly advocated as an effective approach to working with children and families, practitioners continue to experience barriers to changing practice and difficulties in challenging the self. These personal–professional challenges can make transdisciplinarity difficult to sustain. Accordingly, in this chapter we suggest some possibilities for working with research partnerships as a means of changing and sustaining transdisciplinary practice, especially in relation to personal–professional challenges. We discuss some of the benefits and drawbacks of using case study methodologies and the potential of action research methodologies for supporting the sustainability of transdisciplinary practice .

Ron and Annette suggest that, rather than being of limited applicability, transdisciplinary approaches are likely to shed light on the most challenging and interesting business problems of the twenty-first century. They use a recent IBM study of over 1500 chief executives that shows how senior leaders believe monodisciplinary and boundaried approaches to be insufficient to address the complexity of the issues confronting them. The chapter delves into the problems of our current business environment and the difficulties to be managed. The authors argue that more information is available, and situations that require stochastic models without simple deterministic behaviour can and should be tackled.

For Sarah, nursing is both a discipline and profession, and it has a history of struggling to define its unique identity and body of knowledge. This history, coupled with nursing’s dynamic contemporary sociopolitical context, now compels a renewed conceptualization of its professional identity and purpose and a redirected sense of its potential to contribute to the health and social problems facing society . Although the concept of transdisciplinarity has been interpreted in various ways, the idea that disciplinary knowledge can be expanded and transcended by the blending of other realms of knowledge is potentially a fruitful one for nursing in its quest for significance.

Andre’s chapter focuses on the need for, and the characteristics and positive consequences of, interdisciplinary teamwork in healthcare. He discusses factors that determine the success of teamwork, such as a management that promotes openness and an administrative organization that promotes interdisciplinary consultation . A shared care plan is stressed as an important tool, where joint planning of goals is essential to intervention and care. Healthcare workers with different professional knowledge and background have to harmonize their intervention plan with the competences and goal settings of the other team members.

This section of the book closes with Raymond’s reflective account of being a professional. He writes about the issues facing a practising accountant who, in addition to accounting qualifications, has two law degrees. The purpose of his chapter is to share his experience and perspective on how accounting professionals learn from the professionals of other disciplines, to give insight for educators designing professional learning programmes for transdisciplinary learners.

The theme of transdisciplinary pedagogical practice and education is central to the second section. Linda and Christian open by offering a discussion of the benefits and challenges of creating transdisciplinary university education , with examples from the University of California, Berkeley (USA) and ETH Zurich (Switzerland) . In their chapter they discuss the nature and importance of transdisciplinary research and action, considering the general goals of integrating trandisciplinarity into higher education, and make recommendations for integrating transdisciplinarity into university education.

Carol’s chapter follows this in the UK context. She begins by making the case that transdisciplinarity features in programmes of study in universities as well as in the construction of research projects. It is present in the curriculum area of professional and occupational practice as a field of study and educational knowledge that, she argues, is mainly transdisciplinary in nature.

Marianne and Andreas close the section by looking at the merits of researching and teaching transdisciplinarity, on top of doing it. International and cross-disciplinary exchanges can address crucial questions of group size and group compositions, adequate funding conditions and methods that help to deal with powerful interest groups and thus contribute to high quality , legitimate and effective societal outcomes. By publishing and teaching on transdisciplinarity, we make specific concepts and approaches accessible to the critique of others. Thus, we can benefit from the academic principle of scepticism that is a key for quality management and effective innovation processes.

In the final section, the set of contributions discusses new ways of exploring transdisciplinarity and how these might reveal new ways of being. For Paul, professional practices are undertaken in the workplace, known to be a social system that confounds simple analysis and where things change and turn messy. There are many disciplinary approaches (e.g. anthropological, psychological and sociological), but attempts to determine what, and why, things happen within professional practice prove difficult from any single disciplinary and epistemological perspective . His chapter suggests that a transdisciplinary approach could be helpful, and that this is perhaps implicit in successful professional agency when dealing with emergent problems. These issues need to be taken at their face value, informed by a range of knowledge and resolved with the constraints of the sociopolitical context that, in many cases, created them.

Valerie and John take us towards a new reconceptualization of what transdisciplinarity might be like by moving us into the new operating and learning age of the Anthropocene , a term being applied to our current era, marked by significant effects of human ideas and actions on the planet’s natural and social environments . The authors explore the emergence of a collective mind that reframes opposites as relationships and asks introspective, physical, social, ethical, creative, sympathetic and reflective questions of complex issues in times of transformational change . The reflective seventh question challenges whether, after many generations of specialization, we can still find ways to combine diverse answers into a meaningful whole that throws light on the complex issues of our age.

All the authors are grateful to Professor Helga Nowotny, President of the European Research Council, for her considered views of the book. Her work continues to influence debate, discussion and application of transdisciplinarity in a wide range of sectors.

Finally, we hope you enjoy reading it, either in its entirety, by section or by chapter.