Facilitating Urban Sustainability through Transdisciplinary (TD) Research: Lessons from Ghana, South Africa, and Zimbabwe

Gladman Thondhlana, Chipo Plaxedes Mubaya, Alice McClure, Akosua Baah Kwarteng Amaka-Otchere and Sheunesu Ruwanza
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Gladman Thondhlana: Department of Environmental Science, Rhodes University, Makhanda 6140, South Africa
Chipo Plaxedes Mubaya: International Collaborations Office, Chinhoyi University of Technology, Private Bag, Chinhoyi 7724, Zimbabwe
Alice McClure: Climate Systems Analysis Group, University of Cape Town, Cape Town 7701, South Africa
Akosua Baah Kwarteng Amaka-Otchere: Department of Planning, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi 1916, Ghana
Sheunesu Ruwanza: Department of Environmental Science, Rhodes University, Makhanda 6140, South Africa

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 11, 1-18

Abstract: The notion of sustainability has been integrated into many aspects of development to emphasise human needs now and in the future. Sustainable urbanization objectives are pertinent in the context of rapidly expanding African cities, in which urban inhabitants experience challenges associated with poor sanitation, climate hazards, and energy and food insecurity. There are increasing calls for embracing transdisciplinary (TD) research for mapping pathways towards sustainability in these ever-growing cities, particularly by integrating academic, practitioner, and societal knowledge to design effective and contextually relevant responses to existing and emerging challenges. Though transdisciplinary processes are growing in developing countries, dispersed literature on and a growing number of projects applying TD research in different contexts make it difficult to learn from and develop useful frameworks for implementation. To make lessons more accessible to a growing audience, this paper provides a reflective account of two urban sustainability TD projects that were designed and implemented in Ghana, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. The contexts within which these TD research projects took place are described, as are ways in which relevant stakeholders were involved in and benefitted from the codesign and realisation of the respective projects. Based on experiences, the paper reflects on the challenges of and opportunities for TD research in Africa for urban sustainability, which provides insights for enhancing this practice in Africa. The paper ends with considerations for TD practice and theory.

Keywords: transdisciplinarity sustainability; codesign; challenges; opportunities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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