Notes from the Field

Producing Shared Understanding of Transdisciplinary Social-Ecological Systems using an Autoethnographic Approach

Written by Faye Miller


Faye Miller

University of Canberra, Australia

Faye.Miller@Canberra.edu.au

Twitter: @feliqzm

Over my four years as a doctoral candidate, I was immersed in the fascinating worlds and eclectic networks of fourteen researchers from across the natural sciences, social sciences and creative arts, in the first five years of their academic appointments. I originally wanted to explore how early career researchers experience information for learning in complex transdisciplinary contexts. Each of these academics based at two Australian universities had continued to nurture connections established from their past lives working in industry, media, advocacy groups and government policy, while collaborating locally and internationally with a wide range of academics and practitioners from within and outside of their disciplines. 

My study produced a new theoretical model of early career researchers experiencing information as a transdisciplinary knowledge ecosystem. The knowledge ecosystem model (Miller, 2015) was first published in Journal of Documentation, UK. It was featured as the journal’s most read paper in 2018-19 and continues to be cited in many projects, both academic and non-academic, including in reports by UNESCO. This piece explains my rationale for choosing a novel autoethnographic method to extend this research, which used constructivist grounded theory method. With constructivist grounded theory, my focus was on developing an understanding of a social phenomenon (and new conceptual models) based on commonalities and differences across various individual and personal, subjective meanings and experiences. The model was developed from qualitative data analysis, open and focused coding and constant comparison technique. Data analysis was focused on uncovering their emotions, thoughts, identities, practices and experiences in the relationships between the researchers and their support networks, and also their intersubjective relationships with myself as the researcher. 

Since completing my doctorate five years ago, I have also developed both professionally and personally through postdoctoral research, teaching and life experience. Over the past twenty years I have had several careers across many different disciplines, sectors and geographical and sociocultural locations – many of them interrelated – as a scholarly researcher, author, filmmaker, musician, editor, research grants development manager and parliamentary social policy researcher. With this experience, I decided to apply the autoethnographic approach, with its emphasis on the researcher’s perspective on experiencing a phenomenon. Autoethnography was considered the ideal approach to extending my knowledge ecosystem model by analyzing my own reflective journal entries, social media posts, publications, multimedia and observational notes produced throughout my doctorate until the present day. Autoethnography was also suitable for exploring a new research question: How does a social change agent experience information while producing for impact across transdisciplinary spaces? 

Autoethnography is “a reflexive means by which the researcher–practitioner consciously embeds himself or herself in theory and practice, and by way of intimate autobiographic account, explicates a phenomenon under investigation or intervention” (McIllveen, 2008). The participant-researcher is uniquely placed to analyse the data, enriching the findings with reflexive, embodied and affective insights that she has gained from over a decade of experience (Hokkanen, 2017; Ellis et al, 2010) as a change agent moving between different worlds such as academia, industries such as social media technology companies, journalism, and public policy development. An interest in peoples’ lived experiences may be described as a focus that “orients us holistically towards peoples informed existences, considering people and what informs them, within their wider environments in a manner which considers people and their world as inseparable”.  (Bruce et al, 2014, p. 5). Data analysis was guided by six questions:

  • How are cultures of a transdisciplinary nature observed?
  • What is informing transdisciplinary social change? 
  • How are information and/or knowledge experienced in each context?
  • What was the social problem jointly identified and worked on?
  • What does the impact journey look like?
  • How is this a complex adaptive system?

Each data source was collected and clustered into NVivo, under each of the cultural settings, for data analysis. The researcher, guided by the research questions, individually coded items line by line, while noting the relationships between emotions, information and the cultural settings (Ellis et al, 2010). Each case was written using memo development based on initial coding. From constantly comparing data and memos written from each case, patterns emerged from data analysis (Ellis et al, 2010), which identified transdisciplinary resonance as a way of experiencing information that empowers change agents working in liminal spaces between different groups. The following is an autoethnographic excerpt, which forms the basis of an upcoming scholarly book exploring methods of producing shared understanding for social innovation.

One the first innovative people I interviewed for my doctoral research was an early career ecologist in environmental science. Several years later her work has made a pioneering contribution to the conservation of a particular endangered species of wildlife. Even though she and I inhabited very different worlds, the interview flowed very harmoniously. She connected with me immediately and understood that I was a social scientist, studying humans and their behaviors, cultures and experiences and she acknowledged we were doing the same work but using different approaches, because humans are part of the same ecosystem as animals. As I interviewed more natural scientists such as ecology and biology researchers, and compared with them my observations of physicists and chemists, I observed that the ecologists are able to synthesize different disciplines working and learning together rather than working more narrowly. This was a memorable moment, for myself and for the people involved in my research, as it gave us common ground to co-create something that would otherwise never have been born.

In a moment of intersubjectivity, or shared understanding, we were learning and knowing together even through our differences.

The moment also signaled to me that the project itself was starting to produce resonance across disciplinary boundaries. In terms of creating impact, not only did the study have to follow standards of quality, trustworthiness and credibility in its data collection, analysis and theorizing, but the two evaluative notions of shared understanding and resonance were equally important, yet often skipped for lack of time in many qualitative studies. So I kept that in mind throughout my PhD and beyond. In using an autoethnographic approach, shared understanding is defined as the relationships between transdisciplinary information and resonance.

Similarly, as I interviewed social scientists and humanities researchers working in fields of communications, filmmaking, marketing and psychology, they enthusiastically offered the terms social ecology and complex adaptive systems. In those moments, the social-ecological metaphor became a major common framework and mindset for many disciplinary and epistemological perspectives to hang onto, making the often chaotic experience of working collaboratively in transdisciplinary projects and environments a little smoother. It also suggested that the projects they were working on together had long-term global and local significance in sustainable development – for the environment, both natural and artificial or digital, the economy and the people and societies. The repeated use of the term ecology indicated to me that the disciplinary boundaries informally known as silos were starting to crumble and that researchers themselves were changing in their approaches. For example, natural scientists whose work is traditionally more firmly entrenched in present day and historically undisputed empirical observable fact are now looking at their work’s future implications in a changing and evolving environment. 

When an original song is covered by other artists, or when a poem or story is quoted in another creative work, it is being re-interpreted in different contexts. Similarly, when something – whether a project, person or object – is described as having transdisciplinary resonance, it means that it has been heard, seen, digested, engaged with, interpreted and perhaps referenced and transformed in a different context from where it first emerged. Early feedback on my knowledge ecosystem model suggested that people who worked in other cross-disciplinary teams in academia and industry, were already thinking of ways to use, test and build on it for their own projects. Of course, not everyone was so keen to think in an out of the box kind of way, seeing the shift as “more work” instead of “more meaningful work”. But the people who did think this way made me realize that transdisciplinary cultures were not just a part of idealistic visions for the future of higher education. In some universities and other organizational cultures, it was already alive and disruptively kicking.

A transdisciplinary project is one of collaborative problem solving where a social or digital problem is formulated and knowledge gaps identified by a team or network of academics and non-academics from different disciplines and sectors on equal status. Each team member is changed throughout the project, regardless of orientation. While there is much published about how to facilitate transdisciplinary processes, teamwork and the transcultural nature of such projects (Stokols, 2018), very few studies explore the sociocultural, experiential and interpersonal aspects of transdisciplinary groundwork (Miller, 2016). Much of the transdisciplinary culture remains ‘invisible work’ and deeper insights and understanding can only be gained through a synthesis of the individual, collaborative and cross-boundary contextual factors and experiences. As yet, there have been no studies which attempt to analyze data collected from people involved in transdisciplinary projects, tracking their impacts, perceptions and experiences over a number of years.

In the urgency of finding solutions to many social and environmental problems, a re-calibration was occurring. And that is why the social-ecological mindset rose to the forefront of my knowledge ecosystem theory, and that what truly informed innovators and change makers while learning and growing was the ecosystem itself, particularly waves of creative intelligence and ingenuity. We need to look at new ways to facilitate these resources. My study was not meant to be an activist push for change or advocacy. The changes and shifts were observed as unfolding slowly; like a natural scientist, I was observing, collecting and analyzing empirical data gathered from humans in their natural environment – a university ecosystem. 

The autoethnographic approach using reflexive data analysis extends findings from a grounded theory study, by revealing some of the researcher’s personal story behind the making of the knowledge ecosystem model, while relating and integrating further insights into important issues currently being discussed in higher education and the wider society. 

References

Bruce, C., Davis, K., Hughes, H., Partridge, H. & Stoodley, I. (2014). Information experience: contemporary perspectives. In C. Bruce, K. Davis, H. Hughes, H. Partridge & I. Stoodley (Eds.), Information experience: approaches to theory and practice (pp. 3-15). Bingley, UK: Emerald. (Library and Information Science, 9.)

Ellis, C., Adams, T. E. & Bochner, A. P. (2010). Autoethnography: An Overview. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research12(1), Art. 10, Available at: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1101108

Hokkanen, S. (2017). Analyzing personal embodied experiences: Autoethnography, feelings, and fieldwork. Translation & Interpreting9(1), 24-35.

McIlveen, P. (2008). Autoethnography as a method for reflexive research and practice in vocational psychology. Australian Journal of Career Development17(2), 13-20.

Miller, C. Z. (2016). Towards transdisciplinarity: Liminality and transitions inherent in pluridisciplinary collaborative work. Journal of Business Anthropology, 2, 35-57.

Miller, F. Q. (2015). Experiencing information use for early career academics’ learning: A knowledge ecosystem model, Journal of Documentation, 71(6), 1228-1249.

Stokols, D. (2018). Social ecology in the digital age. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Academic Press.

Image Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 Generic  (CC BY-SA 2.0)
“New Worlds” by Torely

About the author

Faye Miller

122 Comments

  • Die folgende Liste zeigt euch die Casino App Echtgeld
    Spiele mit den höchsten Auszahlungsquoten. So können Sie
    sie überall spielen, auch mit Echtgeld. Wir haben ein großartiges Spiel für Gelegenheitsspieler, die gerade mit Echtgeld
    Slots beginnen. Wie alle Spielautomaten sind die Slots von Novoline so programmiert, dass sie à la longue einen gewissen Prozentsatz ausschütten.
    Novoline Book of Ra ist ein Slot mit 5 Walzen. Diese erscheinen von links nach rechts auf benachbarten Walzen. Genau diese Art von Casinos kannst du oben auf unserer Liste der Casinos ohne Einzahlung finden. Verwenden Sie die kostenlose
    Demo auf unserer Seite. Daher unterstützt jede von uns empfohlene iGaming Seite
    das Spielen auf mobilen und Desktop Geräten. Sie können 5 Mal aufeinanderfolgend die Glücksspielfunktion spielen. Alle Titel
    können an diesem ort nicht aufs Tapet kommen, zumal nichts unversucht lassen neue
    ins Programm aufgenommen werden. Casinos können behaupten, die besten zu aufwändig, aber wenn
    Sie keinen, wonach Sie suchen, werden Sie verloren sein. Wenn Sie Anfänger sind, kann das Spielen umsonst der beste
    Kollabieren, Ihr Wissen über Slot-Spiele zu verbessern. Wenn jemand nur Geld bei “Wer wird Millionär” gewinnt, dann hat
    das meistens auch mit den speziellen Fähigkeiten, bzw.
    dem Wissen dieser Person zu tun.

  • That is the best blog for anyone who wants to find out about this topic. You understand so much its nearly arduous to argue with you (not that I truly would need…HaHa). You definitely put a new spin on a topic thats been written about for years. Great stuff, just great!

  • Great article! This is the kind of info that are meant to be shared around the internet.
    Shame on the search engines for now not positioning this submit upper!
    Come on over and seek advice from my website . Thank you =)

  • Hello! I could have sworn I’ve been to this blog before but after browsing through some of the post I realized it’s new to me. Anyways, I’m definitely happy I found it and I’ll be book-marking and checking back frequently!

  • I am extremely impressed with your writing skills and also with the
    layout on your weblog. Is this a paid theme or did you
    modify it yourself? Either way keep up the excellent quality
    writing, it is rare to see a great blog like this one today.
    wax vaporizer bulk buy

    Also visit my blog :: evlla vaping items

  • I do consider all of the concepts you’ve introduced on your post.
    They’re very convincing and will certainly work.
    Still, the posts are too brief for newbies. Could you please extend them a little from next
    time? Thanks for the post. cbd/thc vape pens factory

    Also visit my webpage – wax vaporizer alibaba (music-salon.com)

  • Hi there! This is my 1st comment here so I just wanted to give
    a quick shout out and tell you I really enjoy reading your
    blog posts. Can you recommend any other blogs/websites/forums that cover the same topics?
    Thanks for your time!

  • It’s a shame you don’t have a donate button! I’d without a doubt donate to this brilliant blog! I guess for now i’ll settle for bookmarking and adding your RSS feed to my Google account. I look forward to new updates and will talk about this website with my Facebook group. Talk soon!

  • Hey there would you mind stating which blog platform you’re using? I’m going to start my own blog in the near future but I’m having a difficult time choosing between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal. The reason I ask is because your design seems different then most blogs and I’m looking for something unique. P.S My apologies for being off-topic but I had to ask!

  • Hello, I am Nilima Pawar. I provide Independent companion service inside just about all right parts of Coimbatore.
    I was a 22-year-old gal who has extreme attention in intercourse and intimate satisfaction. I
    have been getting enjoyment with various individuals
    and discovering my intimate needs since final one yr.
    I have always been fresh, sensuous, younger, attractive, very properly designed, appealing and popular female
    who can make any guy content in my arms. I possess reasonable pores and skin, longer
    locks, longer throat, 34c dimension chests, 28-inches waist, gentle and skinny ass and athletic body with a height of 5.6 foot.

    I have always been a complete package deal in a extremely reasonable price.I am
    well skilled and experienced independent escort. I know what my customers need and how to please
    them. those who fulfill me once, satisfy me once again. I are
    that great. I actually have got a new flavor of every kind or
    type of sex. Steady, slow, hard, quick, grey.
    . . every kind. I love intercourse in every type. You will
    enjoy performing it with me and love to arrive back again to
    me.

  • This x-rated site contains oriented product intended for adults only sexually.

    You must become 21 years of era or elderly to purchase
    XXX material or to perspective sexually explicit substance like as granny porn,
    granny intercourse, granny nude, if you happen to be certainly
    not 21, offended by adult product or being able to view this web-site from a locale where this product
    is normally particularly prohibited by legislations, Cease Below!

    For our defense,

    My spouse and i certify I am of an grown-up age 21 , and wish to look
    at x-rated stuff many of these as DVD movies containing sex,
    explicit magazines and playthings sexually.
    I guarantee that it is legitimate to see such stuff in my
    country and place.
    My spouse and i shall not license any small, or any individual who would search for this offensive personally,
    to view this content.

    I actually certify that We am not necessarily a populous city, local,
    express or perhaps public federal government regulations enforcement officer,
    overseas official, or inspector for the U. Postal Services,
    All actors performing inside of the love-making films about this web internet
    site are 18 ages of age or elderly.

  • Everyone loves a new sizzling hot pornstar.

    Thus why not necessarily have a heap of the most popular girls in the XXX
    business in 1 place?! poornstars.web is the definitive blog on the
    world wide web for the most beautiful ladies who seem to never timid away from having
    hardcore love-making. They take pleasure in to obtain naked
    in entrance of the camcorder and get on the greatest dicks in a vast
    assortment of intimate postures. We catch it all in bright details in our
    top quality variety of no cost porno videos. These luscious vixens will be the virtually
    all voracious hence please be warned. Our limitless database of
    erotica will depart you expended and bone dry!

  • Hey this is kinda of off topic but I was wondering if blogs use WYSIWYG editors or if you
    have to manually code with HTML. I’m starting
    a blog soon but have no coding know-how so I wanted to get guidance from someone with experience.
    Any help would be greatly appreciated!

  • You actually make it seem so easy with your presentation but I find this matter to be really
    something that I think I would never understand. It seems
    too complex and extremely broad for me. I am looking forward for
    your next post, I will try to get the hang of it!

    Also visit my homepage Truck accident law firm in roanoke – vimeo.com,

  • Howdy! I understand this is sort of off-topic but I needed to ask.

    Does running a well-established blog such as yours require a lot of work?
    I’m brand new to writing a blog but I do write in my journal on a daily basis.
    I’d like to start a blog so I can easily share my own experience and feelings online.
    Please let me know if you have any suggestions or tips for new aspiring bloggers.

    Thankyou!

    Feel free to surf to my page; Mebane Truck accident lawsuit

  • I am extremely impressed with your writing skills
    as well as with the layout on your blog. Is this a paid theme or did you modify it yourself?
    Either way keep up the excellent quality writing, it is rare to see a great blog like this one today.

    My homepage – lakewood truck accident law firm – Glinda

  • Good day! I know this is kinda off topic however
    I’d figured I’d ask. Would you be interested in exchanging links
    or maybe guest writing a blog post or vice-versa? My site goes
    over a lot of the same subjects as yours and I believe we could greatly benefit from each other.
    If you might be interested feel free to shoot me an email.
    I look forward to hearing from you! Awesome blog by the way!

    My blog: claim

  • Today, I went to the beachfront with my children. I found a
    sea shell and gave it to my 4 year old daughter and said “You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear.” She put
    the shell to her ear and screamed. There was a hermit crab inside and it
    pinched her ear. She never wants to go back! LoL I know this
    is totally off topic but I had to tell someone!

    Also visit my blog post: Truck Accident Settlement Buckley

  • I don’t know if it’s just me or if everybody else experiencing
    problems with your website. It appears as if some of the text on your
    content are running off the screen. Can someone else please comment and let me know if this is
    happening to them as well? This may be a problem with my internet browser because I’ve had
    this happen previously. Thanks

    Feel free to surf to my blog; Truck Accident Case Fountain Inn

  • I’m curious to find out what blog system you’re using?
    I’m having some minor security problems with my latest blog and I would like to find something more
    secure. Do you have any solutions?

    Feel free to visit my web-site :: hollidaysburg truck accident law firm (Catherine)

  • You will be so wonderful! I don’t think I’ve definitely read through an individual detail like that prior to. So very good to find out somebody by using a couple distinctive feelings on this concern. Seriously.. thanks for starting up this up. This Site is something that is necessary on the net, someone with some originality!

  • My spouse and i were now joyous that Michael could conclude his reviews with the Strategies he obtained although using the weblog. It’s by no means simplistic to just offer information and facts which usually Other people might have been earning revenue from. So we do know we now have the writer to offer thanks to on account of that. The primary illustrations you made, The easy Website navigation, the friendships your site give assistance to instill – it’s obtained every little thing astonishing, and it’s making our son Together with the household understand that principle is pleasurable, that is undoubtedly fairly fundamental. Thanks for all the things!

  • Function over the purple carpets because we’ve got 1 hell of a prince rolling into community: Prince Yahshua.

    When you simply need to see one of your most loved famous sluts have positively damaged by a
    huge black tube, Prince Yahshua will be the homeboy to get the career executed.
    Light, White-girl bum looks consequently good obtaining divide open by a major merely,
    black dick. Phat dark-colored booties want the size and girth of a serious brother to have drilled deep within the
    thick pit of their thriving ass cheeks. Yahshua delights in all young girls:
    Asians, Latinas, Euro sluts, you name it… he’s sampled their delights and fell a
    weight on their actual physical canvases.
    The Prince has been delivered in Ohio, but cell phone calls Chicago his home today,
    most likely because this guy’s rubbish penetrates hence very
    much that he necessities to become in the terrain of the Deeply Recipe.
    Of the Year three situations jogging Yahshua provides won the Urban A accolade for Performer,
    and we’re also confident that someday he’h intending
    to turn out to be setting up complete trophy
    rooms. Prince Yahshua will be very the company gentleman as well, since slaying ass and
    pussy is his business. That’s why he proceeded to go forward and started his individual porn manufacturing firm
    called Sterling silver Black Ent Inc. This guy is aware of how to continue his game running at complete
    heavy steam to warrant that all the hottest, almost all delicate porno chicks get the powerful cock
    trips they all hence severely need.

  • When someone writes an article he/she maintains the thought
    of a user in his/her brain that how a user
    can understand it. Therefore that’s why this article is great.

    Thanks!

  • It is with both enjoyment and a little sadness that we announce that TC3 is transitioning
    into a new formatting. The content material of TC3
    will be relocated, in the sort of an anthology, to the innovative OpenAccess booklet series „Translation and Multilingual Normal Language Running” (http://langsci-press.org/catalog/series/TMNLP, TMNLP) at LangSci Hit. The first log internet page possesses been enclosed down and provides went to this temporary area, at which the diary functions own ended up taken out but the written content has got happened to be protected. In the interim, TMNLP offers got its pretty prosperous issue initial, with about 1,500 downloading from different spots within the very first two a few months after appearing; more problems happen to be previously in the pipeline and are to seem this 12 months.

    We also believe that with our innovative format we can help the society far better: on top of edited volumes of prints, which have long been the durability of TC3, we can right now likewise publish monographs (like dissertations). We happen to be seeking forwards to innovative work!

  • Thanks a bunch for sharing this with all folks you
    actually know what you are speaking approximately!
    Bookmarked. Please also visit my web site =). We may have a
    hyperlink alternate agreement between us

  • If you’re into chubby people, then you’re in luck! You can discover
    a lot of videos featuring puffy babes drawing small or below-average cocks,
    since it experiences fuller in the mouth just. And if you’re into consuming pussies, you can discover a lot
    of video clips of guys consuming chubby pussies, with their minds between those big
    thighs. Plus, you can imagine yourself in those situations since size won’t actually matter.
    Whether it’s a puffy or petite babe, they’re similarly popular
    and stimulating. And if you’re into curvy women, you can discover actually more clips with females who
    have excess fat proceeds and big, sagging tits.
    Therefore no longer sense major about your options – there are usually plenty of
    porno clips of puffy people out there! It’s insane how large these nations are usually, yet their porno manufacturing would not
    even arrive near to Japan’s. Japanese porno is certainly
    recognized for getting some of the greatest Asian orgasms in the maintaining company, from cum shots to
    cumming inside a gal. They even made ‘bukake’ a issue – it’s when a
    group of men all ejaculate on a woman’s encounter.
    Moments like that are usually usually therefore enjoyment to
    view, with the guys all masturbating around the gal and after that intending their cum
    at her face. Bukake provides gotten so popular that Westerners possess their
    own edition of it still.|Inexperienced sex in dark women is definitely a view to notice for they do not generally seem to end
    up being too-staged in their performances and they
    definitely provide out there the best sensual encounter in intercourse that men are craving
    for. Even more natural climaxes to be anticipated in this ebony amateur videos.
    Picture how ebony amateurs carrying out their horny things
    normally without paying them. It will be so
    arousing understanding the correct feeling they can offer
    you to you. Black inexperienced babes do not hold back in traveling cocks until
    they cum and fully obtain what they want. These beginner ebony babes know when to be submissive or excellent in bed to certainly give full enjoyment to
    change on their intercourse companions. They get down and forcing
    in POV moments, they lay and open up their legs in hardcore bang moments down, and they get
    hot white jizz on their bouncy and faces asses!
    They love big cocks and enjoys when their body is being worshipped surely.

    One benefit of ebony recreational porn is certainly that anything can occur on your display but it will not really appear as well pushed or boring.
    Placements and performances would appear therefore organic you’m hardly
    obtain your cock down. Facesitting, blowjobs, and pussy
    consuming are nevertheless existing but not really all moments would show up as predictable.
    They could switch the storyline every right now and then but
    the satisfaction in viewing these ebony babes do their bed secret continues to be.

  • After going over a number of the blog articles on your site,
    I truly appreciate your way of writing a blog. I book-marked it to
    my bookmark site list and will be checking back soon. Please visit my website too and tell me what you think.

    Feel free to visit my website pixel led panel,
    Britney,

  • What’s up everybody, here every person is sharing these kinds of knowledge, thus it’s fastidious to read this weblog,
    and I used to pay a quick visit this website daily.

  • Hi there would you mind stating which blog platform you’re using?
    I’m looking to start my own blog in the near future but I’m
    having a hard time choosing between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal.
    The reason I ask is because your layout seems different then most blogs and I’m looking for something unique.
    P.S Sorry for getting off-topic but I had to ask!

  • I’ve learn some just right stuff here. Certainly price bookmarking
    for revisiting. I surprise how much effort you set to make one of these excellent
    informative site.

  • What’s up i am kavin, its my first time to commenting anyplace, when i read this piece of writing i thought i could
    also make comment due to this sensible post.

Leave a Comment