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Sustain Sci (2014) 9:483496 DOI 10.1007/s11625-014-0258-4
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Action, research and participation: roles of researchers in sustainability transitions
Julia M. Wittmayer Niko Schapke
Received: 2 November 2013 / Accepted: 15 July 2014 / Published online: 21 August 2014 Springer Japan 2014
Abstract In sustainability science, the tension between more descriptiveanalytical and more process-oriented approaches is receiving increasing attention. The latter entails a number of roles for researchers, which have largely been neglected in the literature. Based on the rich tradition of action research and on a specic process-oriented approach to sustainability transitions (transition management), we establish an in-depth understanding of the activities and roles of researchers. This is done by specifying ideal-type roles that researchers take when dealing with key issues in creating and maintaining space for societal learninga core activity in process-oriented approaches. These roles are change agent, knowledge broker, reective scientist, self-reexive scientist and process facilitator. To better understand these ideal-type roles, we use them as a heuristic to explore a case of transition management in Rotterdam. In the analysis, we discuss the implications of this set of ideal-type roles for the self-reexivity of researchers, role conicts and potentials, and for the changing role of the researcher and of science in general.
Keywords Roles of researchers Process-oriented
sustainability science Transition management Action
research Transdisciplinarity
Introduction
The debate on the nature of science and its role in society has gained new ground in relation to sustainability transitions (e.g. WBGU 2011; ICSU Future Earth 2014). In it, science is at the service of society, which suggests that interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity and social relevance are the key elements of a science supporting sustainability transitions. These discussions are echoed in the growing attention paid to the role and nature of sustainability science (Miller et al. 2013; Wiek et al. 2012a; Lang et al. 2012; Komiyama and Takeuchi 2006; Miller 2013; Loor-bach et al. 2011; Spangenberg 2011; Scholz 2011; Ness 2013).
Changes in understandings of what a researcher does and is supposed to do are emerging in this context, with researchers asked to recognise and accept their social responsibility (Cornell et al. 2013:67). In addition to answering research questions (Salas-Zapata et al. 2012) and providing the best evidence available (Kajikawa 2008:233), researchers now also engage in process and action-oriented...