Paper Short Abstract:

At a time when inter and trans disciplinary practice is constantly championed, this paper uses the example of an Indigenous-led project in Colombia called Munekan Masha to outline some of the obstacles and realities of transdisciplinarity in the current research environment.

Paper Abstract:

Addressing many of the world’s unprecedented contemporary challenges requires a multifaceted and integrated approach and, therefore, finding ways to integrate academic knowledge with grassroots wisdom is increasingly cited as important.

In concert, a drive towards non-extractive transdiscipinarity research (TDR) now emanates from global agencies, community groups and Indigenous people, whose calls for knowledge that includes non-academic voices from the outset, are getting louder. In the last decade, UNESCO, the International Science Council and Future Earth have recognised a paradigm shift is necessary if meaningful progress is to be made on TDR. As such, TDR challenges the way in which knowledge is currently produced.

Munekan Masha is a transdisciplinary project initiated and devised by an Indigenous group in rural Colombia called the Kogi. It brings academics to Colombia to learn, measure and record Indigenous land management techniques for the first time. As the Kogi apply different metrics to the landscape, this project has the potential to provide an alternative approach to recognising, creating, and defining what constitutes, healthy or flourishing territories.

In association with the experiences of setting up Munekan Masha, this paper explores the obstacles that the current education and research eco-system places on genuinely transdisciplinary work and considers how meaningful transdisciplinary methods might be created in the current system.