Short abstract:

How can transdisciplinary research contribute to the democratization of socio-technical lifeworlds? The contribution discusses methodological considerations for dealing with normative tensions and democratic conflicts that arise in the context of transdisciplinary research.

Long abstract:

How can and should transdisciplinary research contribute to the democratization of socio-technical lifeworlds and ongoing transformations? The contribution discusses methodological considerations for dealing with normative tensions and democratic conflicts that arise in the context of transdisciplinary research. To this end, the contribution aims to discuss various conflict theories and their usefulness for transdisciplinary research. From an agonistic perspective, conflicts could not be seen as a malfunction to be eliminated. Instead, conflicts evolving in transdisciplinary research could be seen as an epistemically valuable source of knowledge generation and an integral, ethically relevant part of responsible research in the context of socio-technical transformation (Horváth 2018). From such a perspective, further questions arise: What could hierarchy-sensitive transdisciplinary research look like? (Strumińska-Kutra und Scholl 2022) Under which conditions can epistemic practices in transdisciplinary research be understood as democratic practices? (Zonta et al. 2023) Should it be possible to speak for others when relevant stakeholders are not or cannot be present – and under what circumstances? Does moral and epistemic pluralism lead to more democratic attempts and solutions? (Fricker 2007) How should value conflicts be dealt with in the face of phenomena such as the “ignorance” (e.g. of facts) or “refused knowledge” communities? (Proctor und Schiebinger 2008; Neresini 2024). This contribution aims to invite discussion of these and similar questions and problems.