Presentation short abstract

This Indian Sundarbans transdisciplinary (TD) project engaged local 'inhabitant interviewers' for agroecological research. It argues that this reverses (un)intentional TD hierarchy, shifting from external facilitation to community agency, toward enabling sustainable transitions.

Presentation long abstract

Transdisciplinary (TD) research aims to co-produce knowledge through interaction, communication, collaboration, mutuality, trust, learning opportunities, and shared ownership. In doing so, it (un)knowingly creates a defined positionality among actors, allocating specific roles like facilitation or intermediation. Within agroecological transitions, particularly in the Global South, TD is crucial for integrating situated adaptive practices (SAPs) with mainstream, scientific strategies. This study showcases a transformative transdisciplinary (TTD) project in the remote island village of Kumirmari, in the Indian Sundarbans. It sought to build community social resilience, harnessing local agroecology-based livelihood options to counter ‘managed retreat’ from the climate-vulnerable delta. The study features ‘inhabitant interviewers’ (IIs) as an unintended and unexpected consequence of the project process, conducting ethnographic surveys to document drivers, dynamics, barriers, and enablers of agroecological provisions in the region. The IIs emerged as a part of a highly mobilized local community, willing to implement a survey tool, justifying ‘insiders’ involvement’ in gathering first-hand, triangulated datasets from their neighbourhoods in the village. This study argues that the IIs fundamentally challenge conventional understanding of intermediation and positionality in TD research. Their involvement reverses the typical hierarchy, shifting the focus from facilitation (through intermediaries) to community mobilization and agency. This study summarizes the challenges and potential of this social experiment, highlighting how such embedded local actors can directly facilitate agroecological transitions as the ultimate project goal.