Practical:

Monday 13.02.2023 - 12h-14h

Lunch will be provided

Location: Green Hub, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 31, 9000 Ghent

Register via info@destadsacademie.be

Within the 'Stadsacademie' series of Lunchtalks on transdisciplinary working, we are hosting another event on Tuesday 13.02.23:

"Science without borders? On inclusion and exclusion processes in transdisciplinary research"

The challenges facing our society are urgent, complex and require more - way more - science than objective knowledge and technological ingenuity. Transdisciplinary research around concrete sustainability issues brings together a multitude of voices and perspectives to work towards answers that are as widely supported as possible. This is what the 'Stadsacademie' aims to do. But despite the obviousness of the idea, transdisciplinarity does not work by itself. How do you work together across disciplinary, social, and cultural differences? How does an integrated perspective emerge when everyone has their own view, and therefore grip on things?

In this lunch talk, three researchers, each from their perspective and experience, will reflect on inclusion and exclusion processes in transdisciplinary research. Ample time will be provided for open discussion with the audience:

Gert Goeminne is a researcher in science and technology studies at UGent (Centre for Sustainable Development) and University Osnabrück (Ethics of Artificial Intelligence Research Group). His research focuses on the political nature of science and technology. In this lunchtalk, Gert will address the unbreakable alliance between science and ignorance. No matter how multi-, inter- or trans- science is, in its drive for knowledge it not only gets a grip on things but also always punches a hole in its own knowing. This makes science both powerful and vulnerable. Hence the importance for us as scientists to keep doubting as well as taking responsibility.

Evelien Cronin is a researcher at the Institute for Agricultural, Fisheries, and Food Research. For the past four years, she has been writing her PhD on how knowledge and innovation co-production occurs in the agricultural and rural development sector in Europe. The focus has largely been on transnational research and innovation projects, funded through European funding channels, in which organizations and individuals from different professional backgrounds work together. Evelien will mainly reflect on how the way such projects are currently designed gives certain types of social actors an advantage over others and what this then means for their cooperation process and outcomes.

Batist Acke has been a parliamentary assistant for the PVDA party in the Flemish parliament since September. This spring, as a master in political science, he wrote a master's thesis on the transdisciplinary functioning of the Ghent 'Stadsacademie'. As a student, he interacted with other students, academics, city officials and social actors about their experience in working with the 'Stadsacademie' on local sustainability issues. For the lunchtime talk, Batist will mainly focus on the role the City Academy plays and can play at the local, urban level and how the 'Stadsacademie' concretises its transdisciplinary operation.