Strengthening Problem-Solving Strategies, UNU Jogja Holds Transdisciplinary Methodology Workshop for Academics and Professional Practitioners 

Yogyakarta, Indonesia — Universitas Nahdlatul Ulama Yogyakarta (UNU Jogja), through its Directorate of Community Engagement and Social Laboratory, in collaboration with the Center for Restoration and Regeneration Studies (CeRRes), held a Transdisciplinary Methodology Workshop themed “Weaving Knowledge, Values, and Transdisciplinary Action for Sustainable Transformation” on Wednesday, August 19.

The workshop served as a learning space to introduce a transdisciplinary approach to understanding and responding to complex and interconnected socio-ecological issues.

Director of Community Engagement and Social Laboratory, Joko Susilo, S.IP., CMT., said the agenda, initiated in collaboration with CeRRes, was motivated by a range of sustainability challenges, including the climate crisis, resource conflicts, social inequality, ecological degradation, and various interconnected development issues that require new solutions.

“We see that the many challenges emerging from various development issues encourage us to reconsider how we know and understand these issues, as well as how we can respond to them appropriately. Therefore, on this occasion, we are introducing transdisciplinary methodology as an approach to examining and solving problems,” he said.

He explained that the workshop aimed to introduce a transdisciplinary perspective as an approach to understanding and responding to complex socio-ecological issues. In addition, the event also served as a means of developing participants’ reflective capacity and self-diagnostic skills in bringing together different forms of knowledge, experiences, values, and perspectives.

“Our goal is not only to develop participants’ capacity for self-diagnosis, but also to encourage cross-boundary collaboration, enabling participants to work openly, critically, contextually, and responsively toward diverse ways of understanding an issue,” he said.

The two-day workshop featured a series of interconnected learning stages. Participants were first invited to explore complexity by examining conventional ways of understanding various sustainability issues. They then engaged in a process of “listening and weaving” to develop the relational and reflective capacities required in transdisciplinary work. In the next stage, participants explored how knowledge is formed through encounters with different perspectives, experiences, bodies, values, and ways of being. The process was then directed toward connecting diverse forms of knowledge and perspectives to encourage transformative action.

The workshop was attended by researchers, professional practitioners, and academics from various institutions. Participants were invited to understand the transdisciplinary approach while exploring how different forms of knowledge and experience can be brought together to address complex issues.

The workshop featured Yulia Sugandi, Ph.D., an expert in transformative transdisciplinary methodology and facilitator who graduated from the University of Münster; Laksmi Adriani Savitri, Ph.D., a graduate of the University of Kassel who currently serves as a Board Member of Yayasan Pusaka Bentala Rakyat, Supervisory Board Member of FIAN Indonesia, and Executive Director of the Center for Restoration and Regeneration Studies (CeRRes); and Dr. Zuhdi Siswanto, an artist, researcher, and facilitator at CeRRes whose work focuses on culture, Indigenous peoples, ecology, and social transformation.

One of the participants, Fajrin Fahmi, an academic from IPB University, said he was interested in the issues discussed during the workshop. He considered transdisciplinary methodology an interesting approach to explore.

“I am very interested in the issue of transdisciplinary methodology. From the beginning of the event, I found the first session very interesting and the material very good,” he said during a break.

A similar interest was expressed by Widi from Sleman. He said that the growing complexity of various issues makes it important to understand approaches that incorporate multiple perspectives.

“I registered for this event because I was interested in learning more about the transdisciplinary approach. Over time, problems seem to be becoming increasingly complex and interconnected. I have become convinced that such problems cannot be understood or viewed from only one perspective,” he said.

Echoing this view, Nurlina Harli, S.P., M.Sc., a lecturer in the Agribusiness Study Program at UNU Jogja, said the workshop had given her a new perspective on understanding an issue. According to her, a transdisciplinary approach encourages researchers not to view an issue from only one angle, but to consider multiple perspectives in order to understand its root causes.

“What makes this event interesting is that it encourages us as researchers and academics to look at an issue from more than one direction. There are many factors that need to be considered, and we have to look at an issue from different perspectives. As academics, particularly in research, the reality we see cannot be understood only from the surface; we need to explore it more deeply to uncover the root of the problem,” she said.*

Reporter : Latifah