Published In
Weed Research
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-2016
Subjects
Sustainable agriculture, Agricultural ecology
Abstract
Transdisciplinary weed research (TWR) is a promising path to more effective management of challenging weed problems. We define TWR as an integrated process of inquiry and action that addresses complex weed problems in the context of broader efforts to improve economic, environmental and social aspects of ecosystem sustainability. TWR seeks to integrate scholarly and practical knowledge across many stakeholder groups (e.g. scientists, private sector, farmers and extension officers) and levels (e.g. local, regional and landscape). Furthermore, TWR features democratic and iterative processes of decision-making and collective action that aims to align the interests, viewpoints and agendas of a wide range of stakeholders. The fundamental rationale for TWR is that many challenging weed problems (e.g. herbicide resistance or extensive plant invasions in natural areas) are better addressed systemically, as a part of broad-based efforts to advance ecosystem sustainability, rather than as isolated problems. Addressing challenging weed problems systemically can offer important new leverage on such problems, by creating new opportunities to manage their root causes and by improving complementarity between weed management and other activities. While promising, this approach is complicated by the multidimensional, multilevel, diversely defined and unpredictable nature of ecosystem sustainability. In practice, TWR can be undertaken as a cyclic process of (i) initial problem formulation, (ii) ‘broadening’ of the problem formulation and recruitment of stakeholder participants, (iii) deliberation, negotiation and design of an action agenda for systemic change, (iv) implementation action, (v) monitoring and assessment of outcomes and (vi) reformulation of the problem situation and renegotiation of further actions. Notably, ‘purposive’ disciplines (design, humanities and arts) have central, critical and recurrent roles in this process, as do integrative analyses of relevant multidimensional and multilevel factors, via multiple natural and social science disciplines. We exemplify this process in prospect and retrospect. Importantly TWR is not a replacement for current weed research; rather, the intent is to powerfully leverage current efforts.
DOI
10.1111/wre.12219
Persistent Identifier
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/18272
Citation Details
Jordan N, Schut M, Graham S, Barney JN, Childs DZ, Christensen S, Cousens RD, Davis AS, Eizenberg H, Ervin DE, Fernandez-Quintanilla C, Harrison LJ, Harsch MA, Heijting S, Liebman M, Loddo D, Mirsky SB, Riemens M, Neve P, Peltzer DA, Renton M, Williams M, Recasens J & Sønderskov M (2016). Transdisciplinary weed research: new leverage on challenging weed problems? Weed Research 56, 345–358.
Description
© 2016 The Authors. Weed Research published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Weed Research Society 56, 345–358 This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
Originally published in Weed Research and is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/wre.12219