How to Mix Methods and Disciplines for Sustainability Research

This illuminating book explores how researchers can better understand and tackle complex sustainability challenges by combining different ways of thinking and working. Acknowledging that environmental problems are deeply connected to society and politics, expert authors provide transparency and guidance on how to design, manage and implement research that unleashes the benefits of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research.Sharing concrete recommendations, research designs and real-world examples, contributors highlight the need to bring together knowledge from across the social sciences, humanities and natural sciences for more effective sustainability research outcomes. Chapters emphasize how working across multiple disciplines requires engaging with the assumptions and understandings of the world each embodies, including blending epistemologies, epistemic cultures and disciplinary perspectives. Drawing on a wide variety of case studies, the book offers practical advice on decision-making, collaborative working, negotiation, trade-offs and how to avoid misunderstandings.How to Mix Methods and Disciplines for Sustainability Research is an invaluable guide for sustainability scholars and students seeking to design more inclusive, thoughtful and impactful research, especially those adopting complex and cross-disciplinary methodologies. Practitioners and policymakers in sustainability will also benefit from its insights into how knowledge in the field is constructed.