How can you move a team of scholars of the most varied academic backgrounds out of their multidisciplinary comfort zone and towards genuine interdisciplinarity (integration and collaboration) in the climate change research field? This was the challenge that a project faced concerning the climate change perceptions of smallholder farmers from four Brazilian biomes (Amazonia, Cerrado, Pantanal, and Semiarid region), coordinated by the Brazilian Research Network on Climate Change (Rede CLIMA). Interdisciplinary clashes among scientists went well beyond semantics and reached the core of concepts such as perception, resilience, vulnerability, adaptive capacity and even climate change. Challenges included thinking collectively about a problem with so much ambiguous and contradictory knowledge, conflicting interests, and diverging epistemologies. This case study - which focused on the internal debate about climatic change apparent misperceptions by family farmers - confirmed that there is no blueprint for interdisciplinary climate change research projects, as well as the clear need for project-specific and context-sensitive research strategies. Critical factors going into successful interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary integration included early involvement of different groups (such as researchers, decision-makers, and local actors and stakeholders) as essential for finding common objectives and priorities. The experience of Rede CLIMA confirmed that the barriers to successful climate change adaptation (such as the mutual incomprehension or distrust between scientists themselves, and between scientist and end-users) could be overcome by creating collaborative enterprises. The co-creation of science, which included switching roles between knowledge producers and end-users, facilitated horizontal work and the identification of climate-related risks among family farmers.
Litre, G; Bursztyn, M; Rodrigues, S; Mesquita, P
Challenges of performing socio-environmental interdisciplinary research: the experience of the Brazilian Research Network on Climate Change (Rede CLIMA)
Desenvolvimento E Meio Ambiente