Abstract
Transdisciplinary research and innovation efforts have emerged as a means to democratize science and technology and address challenges to sustainable transformation. One of the main elements of transdisciplinary efforts is the ‘inclusion’ of different stakeholders, values and perspectives in participatory research and innovation processes. In practice however, ‘doing inclusion’ raises a number of challenges and choices deserving of critical attention. In this study, we problematize and deepen the concept of inclusion in order to better understand how challenges in ‘doing inclusion’ emerge. We turn to democratic theory and invoke Brown’s five elements of democratic representation (resemblance, participation, deliberation, accountability, authorization) that we consider dimensions of democracy. We argue that this helps to understand how challenges to ‘doing inclusion’ occur in participatory processes, as a result of tensions between these different dimensions of democracy. We illustrate this deepened approach through an analysis of ‘doing inclusion’ in the transdisciplinary FIT4FOOD2030 project (2017-2020), that aimed to contribute to transforming EU research and innovation systems so that they are better equipped to serve as catalysts for food system transformation. Based on three years of action-research (including interviews, workshops and field observations), we identify 8 challenges to ‘doing inclusion’ in FIT4FOOD2030 that represent tensions between different dimensions of democracy. Finally we reflect on the politics of inclusion and present lessons for Deep(ening) Inclusion towards democratic engagement. We hope that our findings contribute to better grasping and addressing democratic challenges in transdisciplinarity by highlighting how inclusion can be done wrong, while it is being done right.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Transdisciplinarity, System Transformation, Democracy, Inclusion, Research and Innovation, Food Systems
