The Concept and Application of Transdisciplinarity in Intellectual Discourse and Research

Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection
(MISTRA) was publicly launched as a think tank in March 2011 and took up
the task of following a transdisciplinary approach to the research
generated within the organisation. The projects initiated by MISTRA
integrate various streams of knowledge and expertise when examining
complex issues such as nation formation, economic growth, social equity,
adaptable science and technology, and other strategic topics related to
South Africa’s development as a democracy. Serving in part as an
intellectual movement and in part as a research institution, activities
are structured around diverse topics that require the opening up of
intellectual space for strategic research and reflection specific, but
not exclusive, to the African continent.

A project was launched:
The concept and application of transdisciplinarity in intellectual
discourse and research. The intent of the study was two fold: in the
first place the need for better theoretical understanding of a
transdisciplinarity approach was identified as a necessity; and in the
second place MISTRA intended to apply transdisciplinarity towards the
opening up of an African approach – guided in part by the Afrikology
principles of the late Professor Dani Nabudere.

By orientation
Transdisciplinarity is an approach that recognises a united and
borderless intellectual terrain. It is an attempt to formulate an
integrative process of knowledge production and distribution in reaction
to the twentieth century narrow discipline focus and
hyper-specialisation. It responds to the multi-layered challenges of
diffused disciplines, interlinked socio economic problems, the impact of
globalisation, the de-terretorialised nation state, technological
advancements, environmental concerns, agriculture and food security and
health. And it recognises that, in history, some of the most
revolutionary breakthroughs in science and technology in fact happened
on the margins of narrow disciplines.