Practicing Transdisciplinary Engineering in a Global Development Context: The Transferring, Translating and Transforming Approaches

Abstract

The paper addresses the consequences of using a one-size-fits-all approach when practicing transdisciplinary engineering (TE) in a global development context and suggests a method to cope with these consequences. The theoretical conceptualization is a practice-based understanding of development activities, which entails knowledge being embodied and contextually embedded. Two cases, each addressing three TE projects, are studied. Each of the six TE projects embraces a parent company located in Denmark and one of two facilities abroad, located in the Far East and Eastern Europe, respectively. Two projects are conducted successfully. Significant drawbacks and thus costly iterations are necessary in three projects; the companies do not understand the consequences of a higher level of perceived newness and interdependence than anticipated from the outset. Similarly, the last project is terminated after some costly iterations. The analysis reveals a lack of TE competences to handle increasing newness/interdependence projects; practitioners’ understanding habitually draws on existing solutions; because the nature of the handed-over knowledge differs, the one-size-fits-all approach to gain a convergent understanding is inappropriate. Three approaches to obtaining a convergent understanding are suggested: (1) transferring, (2) translating and (3) transforming.