Transdisciplinary Case Study

The transdisciplinary case study (tdCS) is part of the minor "TDforSD" in both Master programs of D-USYS (environmental and agricultural sciences) but can be selected as elective course by all Master students from ETH, especially as well from Master students in D-BAUG (e.g. environmental engineering).

Movie about "TdLab’s Transdisciplinary Case Study"

The movie on the Masters course "Transdisciplinary Case Study" is one of the different follow-up activities to 2016's case study in the Seychelles.

General learning objectives for the tdCS

Td Learning
  • Students should be able to understand a case and its context from a variety of perspectives, and to extract multiple ways of framing, analysing and developing potential solutions for the problem at hand.

More specifically, students:

  • define relevant research questions in a (wicked) sustainability problem;
  • select and apply tools/methods to collect, analyse, and interpret data to answer research questions;
  • work in an inter-disciplinary team; and
  • collaborate with stakeholders.

As part of long-term engagement of the TdLab, the case study is organized every second year in a small Island Developing States (SIDS), namely the Seychelles. In addition to the general teaching goals, here students are getting trained for research and/or practical work in the global South (Working in intercultural teams, adapting to foreign social, economic, cultural and political settings).

For a detailed discussion, please refer to

  • Stauffacher, M., Walter, A., Lang, D., Wiek, A. & Scholz, R.W. (2006). Learning to research complex real-world problems from a functional socio-cultural constructivism perspective: The transdisciplinary case study approach. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 7(3), 252-275. doi: external page10.1108/14676370610677838
  • Pearce, B., Adler, C., Senn, L., Krütli, P., Stauffacher, M., Pohl, C. (2018). Making the link between transdisciplinary learning and research (Chapter 12) in Fam, D., Neuhauser, L., Gibbs, P. (eds), The art of collaborative research and collective learning: Transdisciplinary theory, practice & education, London: Springer (pp 167-183). doi: external page10.1007/978-3-319-93743-4_12
  • Krütli, P., Pohl, C., & Stauffacher, M. (2018). Sustainability learning labs in Small Island Developing States: A case study of the Seychelles. GAIA, 27(S1), 46-51. doi: external page10.14512/gaia.27.S1.11
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