Translating Transformations*
Improving transdisciplinary transformative change initiatives by promoting critical social science literacy
* A Project Supported by SNSF Project Grant
Fundamental societal change is urgently needed to address the global crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and growing social inequality. Many initiatives have attempted to spark this change, but most miss a key ingredient: a critical perspective on the power relations that drive the interrelated crises.
Our research project aims to fill this critical gap by providing a platform that facilitates a better understanding and integration of critical social theory into TTCI.
What about
Transdisciplinary Transformative Change Initiatives (TTCI)?
01 Understanding the Challenge of Transdisciplinary Collaborations
Although transformative change is now widely acknowledged as being best supported through transdisciplinary collaborations, transdisciplinary transformative change initiatives (TTCIs) rarely achieve the paradigmatic effects they aim to deliver. 
What are transdisciplinary collaborations?
Transdisciplinary collaborations are those among academic and non-academic stakeholders.
02 The Problem: Narrow Problem Framing
What do we mean by “framing the problem”?
Framing the problem refers to the way a problem is understood and addressed and can vary as in the following examples:
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Is the problem that humans are all inherently selfish and greedy? Or…
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Is our socioeconomic system the problem? Or…
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Is the problem that societal institutions reward particular types of behavior? Or…
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Is the problem due to the loss of an understanding of interconnectedness among humans and the rest of nature? Or…
A major cause of this failure has been identified as a lack of understanding of alternative framings of the problem, resulting in disjointed and incoherent strategizing. In other words, due to the different ‘languages’ understood by participants in TTCIs, such initiatives rarely achieve common understandings of the myriad ways in which the problem they seek to address can be framed. This leads to a narrow framing of the problem and, therefore, incomplete solutions.
03 The Role of Critical Social Science: A Missing Piece in the Puzzle
While TTCIs have had success in reaching common understandings of the problem among natural scientists and non-academic partners, the role of social science perspectives continues to elude such initiatives. And while some forms of social science (e.g. psychology, economics) are increasingly successfully integrated, alternative knowledge communities, including critical social scientists continue to find themselves on the outside of TTCIs.
What does it mean that some social sciences like psychology and economics are more likely to be successfully integrated?​
i.e. their problem framing supports those of natural science.
What do critical social scientists do?
Critical social scientists use critical theoretical perspectives on structural knowledge/power dynamics and their causal links with socio-ecological problems).
Our Mission
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Co-design literacy tools and strategies to assist with building the capacity both of 
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​critical social scientists (CSS) in teaching concepts related to structural power dynamics and of
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Transdisciplinary Transformative Change Initiatives (TTCIs) in incorporating them in their solutions.
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Create a central space for distributing these open-access tools
Our Vision
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Better integrate CSS in transformative change initiatives
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Create awareness around alternative ways of framing the problem ​
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Improve understandings of the role of CSS in promoting better synchronicity among research, policy, and practice ​
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Make CSS more accessible
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Boost understandings of how to bridge the gap between critical social theory and practice
Explore Translating Transformations
Learn more about the research, and the people behind the project, engage with the resources provided, and get in touch!