# Applying Transdisciplinary Thinking to Pastoral Livelihoods and Environments

## TL;DR

This paper explores how transdisciplinary thinking can help address complex issues in pastoral farming by using case studies from New Zealand and China.

## Contribution

The paper introduces transdisciplinary thinking as a framework for addressing complex pastoral issues through contrasting case studies.

## Key findings

- Transdisciplinary studies start with defining the biophysical context and identifying stakeholder groups.
- Transdisciplinary approaches provide a framework for civilised debate and policy generation despite conflicting objectives.
- The paper highlights the challenges of integrating human and biophysical disciplines in transdisciplinary contexts.

## Abstract

Pastoral farming is under intense global scrutiny from societal and environmental perspectives. We provide two contrasting case studies, these being New Zealand pastoralism at the country level and pastoralism at the county level in Qinghai on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in Western China, to illustrate the potential role of transdisciplinary thinking in structuring these complex problems. The starting point of any transdisciplinary study is to define the biophysical context, together with identification of all stakeholder groups. There is explicit recognition that conflicting objectives may be a consequence of different value systems. Investigators should assess their own value systems through a process of reflexivity to avoid unconscious bias. Transdisciplinary studies contrast with disciplinary studies in that the context always precedes the choice of disciplines. Given the focus on context, transdisciplinary studies are always applied with choice and integration of disciplines as a consequence of the specific transdisciplinary context. Unfortunately, transdisciplinary thinking does not always lead to transdisciplinary actions. This is because many pastoral problems are inherently ‘wicked problems’, where conflicting objectives prevent non-conflicting outcomes. However, a transdisciplinary approach, at the very least, provides a framework for civilised debate and communication within a broader framework of policy generation.

Transdisciplinary thinking lies at one end of a continuum within system thinking, with discipline-based approaches at the other end. Interdisciplinarity and multidisciplinarity are intermediate domains within this continuum. Transdisciplinary thinking is unique in always starting with problem-structuring related to contexts, in which people, typically with multiple and competing objectives, interact with a biophysical world. As such, transdisciplinary thinking is particularly relevant to pastoral systems where livelihoods and environmental issues intersect, and where multiple stakeholders are the norm. Integration, both within transdisciplinary thinking and consequent action, is particularly challenging. This is because there is no quantitative methodology that can capture the complex essence of transdisciplinary issues that encompass both human and biophysical disciplines. Nevertheless, a transdisciplinary approach provides a framework for civilised debate and communication within a broad framework of policy generation. We illustrate these issues with two highly contrasting studies, these being pastoralism at the country level in New Zealand and at the county level in Qinghai on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in Western China. Both case studies are characterised by complex property rights within a dynamic resource-constrained environment, in which environmental issues have planetary implications that extend well beyond the bounds of the pastoral system itself.