Academic research
What is the role of an academic in a Transition University? There is a difficulty in that academics today are not encouraged, but rather discouraged from being ”activists” for sustainability. It can be challenging for overworked academics to answer the demands of external research pressures and internal teaching audits, and still get involved in practical action, or what may sometimes be called activism.
Academic involvement in a Transition University is often only out of personal motivation and can be taking time and energy away from furthering an academic career, but there is so much potential for interesting research within a Transition University!
“Sustainability research can be promoted through initiatives that stimulate partnerships.
interdisciplinary debate and innovation, links between theory and practice, and institutional
self-analysis. However, it may be threatened by external structures such as reductionist
methods of assessing research, territorial research funding, and the audit culture. Internal
university divisions, disciplinary boundaries, and management units may limit research
communication and incentives”[2]
A Transition University allows exploration into how we should do research into sustainability.
It also provides ample networking aspects and practical opportunity within the local community. This ties well into the learning aspects of scholarship described above.
There is also the Transition Research Network, already discussing many Transition related questions.
Teaching
As some of the examples above describe, you can include teaching on Transition projects of sustainability management into curriculum with the support of academic staff. You can encourage students to do dissertations or projects on Transition aspects by offering ideas and support. You can link to assignments or offer parallel talks. You can integrate practical experience into degree programmes, e.g. community volunteering or carbon conversations. Real world, meaningful examples can contribute to education for sustainable development, which all universities have been asked to consider.
It can be difficult to facilitate dissertations across the university. There seems to be a misconception within many academic departments that if the project is practical and applied no conceptual links are possible ‐ this is something that has been proved differently at the University of St Andrews but it remains a struggle!
Here is an example of a research project carried out by a student member of the St Andrews co-ordinating group in the summer between his third and fourth undergraduate years. Through a series of interviews he mapped out the St Andrews community, identifying different interest groups, different political and economic forces at play, and different visions for the town's future. This practical-conceptual work proved useful for understanding how the Transition University group fit into the town's dynamics and predicted/pre-empted the collaboration with the St Andrews Botanic Gardens.
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