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From Local Projects in the Swiss Alps to Global Change
Programmes in Mountain Areas |
The Development of Inter- and Transdisciplinary
Approaches
in the last 25 Years
Bruno Messerli and Paul Messerli |
Exactly 200 years before the International Year of
Mountains 2002, Alexander von Humboldt studied on Mount
Chimborazo in the Andes the different altitudinal belts
and especially the relationship among climate, plant
life and geological-geomorphological conditions. Being
physicist, biologist, geologist and geographer in one
person, he was not only the founder of mountain
ecosystem research, but he could also show that the
integration of different disciplines can produce highly
meaningful results.
About 25 years ago, UNESCO’s MAB Mountain programme had
a stimulating effect on research in the Alps and on the
cooperation among different alpine countries. New
methodical approaches were developed with a special
focus on the collaboration between natural and social
sciences, especially on the interactions between
mountain ecosystems and the economic driving forces.
As a follow up, these methods were adapted to mountain
research projects in the developing world, where another
problem orientation was needed in order to fulfil basic
needs in a different cultural, social, political and
economic environment.
Today we are confronted with global environmental
changes in mountain areas with all their potential
impacts on natural resources and human systems in very
complex highland-lowlands interactions. Inter- or trans-disciplinarity
are unavoidable approaches and instruments.
Finally we have to discuss disciplinarity,
interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity.
Disciplinary research will always be necessary to
develop new knowledge about well-defined topics.
Interdisciplinarity determines the cooperation among
different disciplines and the newly developed concept of
transdisciplinarity takes up concrete problems of
society and works out solutions also in cooperation with
partners from outside academia. |
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