In sociological terms, "transformative change" refers to a form of radical change. The term radical change is applied when multiple aspects shift in a complex social system, in other words, the participants' activities, the technologies they use, configurations of participants, norms, values and beliefs.

Social systems are complex, dynamic, and storied. Transformative change can be triggered by an external shock such as a crisis. Transformative change can also be driven by the (conscious) actions of various parties (such as politicians, social movements, companies, etc.). There are, however, several factors that prevent change: a reluctance to shift the current trajectories, the reproducing power and the history of social institutions and systems, as well as the unintended effects of well-intentioned transformation projects. Lastly, there are also players who, based on their current interests and power relations, try to resist or actively prevent change by pushing current transformation processes back. This occurs by means of lobbying strategies, countermobilization and symbolic conformity but without changing the actual practices.

A highly developed knowledge society based on the division of labor relies on disciplinary excellence as this is what drives scientific advancements, quality, and standards forward. We are facing countless challenges, including the environmental change, digitalization, artificial intelligence, and demographic change. One discipline alone cannot respond to these complex challenges and collaborative efforts and partnership across disciplinary divides is essential. The German Council of Science and Humanities (2020, p. 15) defines ‘interdisciplinarity’ as "(...) the interaction of several disciplines that seek to address a common question, issue, or challenge in-depth by examining findings, exploring methods and research perspectives of the respective subject(s) involved and endeavor to consolidate the results. As a rule, interdisciplinary interaction occurs when several researchers from different disciplines work together (...)"

In science, an interdisciplinary approach is also considered to be a driver of innovation. Being disciplinary and interdisciplinary is not contradictory but rather complementary to one another in that the respective strengths are mutually dependent. To fully realize the potential of an interdisciplinary approach, the disciplines must be outstanding and, at the same time, thinking out-of-the-box is essential in an effort to synthesize the various aspects. The process is time-consuming but greatly rewarding.

The German Council of Science and Humanities (2020, p. 16-17) defines transdisciplinarity as "(...) a form of generating knowledge that transcends the institutional and epistemic confines of science and interacts with "non-academic sources of knowledge at companies, within associations, and within civil society, etc.".

The idea of acting in a "transdisciplinary" manner is based on the idea that the knowledge acquired at universities needs to flow into the economy and to the community as quickly as possible. Beyond this, however, ‘transdisciplinarity’ aims to accomplish more. The clear distribution of roles between those who generate knowledge and those who are active is blurred. The idea is to work across all sectors to tackle issues together. Citizen science (meaning involving citizens in the scientific process), learning partnerships (such as long-term alliances to understand a problem together), and design approaches (such as actively participating in creating policies, active research approaches with active intervention) are regarded as transdisciplinary approaches.

A selection of central sources:

Deutscher Wissenschaftsrat. (2020). Wissenschaft im Spannungsfeld von Disziplinarität und Interdisziplinarität, 80.

Greenwood, R., Meyer, R. E., Lawrence, T. B., & Oliver, C. (2017). The Sage handbook of organizational institutionalism. The Sage handbook of organizational institutionalism, 1-928.

Grin, J., Rotmans, J., & Schot, J. (2010). Transitions to sustainable development: new directions in the study of long term transformative change. Routledge.

Noorden, R. V. (2015). Interdisciplinary research by the numbers. Nature, 525, 306–307.

Russell, A. W., Wickson, F., & Carew, A. L. (2008). Transdisciplinarity: Context, contradictions and capacity. Futures, 40(5), 460–472. 

Sterman, J. D. (2001). System Dynamics Modeling: Tools for Learning in a Complex World. California Management Review, 43(4), 8–25.

West, S., van Kerkhoff, L., & Wagenaar, H. (2019). Beyond “linking knowledge and action”: towards a practice-based approach to transdisciplinary sustainability interventions. Policy Studies, 40(5), 534–555.