key: cord-0996374-shqw44fu
authors: Mallee, Hein
title: A time for transdisciplinarity
date: 2020-11-23
journal: Curr Opin Environ Sustain
DOI: 10.1016/j.cosust.2020.09.011
sha: 0f278a73627ea5c9090f9438420f1dd4b30b57e3
doc_id: 996374
cord_uid: shqw44fu

This commentary places the Coronavirus Disease pandemic in the context of research approaches such as ‘Ecohealth,’ ‘One Health,’ and ‘Planetary Health.’ It argues that systemic analysis of the underlying drivers of the pandemic is called for and that this is a time when transdisciplinarity is needed more than ever.

This commentary places the Coronavirus Disease pandemic in the context of research approaches such as 'Ecohealth,' 'One Health,' and 'Planetary Health.' It argues that systemic analysis of the underlying drivers of the pandemic is called for and that this is a time when transdisciplinarity is needed more than ever.

Three years ago I outlined how, as exposure to pesticides, radioactivity, water and air pollution became prominent health threats from the middle of the last century, health was increasingly conceptualized as directly influenced by the ecosystems in which people live [1] . Also, 'health' became commonly used as a metaphor for the state of these ecosystems. Economic development was accompanied by human interference with ecosystems that affected both the 'health' of the ecosystem and the health of people. From the 1990s onwards, several movements in research and practice emerged that were based on the interconnectedness of human and ecosystem health: 'ecosystem health,' 'Ecohealth,' 'One Health,' and 'Planetary Health.' Deriving a systems approach from ecology, they widened the scope of inquiry from the direct impact of specific toxins on the human body to examine the upstream and underlying drivers of health. Emerging Infectious Diseases (EIDs) were an important strand in all of these movements, in particular in One Health, which is focused on zoonotic EIDs as it examines how pathogens move in the wildlife-domesticated animals-humans triangle.

In many ways, the Coronavirus Disease pandemic is the 'Disease X' [2] that these researchers had been warning of. With staggering human and economic costs, the crisis needs to be addressed immediately, but in the longer term we need to take a systemic view and address its fundamental drivers. Development-driven ecosystem change, including the shrinking and fragmentation of natural habitats, the intensification of animal husbandry systems, and use of wildlife, increases the interaction among wildlife, domestic animals, and people, thus raising the likelihood of virus spillover and the emergence of disease in humans [3] . The globalized economy and high human mobility facilitate the rapid spread of diseases once they have emerged. At the same time, the pandemic deeply disrupted society and economy as it laid bare the fragility of the global division of labor, integrated by supply chains in which maximization of efficiency is the main objective, leading to reduced resilience [4] . It also exposed the vulnerability and precariousness of large groups of people that are inherent in the system [5] . All this suggests that we need to look beyond the pandemic and address the fundamental unsustainability of the prevailing economic growth model.

The pandemic also directs attention to the role of science. Three years ago I noted: 'In the age of EIDs, the scientific certainty of modern medicine has given way to a fundamental biological and situational uncertainty, upsetting assumptions of known risks' [cf. 6]. Around the world, scientists have worked hand in hand with governments in developing policies and strategies to address COVID-19, in many cases successfully containing the epidemics. At the same time, even where politicians do respect the expertise of scientists, the fundamental knowledge uncertainty surrounding the new virus has given rise to widely varying policies and deep differences of opinion over how to strike the right balance between the containment of the pandemic and safeguarding of people's livelihoods.

The title of the editorial of the inaugural issue of the journal Ecohealth called the Ecohealth approach 'A Transdisciplinary Imperative for a Sustainable Future' [7] . The Coronavirus Disease pandemic is an historical moment where the relevance of this imperative is again highlighted. A common theme in the literature on transdisciplinary research is that when system uncertainties and decision stakes are both high-two conditions that are abundantly present in the COVID-19 crisis-there is a need for transdisciplinarity. This argument goes back to the work on post-normal science by Funtowicz and Ravetz [8] who point out that under these conditions, 'old dichotomies of facts and values, and of knowledge and ignorance, are being transcended' and argue that when this is the case 'the quality assurance of scientific inputs to the policy process requires an 'extended peer community'.' The challenge is for scientists to find appropriate roles in dialogue processes where intractable ethical dilemmas and deep conflicts of interest are at stake and where any decisions are likely to negatively affect people. For example, ethicists can help to articulate substantive and procedural values to support health care providers in difficult decision-making processes [9] . At the policy level, however, a much wider range of scientific disciplines and stakeholders needs to be involved in discussions, for example, on how to prioritize the allocation of scarce medical care resources, a matter of life and death when health systems are overwhelmed with rapidly growing numbers of severely ill patients.

Finally, scientists need to position themselves effectively to contribute to the thinking on how recovery from the pandemic can be used to address some of the systemic problems that gave rise to it. The extensive scholarship on sustainable consumption and production could play a key role in this discussion [10] .

The evolution of health as an ecological concept

We knew disease X was coming. It's here now

United Nations Environment Programme and International Livestock Research Institute: Preventing the Next Pandemic: Zoonotic Diseases and How to Break the Chain of Transmission

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Growing Back Stronger: Choosing Resilient Food Systems in the Wake of Covid-19. Amsterdam: Transnational Institute

The Viral Network -A Pathography of the H1N1 Influenza Pandemic

EcoHealth: a transdisciplinary imperative for a sustainable future

Science for the post-normal age

Roles of ethicists in covid-19 response

COVID-19 can help wealthier nations prepare for a sustainability transition

Nothing declared.