In Spotlight on Early Career Publications, the Early Career Committee publishes key insights of articles written by early-career scholars in the network.
‘Knowledge cumulation and interdisciplinarity: Integrating epistemologies, disciplines, and sectors to produce actionable environmental governance research’
By: Liza Khmara
Environmental governance research (EGR) is intrinsically centered on creating knowledge that informs effective action in policy and practice. Yet, there is little evidence to date that such outcomes of EGR are realized. Scholars have argued that one of the factors for this paucity is that the field of EGR is fragmented and suffers from ambiguous research results, lack of standardized approaches, and other challenges that impede the creation of an integrated body of work. The article “Knowledge cumulation and interdisciplinarity: Integrating epistemologies, disciplines, and sectors to produce actionable environmental governance research” in Environmental Policy and Governance aims to assess EGR in the framing of three interrelated concepts – knowledge cumulation, interdisciplinarity, and actionable knowledge – to examine how the field can advance effective solutions.
The article focuses on two main research questions:
- Is EGR cumulative, in that it builds on itself?
- How can EGR rooted in interdisciplinarity advance cumulative EGR, to meet the end goal of informing decision-making?
Using a sample of EGR publications from Environmental Policy and Governance and proxy indicators, the article found evidence suggesting that the subset of research from field of EGR demonstrates fragmentation and a lack of knowledge cumulation. Moreover, through a narrative review, it introduces a heuristic that contends that meeting the goals of EGR to create knowledge useful for policy and practice is not only dependent on researchers interacting with each other’s scholarship. Rather, it involves internal and external transformation wherein scholars produce interdisciplinary research that identifies knowledge from different disciplines and prioritizes engagement with sectors outside of academia. The article includes examples of how this approach to EGR could be achieved, including by scholars engaging in ‘boundary work’ with organizations that are established to link science with policy and practice, and advancing flexible funding models and transparent research evaluations within institutions.
This work may broadly inform practices of academic scholars and administrators that aim to increase the impact and application of their research and institutional outputs. Future research on this topic could apply the heuristic to a particular research agenda or test methods to advance knowledge cumulation, interdisciplinarity, and actionable knowledge.
- Khmara, L. (2024). Knowledge cumulation and interdisciplinarity: Integrating epistemologies, disciplines, and sectors to produce actionable environmental governance research. Environmental Policy and Governance. doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/eet.2146.
This article was published as part of a Special Issue on Knowledge Cumulation, edited by members of the Taskforce on Knowledge Cumulation. Taking part in the Special Issue as an early-career researcher was a productive and motivating experience. Through this process, I was able to receive guidance on how I could transform the initially submitted abstract into a successful publication in a more accessible way than the standard journal submission process. I encourage all early-career researchers to seek out opportunities to contribute to Special Issues, particularly with an ESG taskforce.
