Felix Steiner | Zurich University of Applied Sciences
Silga Sviķe | Ventspils University of Applied Sciences
This issue of the AILA Review focuses on transdisciplinarity as the key to developing shared languages in and across domains and professional settings. The relationship and collaboration between researchers and practitioners have long been discussed within and across applied sciences and theoretical disciplines, mainly in the framework of transdisciplinarity (see AILA Review 31, 2018, for a recent overview). However, research approaches that claim to combine theoretical and practical needs and expectations often lack either solid grounding in empirical data or thorough reflection from theoretical perspectives. This special issue aims to take the discussion further by rethinking transdisciplinarity systematically from theoretical and practical angles. In so doing, we focus on developing shared languages that facilitate communication and mutual learning in multistakeholder discourses – with the ultimate goal of sustainably solving socially relevant problems. In the introduction, we present working definitions of our topic’s key terms (Part 1). We then go through the topics, results, and main interconnections of the six approaches examined in the papers included in this issue (Part 2). Based on the insights from the discussion so far, we set up a framework to systematically analyse three dimensions of developing shared languages: negotiation process, interplay of key drivers, and seizing opportunities (Part 3).
Article outline
1.
Defining the key terms
1.1Language awareness
1.2Comprehensibility
1.3Context awareness
1.4Professional setting
1.5Transdisciplinarity
2.Shared languages on complementary grounds: the relevance of the contributions
2.1Shared languages in individual communication
Paper I.
Mobile apps as language-learning tools: Challenges, problems and solutions of specialised lexicography by Silga Sviķe
Paper II.
Analysing and optimising Informed Consent in cooperation with ethics committees by Igor Matic & Gianni De Nardi & Felix Steiner
2.2Shared languages in organisations
Paper III.
‘Knowing that’, ‘knowing why’ and ‘knowing how’: Aligning perspectives and assembling epistemes for a transdisciplinary analysis of questioning sequences in executive coaching. A research journey by Eva-Maria Graf & Frédérick Dionne
Paper IV.
Transdisciplinary in Japanese business communication: New directions for collaboration between professors and professionals by Misa Fujio
2.3Shared languages in the public sphere
Paper V.
An invisible operational mortar: The essential role of speech acts within tri-segregated moviegoing by Christopher J. McKenna
Paper VI.
Language workers and the challenge of digitalisation: Gaining insight through the social media skill sharing of professional communication practitioners within the US military by Steven Breunig
3.Key aspects: Towards a model of developing shared languages
3.1Shared languages as tool and result of a negotiation process
3.2Shared languages are characterised by the interplay of their key drivers
Issues of language awareness
Issues of comprehensibility
Issues of context awareness
3.3Shared languages as facilitators of communication and mutual learning to solve socially relevant problems
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This list is based on CrossRef data as of 28 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
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