Generation of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary knowledge in foresight through the scenario method

Abstract

There is an area of multidisciplinary research for which inter- and transdisciplinary production is fundamental. This is foresight or futures studies. This discipline, which deals with inquiring about what may happen in the future to support present decisions, is based on the production of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary knowledge, to know what the probable, possible and desirable futures of complex and ambiguous problems may be. To this end, a variety of methodologies taken from different scientific disciplines and areas of knowledge are used and adapted, and specific methods have also been designed to work on the future horizon, to denaturalize notions of temporality and to generate multicausal and alternative thinking. One of these is the narrative scenario method. 
This paper seeks to show some of the mechanisms used in the scenarios to generate inter- and transdisciplinary knowledge, the capacity of this method to integrate different methodological approaches and to show examples of the usefulness of this type of exercises to address complex problems, about which there is a wide uncertainty about their future development and different disputed values that are at stake in the issue. Specifically, it focuses on three mechanisms or methodological tools: 1. the special categories (prospective jargon), 2. the prospective funnel and 3. the images of the future and narratives. The main objective is to elucidate the role that inter- and transdisciplinary knowledge play in these elements. The examples given refer to exercises carried out in recent years in the field of agri-food and environmental foresight