Transformative Tensions in the Ivory Tower

For universities to move towards positive societal impact and take a leading role in societal challenges, they need to address the fundamental institutional barriers against transformative forms of academic work. While current institutional experiments are often conceived from within the current logic of (public) academic institutions, this paper focuses on an organization that developed based on a transdisciplinary and transformative logic, the Dutch Research Institute for Transitions (DRIFT) at Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Within the context of a disciplinary and more mainstream academic context, DRIFT is an institute that has as its mission to advance societal transitions towards a just and sustainable future by working in and with practice. It does so through pursuing transdisciplinary and transformative forms of academic work. In this paper, we describe the development and institutional model of DRIFT and identify the tensions and dilemmas that were encountered during the development of this model. These tensions and dilemmas shed light upon how transformative and transdisciplinary approaches within a more traditional academic context could be developed and potentially supported.