Conceptualising Transdisciplinary Governance: A Scoping Review with Implications for One Health

Objectives

This scoping review examines how governance is conceptualised in transdisciplinary contexts. It aims to clarify the conceptual foundations of transdisciplinary governance and to identify implications for comprehensive health approaches, such as One Health

Methods

The review followed the JBI Manual for Evidence Synthesis and was reported according to the PRISMA-ScR. MEDLINE, CINAHL, SocINDEX, and Global Health were searched on 1 February 2026. Peer-reviewed articles were eligible if they focused on governance in settings that met two operational criteria for transdisciplinarity: the integration of diverse epistemologies and the engagement of societal actors. A qualitative descriptive synthesis was conducted to identify recurring patterns in the conceptualisation of governance

Results

Ninety-four studies were included, most of them from 2020 onwards. The literature was concentrated in environmental and socio-ecological governance and integrated health governance, primarily One Health. Governance was conceptualised across five recurring and overlapping dimensions: coordination across institutional, sectoral, and social boundaries; participation and joint decision-making; knowledge integration and epistemic plurality; adaptation across scales, systems, and uncertainty; and legitimacy, accountability, and fairness

Discussion

Governance in transdisciplinary settings is best understood as the adaptive arrangement of structures, processes, and relationships through which actors from diverse disciplinary, professional, policy, and societal positions participate in collective decision-making and knowledge production. For One Health, Planetary Health, and Health in All Policies, this implies moving beyond intersectoral coordination to address knowledge integration, societal participation, adaptive capacity, accountability, and legitimacy. The review offers a conceptual basis for analysing governance across complex health systems and other boundary-spanning domains.

Key messages

• Transdisciplinary governance is an adaptive arrangement enabling diverse actors to make collective decisions and integrate knowledge in response to complex, boundary-crossing problems.

• One Health governance must go beyond multisectoral coordination to integrate knowledge, enable meaningful participation, and sustain accountability and legitimacy.