Transdisciplinary research (TDR) is increasingly recognized as an important approach to make research on complex environmental and sustainability issues such as climate risks and biodiversity loss more societally relevant and actionable. Deliberately designing early stages of TDR– phase-0 – is considered essential to its overall success. However, limited knowledge is available about how to shape and undertake phase-0 of TDR. We provide a detailed account of TDR processes in the WildlifeNL project, which were designed with explicit and extensive attention to phase-0. We saw that designing and shaping the project was a constant process of decision-making about delineation; defining consortium composition and participation of others outside the consortium (‘who’), selecting cases and sites (‘where’), and determining model systems, questions, and approaches (‘what’). We demonstrate the interwovenness and interdependency between these dimensions based on several examples from WildlifeNL. The WildlifeNL team primarily focused on diverse stakeholder representation and building on existing partnerships. They thereby prioritized the ‘who’ dimension, while leaving ‘what’ and ‘where’ more flexible to adapt. The interconnectedness and interdependency confront those designing and implementing TDR with the question how to balance and prioritize the different dimensions, which defines how they make decisions on who, where and what are included and excluded in their TDR. We advocate for reflection and transparency about these messy and power-laden processes and suggest our framework as a structure for doing this. We argue that different TDR objectives and impact orientations (‘why’) may also prompt assigning different relative weight to the ‘who’, ‘where’ and ‘what’ dimensions. • We analyzed phase-0 of the transdisciplinary research project WildlifeNL, which examines human-wildlife coexistence. • Phase-0 is a dynamic and non-linear process of delineating the ‘what’, ‘who’ and ‘where’ of transdisciplinary research. • WildlifeNL prioritized the ‘who’ dimension to favor diversity and trust in support of the project’s transformative ambition. • We argue that different impact orientations of transdisciplinary research may prompt different delineation priorities. • We advocate for more transparency about the messy and power-laden phase-0 of transdisciplinary research projects.

This paper explores how animistic rituals—specifically the ovoo offering in Inner Mongolia—can serve as embodied engagements with what Roy Bhaskar (1975) calls the “real”: a deeper layer of reality shaped by unseen causal and spiritual forces. By acknowledging the 'inhabitants' of this deeper layer, we contribute to the broader post-humanist, or more-than-human, turn in the social sciences and humanities. Using a sensory collaborative autoethnographic approach, we take the ovoo encounter as a point of departure to examine our own onto-epistemic assumptions and to build a conceptual bridge for Western-trained audiences to loosen the grip of empirical-positivist habits of thought. We show how these practices enact a relational ontology that disrupts capitalist modernity’s extractivist, anthropocentric, and dualistic assumptions. We argue that, for those embedded in Western knowledge systems, openness to such place-based spiritual practices can foster the unlearning of dominant colonial-capitalist ways of being. The paper’s contribution is twofold: first, it demonstrates how engaging with the ovoo offering nurtures reciprocal, embodied connections that unsettle anthropocentric and dualistic worldviews; and second, it highlights how animistic traditions can counter the mechanistic cosmologies underlying extractivism. Such encounters can help reawaken suppressed spiritual lineages within Western thought, expanding the ethical and affective horizons of sustainability. At the same time, we remain attentive to the risks of co-optation through commodification, tourism, or detached New Age reinterpretations. We conclude by situating these reflections within wider debates on sustainability, ecological justice, and relational ethics. • The de-animation of nonhuman nature under capitalism led to alienation and ecological harm. • Animistic practices like Inner Mongolian Ovoo offerings express relational ontologies linking humans, land, spirits, and life. • Taking spiritual and animistic practices as an objective reality can help unlearn colonial-capitalist ways of being. • Science can be reimagined as an embodied experience where the material and spiritual converge. • Revitalizing Western animistic traditions opens paths for unlearning colonial-capitalist paradigms.

Public perception regarding the fairness of climate mitigation policies is considered a key determinant of social acceptance. The literature distinguishes between perceptions related to the impacts of climate policies on individuals and households (self-interest) and broader concerns regarding the distributional impacts of climate policies (societal interest). This study also examines perceptions of fairness at the local community level. The aim is to examine the interplay between climate consciousness, perceptions of distributive justice at the societal level, expectations regarding climate policy impacts on the local community, and personal experiences at the household level to support climate change mitigation policies. Based on survey data from a representative sample of the Nordic population (N = 5080), we utilise ordinal logistic regression (OLR), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM) to examine the role of these factors in promoting social support for the climate agenda across the Nordic Region. Our results highlight the key role played by climate concerns, expectations regarding the impacts of climate policies at the local community level and perceptions about their financial effects on respondents' households, rather than considerations regarding distributive justice at the societal level. Our results suggest that, within a Nordic context, individuals place more importance on the perceived and expected impacts of climate change mitigation policies at the household and local community levels (‘fairness to us’) than on distributive justice at the societal, level (‘fairness to others’). • We examine the role of fairness in Nordic climate policy acceptance. • Climate consciousness and perceived localised impacts of climate policies are key drivers of climate policy acceptance. • Perceived localised impacts of climate policies mediate the relationship between climate concern and climate policy acceptance. • Perceived localised impacts of climate policies exacerbate perceptions of distributional inequity at the societal level. • Climate policy acceptance isn't driven by perceptions of distributive justice at the societal level.