A Time for Interdisciplinarity - An Essay on the Added Value of Collaboration for Science, University, and Society (original) (raw)
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Research is becoming increasingly interdisciplinary due to the inherent complexity of the phenomena under study. Interdisciplinarity is "en vogue" - associated with creative, progressive scientific research likely to lead to applicable results. Complex problems cross the boundaries of traditional disciplines and thus, require individuals and groups to engage in interdisciplinary inquiry and collaboration to generate knowledge that is more than the sum of its parts. And while European scholars are working on mapping the contours of "the disciplines" in the course of the Bologna process to further brachiate the tree of knowledge, KLEIN states in her recent landmark book "Creating Interdisciplinary Campus Cultures" that the concept of "the disciplines" has increasingly taken on the stance of an "inconvenient fiction." After introducing the topic and its relevance, the chapter presents a definition of interdisciplinary research as well a...
Weingart, Peter and Nico Stehr (eds)., PRACTISING INTERDISCIPLINARITY
2000
Academic disciplines provide a framework for the transfer of knowledge from one generation to the next. Not only do they shape our education and understanding, they structure our professional lives. Interdisciplinarity, the reconfiguration of academic disciplines and the boundaries between them, has lately become a field of major interest to scholars and policy-makers. This collection brings together the latest research and analysis from this emerging field. The editors take as their central thesis the idea that the existing matrix of disciplines is dissolving, leading to fundamental changes in the traditional order of knowledge. Contributors to the volume include specialists from Canada, Australia, Europe, and the United States who focus on the actual practice of interdisciplinarity: the ways in which it is researched, organized, and taught in institutes and universities around the world. The role of funding bodies is also considered, revealing the relationship and the delineation of disciplines and their resource bases. Together, the essays offer first-hand insights into the operations and successes of some of the world's foremost interdisciplinary research centres. In acquainting us with the current state of interdisciplinary research the volume also considers the social and economic contexts that make such research possible.
A strong tendency can be discerned in contemporary academia for interdisciplinary research. 1 This stems from the fact that specialization, understood as being hermetically sealed in one, narrow field-and, perhaps more importantly, being focused on a particularly detailed problem within it-not only limits the cognitive horizons of the researcher (an ageold phenomenon, described in detail by José Ortega y Gasset in The Revolt of the Masses) but also (if it becomes a widespread or universal tendency) the development of science itself. This is because, in addition to the specialists who confine themselves to narrow fields, science also needs researchers who traverse the borders and barriers of scientific disciplines, seeking connections between them and drawing inspiration from disciplines other than their "own". This is necessary for at least four reasons. First, in order to solve the "internal" research problems of individual disciplines, it is sometimes crucial to draw inspiration (whether concerning the research method itself or its substantive hypotheses) from other disciplines. Secondly, along with the development and progress of civilization, new challenges appear in the modern world that require the integration of efforts of representatives of various scientific disciplines (here it suffices to mention the problem of climate change, one which is being faced by meteorologists, physicists, chemists, biologists, oceanologists, and philosophers alike). Thirdly, there is a sense of nostalgia amongst many
Interdisciplinariety: A perspective from the dynamics of scientific production and communication
In his six-volume “The University, studies on its origins, dynamics and trends” [“La Universidad estudios sobre sus orígenes Dinámicas y tendencias”], Borrero (2008) states that interdisciplinariety can be understood in two semantic sets. On the one hand, it refers to a set of specific attributes that permit an account of the relationships between sciences and disciplines; on the other, it is the relationship between disciplines and the distinction with everything that is mono-disciplinar (Borrero, 2008). As such, the multidisciplinary (juxtaposition of disciplines) implies a set of assertions of epistemological plurality, discontinuity, relative autonomy, theoretical integration, epistemological affinities, and in the end it is an imperative “stemming from the evolution of science itself” (Borrero, 2008, p. 267). Recently, Uribe-Mallarino (2012) in her book entitled “Interdisciplinariety in today’s university: reflections and case studies” [“La Interdisciplinariedad en la Universidad Contemporánea: reflexiones y estudios de caso”], affirms that interdisciplinariety is internationally defined around concepts such as collaboration, hybridation, complexity, integration, transversality, and problem solving.
Science and Interdisciplinarity: A Treatise on the Philosophy of Interdisciplinary Research
Volume 6, Issue 1, May, 2022
There is an increasing drive towards interdisciplinarity in all fields of knowledge. The general schema is a necessary and ultimately useful one in generating new ideas and "big picture" conceptualizations of knowledge, yet an impediment to its large-scale adaptation by universities and the Academy is sometimes found within interdisciplinarians themselves. In this manuscript I outline several problems at the core of the "discipline of interdisciplinarity," many of the questionable arguments used by some proponents of the field to justify their identification and determination of what is interdisciplinary, outline numerous examples of historical interdisciplinarity, and finally propose a New Argument that seeks to encompass all fields of researchdisciplinary or otherwisein a generalized fashion. The New Argument summarized is that if human endeavours are analysable into disciplines, then so too are disciplines into their fundamental components. Observing the parallels between disciplines, they are: 1) the subject, 2) the measure, 3) the method, and 4) the cause. The work draws heavily upon Aristotle, and hopes to clarify the muddied waters of interdisciplinarian debate.
The interdisciplinarity revolution
Theoria, 2019
Contemporary interdisciplinary research is often described as bringing some important changes in the structure and aims of the scientific enterprise. Sometimes, it is even characterized as a sort of Kuhnian scientific revolution. In this paper, the analogy between interdisciplinarity and scientific revolutions will be analysed. It will be suggested that the way in which interdisciplinarity is promoted looks similar to how new paradigms were described and defended in some episodes of revolutionary scientific change. However, contrary to what happens during some scientific revolutions, the rhetoric with which interdisciplinarity is promoted does not seem to be accompanied by a strong agreement about what interdisciplinarity actually is. In the end, contemporary interdisciplinarity could be defined as being in a 'pre-paradigmatic' phase, with the very talk promoting interdisciplinarity being a possible obstacle to its maturity.
Problems and Prospects of Interdisciplinarity: The Case of Philosophy of Science
2016
In this paper, we discuss some problems and prospects of interdisciplinary encounters by focusing on philosophy of science as a case study. After introducing the case, we give an overview about the various ways in which philosophy of science can be interdisciplinary in Section 2. In Section 3, we name some general problems concerning the possible points of interaction between philosophy of science and the sciences studied. In Section 4 we compare the advantages and risks of interdisciplinarity for individual researchers and institutions. In Section 5, we discuss interdisciplinary PhD programs, in particular concerning two main problems: increased workload and the quality of supervision. In the final Section 6, we look at interdisciplinary careers beyond the PhD.