The Oxford handbook of interdisciplinarity

The production of new scientific knowledge and practical solutions to complex problems require increasing amounts of interdisciplinary collaboration, while requirements for transdisciplinary cooperation have recently likewise become more frequent. In practice, however, they are rarely implemented adequately; what occurs instead is merely multidisciplinary collaboration. True implementation of inter-and/or transdisciplinary collaboration is often met with certain difficulties and obstacles: problems due to limited disciplinary competence, problems due to protecting knowledge and power, the problem of competence required for inter-and transdisciplinary collaboration, complexity problems, methodological problems and problems caused by differences in cultural traditions. It is necessary to acquire clear general definitions of the concepts of multidisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity, to define and implement general guidelines for the development of multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary practice and to develop a new general culture of collaboration in research and practice of complex problem-solving.

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.

Environmental Science & Policy, 2009

Issues in Integrative Studies, 2002

This paper develops a twelve-step process for interdisciplinary research. While individual researchers cannot be expected to follow all of these steps in every research project, the process alerts them to the dangers of omitting steps. Moreover, communities of interdisciplinary researchers should ensure that all steps are followed. The process draws upon earlier efforts by William (Bill) Newell and Julie Thompson Klein. It also draws inductively upon the debate concerning Newell's theory of interdisciplinarity in the last issue of this journal; all of the concerns raised during that debate find a place in this process. Finally, the paper illustrates how several classifications developed by the author facilitate interdisciplinary research.

The Oxford Handbook of Interdisciplinarity, 2010

Taxonomies classify entities according to similarities and differences, whether they are animal species, artistic genres, or medical symptoms. Since the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, taxonomies of knowledge in the Western intellectual tradition have been dominated by a system of disciplinarity that demarcates domains of specialized inquiry. Over the latter half of the last century, though, the system was supplemented and challenged by an increasing number of interdisciplinary activities. This proliferation gave rise, in turn, to new taxonomies that registered expansion of the genus Interdisciplinarity, propelled by new species of integration, collaboration, complexity, critique, and problem solving. The new classification schemes differentiated forms of disciplinary interaction, motivations for teaching and research, degrees of integration and scope, modes of interaction, and organizational structures. The first major interdisciplinary typology was published in 1972, created for an international conference held in France in 1970 and co-sponsored by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) ). Other labels soon followed, producing a sometimes confusing array of jargon. However, the three most widely used terms in the OECD typology -"multidisciplinary," "interdisciplinary," and "transdisciplinary" -constitute a core vocabulary for understanding both the genus of Interdisciplinarity and individual species within the general classification.

Interdisciplinary collaboration: an …, 2005

Interdisciplinarity -the integration of concepts and epistemologies from different disciplines -is often considered highly desirable as a way of gaining insight and furthering our understanding of a research problem. This is especially the case when an impasse is reached due the constraints of one's own discipline preventing any further progress. At the same time interdisciplinarity is very difficult to achieve: the positions adopted by the disparate disciplines are often incommensurable. W e examine alternative ways of advancing understanding, from both interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches. We point out how many successful breakthroughs, in both theoretical and applied research, come about through approaches t h a t modify and reappropriate existing frameworks and concepts within disciplines, rather than those that try to create new ones by mixing and matching concepts, selected from different disciplines. In our critique we examine what it takes to develop new inter-disciplines, theoretical frameworks and methods.

Advances in Knowledge Acquisition, Transfer, and Management

The concept of interdisciplinarity has a long history but interpretations of this term and the importance of interdisciplinarity in research and education have varied over time. This chapter traces the theoretical understanding and historical development of interdisciplinarity to provide background and context for the book. First it examines the ways in which interdisciplinarity and similar phenomena have been conceptualized in the literature. A roughly chronological account of the main theoretical and empirical developments in interdisciplinarity is then set out, divided into three main periods dating from the early 20 th century to the present day.

2009