Investigating Interdisciplinary Collaboration
Theory and Practice Across Disciplines
Scott Frickel (Edited by), Mathieu Albert (Edited by), Barbara Prainsack (Edited by), Helga Nowotny (Prologue by), Scott Frickel (Contributions by), Mathieu Albert (Contributions by), Barbara Prainsack (Contributions by), Dave McBee (Contributions by), Erin Leahey (Contributions by), Gregory J. Downey (Contributions by), Noah Weeth Feinstein (Contributions by), Daniel Lee Kleinman (Contributions by), Sigrid Peterson (Contributions by), Chisato Fukuda (Contributions by), Laurel Smith-Doerr (Contributions by), Jennifer Croissant (Contributions by), Itai Vardi (Contributions by), Timothy Sacco (Contributions by), Elise Paradis (Contributions by), Ayelet Kuper (Contributions by), Aaron Panofsky (Contributions by), Ryan Light (Contributions by), jimi adams (Contributions by), Ali O. Ilhan (Contributions by), Cyrus C.M. Mody (Contributions by), Hauke Reisch (Contributions by), Angela Cassidy (Contributions by)
9780813585888
Paperback / softback, published 25 November 2016
256 pages, 10 figures, 7 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.8 cm, 0.373 kg
"A most welcome contribution, filled with richly detailed case studies conducted by a stellar array of scholars. This volume scrutinizes key assumptions of the case for interdisciplinarity."
- Jerry A. Jacobs (U. Pennsylvania, author of In Defense of Disciplines) "Interdisciplinary collaboration has been established as valuable to scientific creativity and vital to bringing knowledge effectively to major public issues. But discussion of what this means and how it works are still too often vague. This book will help, because it offers thoughtful and indeed disciplined case studies of how interdisciplinary collaboration works in practice."
- Craig Calhoun (London School of Economics and Political Science) "This high quality volume makes a crucial contribution to our empirical understanding of the worlds of interdisciplinarity at a time when they are generating a great deal of interest from funding agencies, academic administrators and scholars alike. This book should be required reading for all concerned."
- Michele Lamont (Harvard University, author of How Professors Think: Inside the Curious World of Academic Judgement)
Interdisciplinarity has become a buzzword in academia, as research universities funnel their financial resources toward collaborations between faculty in different disciplines. In theory, interdisciplinary collaboration breaks down artificial divisions between different departments, allowing more innovative and sophisticated research to flourish. But does it actually work this way in practice?
Investigating Interdisciplinary Collaboration puts the common beliefs about such research to the test, using empirical data gathered by scholars from the United States, Canada, and Great Britain. The book’s contributors critically interrogate the assumptions underlying the fervor for interdisciplinarity. Their attentive scholarship reveals how, for all its potential benefits, interdisciplinary collaboration is neither immune to academia’s status hierarchies, nor a simple antidote to the alleged shortcomings of disciplinary study.
Chapter 10 is available Open Access here (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK395883)
Foreword
Helga Nowotny
Preface
Scott Frickel, Mathieu Albert, and Barbara Prainsack
Introduction: Investigating Interdisciplinarities
Scott Frickel, Mathieu Albert, and Barbara Prainsack
Part I: Interdisciplinary Cultures and Careers
Chapter 1: New Directions, New Challenges: Trials and Tribulations of Interdisciplinary Research
Dave McBee and Erin Leahey
Chapter 2: The Frictions of Interdisciplinarity: The Case of the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery
Gregory J. Downey, Noah Weeth Feinstein, Daniel Lee Kleinman, Sigrid Peterson, and Chisato Fukuda
Chapter 3: Epistemic Cultures of Collaboration: Coherence and Ambiguity in Interdisciplinarity
Laurel Smith-Doerr, Jennifer Croissant, Itai Vardi, and Timothy Sacco
Chapter 4: Interdisciplinary Fantasy: Social Scientists and Humanities Scholars Working in Faculties of Medicine
Mathieu Albert, Elise Paradis, and Ayelet Kuper
Part II: Disciplines and Interdisciplinarity
Chapter 5: Some Dark Sides of Interdisciplinarity: The Case of Behavior Genetics
Aaron Panofsky
Chapter 6: A Dynamic, Multidimensional Approach to Knowledge Production
Ryan Light and jimi adams
Chapter 7: Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Change in Six Social Sciences: A Longitudinal Comparison
Scott Frickel and Ali O. Ilhan
Part III: Changing Context of Interdisciplinary Research
Chapter 8: “
An Electro-Historical Focus with Real Interdisciplinary Appeal”
: Interdisciplinarity at Vietnam-Era Stanford
Cyrus C.M. Mody
Chapter 9: Interdisciplinarity Reloaded? Drawing lessons from “
Citizen Science”
Barbara Prainsack and Hauke Riesch
Chapter 10: One Medicine? Advocating (Inter)disciplinarity at the Interfaces of Animal Health, Human Health and the Environment
Angela Cassidy
Notes on Contributors
