Description
Book SynopsisIn 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?
Investigating Interdisciplinary Collaboration puts the common beliefs about such research to the test, using empirical data gathered by scholars from the US, Canada, and the UK.
Trade Review"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 *
Table of ContentsForewordHelga Nowotny
PrefaceScott Frickel, Mathieu Albert, and Barbara Prainsack
Introduction: Investigating InterdisciplinaritiesScott Frickel, Mathieu Albert, and Barbara Prainsack
Part I: Interdisciplinary Cultures and Careers
Chapter 1: New Directions, New Challenges: Trials and Tribulations of Interdisciplinary ResearchDave McBee and Erin Leahey
Chapter 2: The Frictions of Interdisciplinarity: The Case of the Wisconsin Institutes for DiscoveryGregory J. Downey, Noah Weeth Feinstein, Daniel Lee Kleinman, Sigrid Peterson, and Chisato Fukuda
Chapter 3: Epistemic Cultures of Collaboration: Coherence and Ambiguity in InterdisciplinarityLaurel Smith-Doerr, Jennifer Croissant, Itai Vardi, and Timothy Sacco
Chapter 4: Interdisciplinary Fantasy: Social Scientists and Humanities Scholars Working in Faculties of MedicineMathieu Albert, Elise Paradis, and Ayelet Kuper
Part II: Disciplines and Interdisciplinarity
Chapter 5: Some Dark Sides of Interdisciplinarity: The Case of Behavior GeneticsAaron Panofsky
Chapter 6: A Dynamic, Multidimensional Approach to Knowledge ProductionRyan Light and jimi adams
Chapter 7: Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Change in Six Social Sciences: A Longitudinal ComparisonScott 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 StanfordCyrus 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 EnvironmentAngela Cassidy
Notes on Contributors
