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Inter-disciplinary research: combing different perspectives

Inter-disciplinary research: combing different perspectives. Desmond McNeill. How disciplines differ (lecture 1). Matter and meaning Reduction and holism. What are researchers trying to do?. Explanation - - - - interpretation Causal explanation - - - - making sense.

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Inter-disciplinary research: combing different perspectives

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  1. Inter-disciplinary research: combing different perspectives Desmond McNeill

  2. How disciplines differ (lecture 1) • Matter and meaning • Reduction and holism

  3. What are researchers trying to do? • Explanation - - - - interpretation • Causal explanation - - - - making sense. • Generalising across all contexts - - - - offering insights into particular phenomena. • ‘Hard’ science - - - - ‘soft’ science.

  4. Why are they doing research? • Intrinsic reasons • Instrumental reasons.

  5. Classification of disciplines (1)

  6. But in quantum theory . . . an elementary particle is not an independently existing unanalyzable entity. It is, in essence, a set of relationships that reach outward to other things. (Stapp, 1971, p. 1310) Stapp, H. (1971), ‘S-matrix interpretation of quantum theory’, in Physical Review, 3 (6).

  7. Classification of disciplines (2)

  8. Examples • development studies: • environmental studies: • gender studies: • science studies: • media studies:

  9. Ref: International Association for the Study of Common Property. “Today, the Workshop is home to an extensive interdisciplinary research agenda and affiliated faculty inAnthropology, Economics, Geography,Political Science, Psychology, the Kelley School of Business, School of Informatics, School of Law, and theSchool of Public and Environmental Affairs.”

  10. Examples of projects at SUM: • EU-funded: sustainable management of vicuna, LUPIS, STRIVER, • NFR-funded: multilateral organisations, SUM-MEDIC

  11. How Disciplines Interact (1)

  12. How Disciplines Interact (2)

  13. Contrasts between neighbouring disciplines

  14. SUM: Lessons from experience • Interdisciplinarity does not replace disciplines, it builds on them; • The best way to undertake interdisciplinary research is through collaboration between researchers with different disciplinary backgrounds; • Interdisciplinarity requires a critical but informed knowledge of one’s own discipline of origin; openness to, and respect for, other disciplines; and the willingness and ability to enter into dialogue with them; • In the field of sustainable development, the greatest divide is between ‘reductionist’ and ‘holistic’ approaches (which is not quite the same as the natural/social science divide). SUM’s competence and interest has been in the latter.

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