Interdisciplinarity and complexity

In recent decades, the ideas of interdisciplinarity and complexity have become increasingly entwined. This convergence invites an exploration of the links and their implications. The implications span the nature of knowledge, the structure of the university, the character of problem solving, the dialogue between science and humanities, and the theoretical relationship of the two underlying ideas.

Klein, J. T. (1984). Interdisciplinarity and complexity: An evolving relationship. structure, 71, 72.

Academic Tribes

From Becher, T., & Trowler, P. (2001). Chapter One. "Landscapes, Tribal Territories and Academic Cultures" in Academic tribes and territories: Intellectual enquiry and the culture of disciplines. McGraw-Hill Education (UK). 

The first edition of this book, published over a decade ago, mapped the territory of academic knowledge at the time and traced the links between the academic disciplines into which that knowledge had coalesced and the cultures of the academics engaged in them. Since then there have been major shifts in the topography of academic knowledge and more significantly, in the very landscape in which it lies: not only in higher education (HE) institutions and systems at the national and international level but also in the socio-economic contexts within which they operate. We can describe these shifts as structural in the sense that, as they occur, there are changes in long-standing sets of practices in different locales among the academic tribes which are the concern of this book.

From Anamaria Dutceac Segesten. (2012, December 16). Thinking about Academic Tribes. Retrieved June 30, 2015, from https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/university-venus/thinking-about-academic-tribes.

The general and global trend has been towards fragmentation/interdisciplinarity and a flourishing of disciplines. There are now very specific fields of inquiry that did not exist 25 years ago, from my own area of specialization, “European Studies”, to “Queer Studies” or “Visual Cultures” or you name it – whichever specific domain that is entitled to define a territory of knowledge with its own boundaries.

Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning

A very nice list of sources related to interdisciplinary teaching and learning can be found at Miami University Office of Undergraduate Education.

Cluster hiring can lead to increased faculty diversity

Cluster hiring is used to bring multiple faculty into inter- or transdisciplinary research areas or curricular programs. According to Laura Severin,

Initially, institutions may be lured to new interdisciplinary initiatives by the promise of federal research dollars, but there are often other, equally important motivators. Students are demanding academic programs focused on real-world issues. Employers are asking for graduates who can work in teams across disciplinary specialties. And, despite budget cuts, governmental agencies, nonprofits, and businesses are looking to higher education to help them solve the "big problems," such as global climate change, food security, health care, political instability, and new-age literacy. Cluster hiring would seem to move us forward into this new, more urgently collaborative world.

Now a new report suggests that cluster hiring has a positive impact on diversity.

A new report from the Coalition for Urban Serving Universities, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, and the Association of American Medical Colleges, which have partnered as Urban Universities for HEALTH, tackles those questions and concludes that cluster hiring -- when done right -- is a powerful way to build both institutional excellence and faculty diversity.

“Although the process was originally designed to expand interdisciplinary research, [cluster hiring] also impacts both faculty diversity and components of institutional climate, including the learning environment, collaboration, community engagement and success of faculty from all backgrounds,” reads the report, which identifies diversity not only in terms of race, ethnicity and gender but also perspective, ideology and methodology.

Cluster hiring programs, it continues, “have the potential to improve institutional excellence over all by breaking down silos, reallocating resources to benefit the whole institution and attracting innovative, nontraditional scholars.”

New report says cluster hiring can lead to increased faculty diversity | InsideHigherEd

The Collaborative Virtues

Collaborating with other people is hard. Few of us are born knowing how to do it. Odd though it might sound, we have to learn, by conscious reflection, how to work successfully with others. And so we should take care to identify and occasionally nurture what one might term ‘the collaborative virtues’, the set of psychological traits on which good teamwork depends.

The Collaborative Virtues | The Book of Life

Seven Revolutions | Center for Strategic and International Studies

A good example of a transdisciplinary curriculum can be found in the 7 Revolutions program developed and supported by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Have you considered how a global population of 9 billion people by the middle of the century will impact your life? What are the challenges for the availability of food, water, and energy resources? How will society balance the benefits of technological innovation and advanced communication with the threat of cyber security? How will global economic integration and governance affect trade, markets, and commerce overall?  

To answer questions like these, the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) embarked on an initiative in 1992 to address and analyze the key policy challenges that policymakers, business figures, and other leaders will face out to the year 2035 & beyond. It is an effort to promote strategic thinking about the long-term trends that too few take the time to consider. Though our research is constantly evolving, we created this guide as a snapshot for what we call the Seven Revolutions.  

The key points of this research have been captured in an exciting, fast-paced, multimedia presentation that has been given around the world—from governments to private corporations to academia to nongovernmental organizations. Seven Revolutions is constantly updated to reflect the latest data analysis and available technologies. It is an effective tool for pushing audiences to think outside of their areas of expertise and beyond their familiar planning parameters.

The topics include Population, Resource Management, Technology, Information and Knowledge, Economics, Security, and Governance. Each of these presents problems and issues that transcend the methods, knowledge and concepts of any one discipline.

Seven Revolutions | Center for Strategic and International Studies

A Definition of "Transdisciplinarity"

Theoretical forms of interdisciplinarity are also associated with the concept of transdisciplinarity, a term that originally connoted an overarching synthesis or a common axiom that transcends the narrow scope of disciplinary worldviews. General systems theory, structuralism, Marxism, feminist theory, sociobiology, and phenomenology have been leading examples. More recently in Europe, two connotations have emerged: a new structure of unity informed by the worldview of complexity in science and trans-sector problem solving involving the collaboration of academics and stakeholders in society. Conceptualized as a form of transcendent interdisciplinary research, the transdisciplinary team science movement in the United States is also fostering new theoretical frameworks for understanding social, economic, political, environmental, and institutional factor in health and well-being (Rosenfield, 1992).

Klein, J. T. (2009). Creating interdisciplinary campus cultures: A model for strength and sustainability.