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SRC interdisciplinary terrain

Sarah Cornell
Sarah Cornell

The document discusses the importance and benefits of interdisciplinary knowledge and research. It notes that interdisciplinarity allows for more creativity, helps address complex problems, and promotes a unity of knowledge. Interdisciplinarians enjoy greater flexibility in their research and the intellectual experience of exploring new areas. However, the document also acknowledges some of the tensions that can arise between rigor and innovation when taking an interdisciplinary approach. It advocates for reflexivity and finding a balance between training and openness to new perspectives.

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Getting comfortable in new intellectual terrain (and shaping that terrain) 息 Phelps 2006 Sarah Cornell Planetary Boundaries Research Initiative, SRC
Interdisciplinary knowledge and research are important because: 1. Creativity often requires interdisciplinary knowledge. 2. Immigrants often make important contributions to their new field. 3. Disciplinarians often commit errors which can be best detected by people familiar with two or more disciplines. 4. Some worthwhile topics of research fall in the interstices among the traditional disciplines. 5. Many intellectual, social, and practical problems require interdisciplinary approaches. 6. Interdisciplinary knowledge and research serve to remind us of the unity-of- knowledge ideal. 7. Interdisciplinarians enjoy greater flexibility in their research. 8. More so than narrow disciplinarians, interdisciplinarians often treat themselves to the intellectual equivalent of traveling in new lands. 9. Interdisciplinarians may help breach communication gaps in the modern academy, thereby helping to mobilize its enormous intellectual resources in the cause of greater social rationality and justice. 10.By bridging fragmented disciplines, interdisciplinarians might play a role in the defense of academic freedom. Nissani, M. (1997) Ten Cheers for Interdisciplinarity. Social Science Journal 34 (2) 201-216
My own trajectory Time
Taking those steps into new terrain Statistical methods Researcher responsibility Analytical techniques Real world problems Data quality issues Real world problems You dont necessarily know what skills youre building up as you go along, but youd better make sure they are Synthesis skills good ones! Research strategy planning Practical policy insight And more real world problems
Unmapped terrain In many institutions, interdisciplinarity is flourishing behind a subject facade What do we do about the concealed reality of interdisciplinarity? Keith Clayton (1985), in L. Levin and I. Lind, Interdisciplinarity Revisited Who is actually And what is doing this work? research? Isnt it Often: students all unmapped terrain?
Piece of advice No. 1 ≒ Have fun enjoy being undisciplined
What tensions do we face? rigour innovation alien native
Problems in resolving the tensions abound ESF-COST RESCUE, 2012 EURAB 2004 US National Academies COSEPUP, 2004 ESSP Amsterdam Declaration 2001 But surely the right way ahead! Previously men could be divided simply into the learned and the ignorant But your specialist cannot be brought in under either of these two categories. He is not learned, for he is formally ignorant of all that does not enter into his specialty; but neither is he ignorant, because he is a scientist and knows very well his own tiny portion of the universe. We shall have to say that he is a learned ignoramus, which is a very serious matter, as it implies that he is a person who is ignorant, not in the fashion of the ignorant man, but with all the petulance of one who is learned is his own special line. (Ortega y Gasset, The revolt of the masses, 1932)
Rigour ? Innovation
There is a playfulness of mind as well as a truly fierce drive to make sense of the world, which the technician as such usually lacks. Perhaps he is too well trained, too precisely M Ramirez, www.cagle.com trained. Since one can be trained only in what is already known, training sometimes incapacitates one from learning new ways; it makes one rebel against what is bound to be at first loose and even sloppy. C.W. Mills, 1959, The sociological imagination Rigour Innovation Reflexivity
Piece of advice No. 2 ≒ Have fun enjoy being undisciplined ≒ Whatever you do, do it well
Deep interdisciplinarity = Earth system sciences research relationships with the human and social sciences What have I learnt about research relationships? ≒ Some are easier to promote than others р but theres no telling in advance which will work! ≒ Ambience matters ≒ So does serendipity р opportunities for serendipity can be planned ≒ A sense of collaborative endeavour grows with time
Foundations Image from www.ribbonfarm.com
On pragmatism Timeframe Language Dis/Comfort
SRC interdisciplinary terrain
My worldview is not subjective or arbitrary - just partial Post-Normal science - carries an awareness of the limitations of a single viewpoint in understanding complex systems Funtowicz and Ravetz Mode 2 science Nowotny et al Jarvie, 1964
Piece of advice No. 3 ≒ Have fun enjoy being undisciplined ≒ Whatever you do, do it well ≒ Read write THINK
SRC interdisciplinary terrain

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SRC interdisciplinary terrain

  • 1. Getting comfortable in new intellectual terrain (and shaping that terrain) 息 Phelps 2006 Sarah Cornell Planetary Boundaries Research Initiative, SRC
  • 2. Interdisciplinary knowledge and research are important because: 1. Creativity often requires interdisciplinary knowledge. 2. Immigrants often make important contributions to their new field. 3. Disciplinarians often commit errors which can be best detected by people familiar with two or more disciplines. 4. Some worthwhile topics of research fall in the interstices among the traditional disciplines. 5. Many intellectual, social, and practical problems require interdisciplinary approaches. 6. Interdisciplinary knowledge and research serve to remind us of the unity-of- knowledge ideal. 7. Interdisciplinarians enjoy greater flexibility in their research. 8. More so than narrow disciplinarians, interdisciplinarians often treat themselves to the intellectual equivalent of traveling in new lands. 9. Interdisciplinarians may help breach communication gaps in the modern academy, thereby helping to mobilize its enormous intellectual resources in the cause of greater social rationality and justice. 10.By bridging fragmented disciplines, interdisciplinarians might play a role in the defense of academic freedom. Nissani, M. (1997) Ten Cheers for Interdisciplinarity. Social Science Journal 34 (2) 201-216
  • 4. Taking those steps into new terrain Statistical methods Researcher responsibility Analytical techniques Real world problems Data quality issues Real world problems You dont necessarily know what skills youre building up as you go along, but youd better make sure they are Synthesis skills good ones! Research strategy planning Practical policy insight And more real world problems
  • 5. Unmapped terrain In many institutions, interdisciplinarity is flourishing behind a subject facade What do we do about the concealed reality of interdisciplinarity? Keith Clayton (1985), in L. Levin and I. Lind, Interdisciplinarity Revisited Who is actually And what is doing this work? research? Isnt it Often: students all unmapped terrain?
  • 6. Piece of advice No. 1 ≒ Have fun enjoy being undisciplined
  • 7. What tensions do we face? rigour innovation alien native
  • 8. Problems in resolving the tensions abound ESF-COST RESCUE, 2012 EURAB 2004 US National Academies COSEPUP, 2004 ESSP Amsterdam Declaration 2001 But surely the right way ahead! Previously men could be divided simply into the learned and the ignorant But your specialist cannot be brought in under either of these two categories. He is not learned, for he is formally ignorant of all that does not enter into his specialty; but neither is he ignorant, because he is a scientist and knows very well his own tiny portion of the universe. We shall have to say that he is a learned ignoramus, which is a very serious matter, as it implies that he is a person who is ignorant, not in the fashion of the ignorant man, but with all the petulance of one who is learned is his own special line. (Ortega y Gasset, The revolt of the masses, 1932)
  • 9. Rigour ? Innovation
  • 10. There is a playfulness of mind as well as a truly fierce drive to make sense of the world, which the technician as such usually lacks. Perhaps he is too well trained, too precisely M Ramirez, www.cagle.com trained. Since one can be trained only in what is already known, training sometimes incapacitates one from learning new ways; it makes one rebel against what is bound to be at first loose and even sloppy. C.W. Mills, 1959, The sociological imagination Rigour Innovation Reflexivity
  • 11. Piece of advice No. 2 ≒ Have fun enjoy being undisciplined ≒ Whatever you do, do it well
  • 12. Deep interdisciplinarity = Earth system sciences research relationships with the human and social sciences What have I learnt about research relationships? ≒ Some are easier to promote than others р but theres no telling in advance which will work! ≒ Ambience matters ≒ So does serendipity р opportunities for serendipity can be planned ≒ A sense of collaborative endeavour grows with time
  • 13. Foundations Image from www.ribbonfarm.com
  • 14. On pragmatism Timeframe Language Dis/Comfort
  • 16. My worldview is not subjective or arbitrary - just partial Post-Normal science - carries an awareness of the limitations of a single viewpoint in understanding complex systems Funtowicz and Ravetz Mode 2 science Nowotny et al Jarvie, 1964
  • 17. Piece of advice No. 3 ≒ Have fun enjoy being undisciplined ≒ Whatever you do, do it well ≒ Read write THINK