Many of the world’s big problems have relevance to a wide range of disciplines – addressing these problems is not something that one discipline alone can do. This is illustrated by the approach of the University of Bristol’s interdisciplinary Research Institutes which support academics to work across disciplines to address complex problems– we have the Cabot Institute for the Environment, Bristol Digital Futures Institute, Elizabeth Blackwell Institute (health research), and the Jean Golding Institute (data sciences and data intensive research).Using interdisciplinary approaches to address complex challenges is the focus for increasing numbers of postgraduate researchers, who pursue research that has clear real-world relevance.
There are differences between disciplines (and groups of disciplines) in terms of how they think about problems, but most have commonalities in terms of what outcomes they want to achieve, and sometimes the approaches they use to find solutions. Outside of the university it is common for people from different backgrounds to work together on particular issues – this is often standard practice, but also not without its challenges. These challenges can be echoed when academics from different disciplines work together.
When researching across disciplines, there are different ways in which we can pull together our different perspectives. Sometimes individuals will research alongside each other on the same problem, but each doing their own thing with their own specific focus and approach (this is sometimes called multi-disciplinary research). Other research takes a further step towards integration, with individuals still using their own disciplinary approaches, but discussing and coordinating with researchers from other disciplines (this is sometimes called inter-disciplinary research). Most exciting, from our perspective, is where individuals from different disciplines come together and through sharing their expertise develop new ways of thinking and conducting research that arise from the unique combination of their perspectives (this can be called trans- or post-disciplinary research) (adapted from Lacey, 2001 and McMurty, 2011).
However, despite the potential of inter- and trans-disciplinary research, it is not without its challenges. Researching across disciplines is difficult! There can be specific conceptual challenges, around how we step outside our own disciplinary ways of thinking, and the value we ascribe to different ways of constructing knowledge (and relatedly, what is viewed as “high quality” research). Where people take the step into trans- or post-disciplinary research, there may be challenges around incorporating and recognising the unique contribution of different disciplines, within a new combined way of thinking (Jay, Rose & Milligan, 2017).
There are increasing numbers of postgraduate researchers who are taking inter- or trans-disciplinary approaches to explore big problems and grand challenges. These researchers need to grapple with learning to cross disciplinary boundaries and bring together different bodies of knowledge, at the same time as trying to forge their own identity in an academic system that is based upon disciplinary boundaries. Academic schools and departments, promotion criteria, academic publishers, the Research Excellence Framework are all based around disciplines. Deep disciplinary expertise is crucial in working on complex challenges, as it provides the source material for productive post-disciplinary partnerships – but postgraduate researchers working across disciplines need to be able to appreciate (and develop) a range of disciplinary expertises. We suggest that for researchers working across disciplines, the following questions (adapted from Rose, 2011) can be helpful for self-reflection:
- Identity: Where do I stand in my discipline?
- Expertise: What is my specialism, and do others recognise that?
- Territory: Do other people think they have the same specialist knowledge as me?
- Power: Will other people recognise the importance of my disciplinary knowledge or approach?
We are interested in how we, as supervisors, can support doctoral researchers in navigating and negotiating the development of their identity, expertise, territory and power in interdisciplinary research. These concepts are inevitably in flux as postgraduates develop as researchers, and this becomes more complex where projects are not solely rooted in a single disciplinary context. We will explore this further in our next blog and forthcoming workshop on Supervising Interdisciplinary Research on 11 December which is open for bookings now on Develop: Develop – University of Bristol – Interdisciplinary Research Supervision workshop [in-person]
References
Jay, T., Rose, J., & Milligan, L. (2017). Adoption, adaption, and integration: renegotiating the identity of educational research through interdisciplinarity. International Journal of Research & Method in Education, 40(3), 223-230. https://doi.org/10.1080/1743727X.2017.1311478
Lacey, P. (2001) Support Partnerships: Collaboration in action. London: David Fulton
McMurtry, A. (2011). The complexities of interdisciplinarity: Integrating two different perspectives on interdisciplinary research and education. Complicity: An International Journal of Complexity and Education, 8(2).
Rose, J. (2011). Dilemmas of inter‐professional collaboration: Can they be resolved?. Children & Society, 25(2), 151-163.
Leave a Reply