Practising Interdisciplinarity

by Weingart, Peter; Stehr, Nico

• ISBN13: 9780802081391
• ISBN10: 0802081398
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-06-01
• Publisher: Univ of Toronto Pr

Summary

First-hand insights into the operations and successes of some of the world's foremost interdisciplinary research centres and the ways in which interdisciplinarity is researched, organized, and taught around the world.

Author Biography

Peter Weingart is a professor at the Institute for Science and Technology Studies, University of Bielefeld, Germany. Nico Stehr is Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Alberta. During the 2000/2001 academic year, he held fellowships at the Hanse Centre for Advanced Studies and the Centre for Advanced Cultural Studies, in Germany.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Introduction	xi
Part I. The Popularity, Functions, and Paradoxes of Interdisciplinarity: The Discourse	1	(42)
A Conceptual Vocabulary of Interdisciplinary Science	3	(22)
Julie Thompson Klein
Interdisciplinarity: The Paradoxical Discourse	25	(18)
Peter Weingart
Part II. The Changing Topography of Science	43	(68)
What Are Disciplines? And How Is Interdisciplinarity Different?	46	(20)
Stephen Turner
The Interdisciplinary Nature of Science: Theoretical Framework and Bibliometric-Empirical Approach	66	(13)
Anthony F.J. Van Raan
Mapping the New Cultures and Organization of Research in Australia	79	(32)
Tim Turpin
Sam Garrett-Jones
Part III. Nurturing Environments of Interdisciplinarity	111	(134)
Beyond One's Own Perspective: The Psychology of Cognitive Interdisciplinarity	115	(19)
Rainer Bromme
Practising Interdisciplinary Studies	134	(20)
Rhodri Windsor Liscombe
Cognitive Science as an Interdisciplinary Endeavour	154	(19)
Marc De Mey
Inducing Interdisciplinarity: Irresistible Infliction? The Example of a Research Group at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF), Bielefeld, Germany	173	(21)
Sabine Maasen
Interdisciplinary Research at the Caltech Beckman Institute	194	(21)
Eric R. Scerri
Major Discoveries and Biomedical Research Organizations: Perspectives on Interdisciplinarity, Nurturing Leadership, and Integrated Structure and Cultures	215	(30)
Rogers Hollingsworth
Ellen Jane Hollingsworth
Part IV. The Perspective of the Funders	245	(28)
Interdisciplinary Research Initiatives at the U.S. National Science Foundation	248	(12)
Edward J. Hackett
Beyond the Ivory Tower: Some Observations on External Funding of Interdisciplinary Research in Universities	260	(13)
Wilhelm Krull
Concluding Comments	270	(3)
References	273	(18)
Contributors	291