The idea that research should become more interdisciplinary has become commonplace. According to influential commentators, the unprecedented complexity of problems such as climate change or the social implications of biomedicine demand interdisciplinary efforts integrating both the social and natural sciences. In this context, the question of whether a given knowledge practice is too disciplinary, or interdisciplinary, or not disciplinary enough has become an issue for governments, research policy makers and funding agencies. Interdisciplinarity, in short, has emerged as a key political preoccupation; yet the term tends to obscure as much as illuminate the diverse practices gathered under its rubric.This volume offers a new approach to theorising interdisciplinarity, showing how the boundaries between the social and natural sciences are being reconfigured. It examines the current preoccupation with interdisciplinarity, notably the ascendance of a particular discourse in which it is associated with a transformation in the relations between science, technology and society. Contributors address attempts to promote collaboration between, on the one hand, the natural sciences and engineering and, on the other, the social sciences, arts and humanities. From ethnography in the IT industry to science and technology studies, environmental science to medical humanities, cybernetics to art-science, the collection interrogates how interdisciplinarity has come to be seen as a solution not only to enhancing relations between science and society, but the pursuit of accountability and the need to foster innovation. Interdisciplinarity is essential reading for scholars, students and policy makers across the social sciences, arts and humanities, including anthropology, geography, sociology, science and technology studies and cultural studies, as well as all those engaged in interdisciplinary research. It will have particular relevance for those concerned with the knowledge economy, science policy, environmental politics, applied anthropology, ELSI research, medical humanities, and art-science.
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The idea that research needs to become more interdisciplinary has been widely argued in recent decades. This book presents a series of empirical, historical and theoretical studies that interrogate contemporary forms of interdisciplinary research, cutting across the boundaries between the natural sciences and engineering and the social sciences, arts and humanities.
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1. Interdisciplinarity: Reconfigurations of the Social and Natural Sciences 2. How Disciplines Look 3. Inter That Discipline! 4. Fields and Fallows: A Political History of STS 5. Unexpected Consequences and An Unanticipated Outcome 6. Consuming Anthropology 7. Where Natural and Social Science Meet? Reflections On An Experiment in Geographical Practice 8. Multiple Environments: Accountability, Integration and Ontology 9. Ontology and Antidisciplinarity 10. Logics of Interdisciplinarity: The Case of Medical Humanities 11. Art-Science: From Public Understanding to Public Experiment
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Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781138843349
Publisert
2014-09-12
Utgiver
Vendor
Routledge
Vekt
408 gr
Høyde
234 mm
Bredde
156 mm
Aldersnivå
U, P, 05, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
296

Biographical note

Andrew Barry is Professor of Political Geography at the University of Oxford.

Georgina Born is Professor of Music and Anthropology at the University of Oxford.