Courses/Ingenuity 601/Innolution/Multidisciplinarity
Clarifying Concepts:
- There is a lack of use of the appropriate term in regards to multi-disciplinary work and we must understand the distinction between the following three:
- Multidisciplinarity: defines an individual who draws on knowledge from other disciplines, however remains within their discipline “boundaries” (additive, non-integrative))
- Interdisciplinarity: individuals who analyse, synthesize and then combine ideas between disciplines into a coherent and representative product (Interactive, integration between)
- Trasdisciplinarity: individuals who integrate with natural, social and other sciences and presenting information a a humanities type of context and moving well beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries (Holistic)
- The term “Multiple Disciplinary” is recommended when the exact from of disciplinarity is unknown.
(Choi and Pak. 2006. Clinical and Investigative Medicine 29(6): 351-364)
Challenges of Multidisciplinarity:
- Scientists who are truly interdisciplinary have a hard time finding employment, and are not rewarded for individual contributions to team projects.
Rewards of Multidisciplinarity:
- the broad ranging creativity formed from a multidisciplinary individual often results in a phenomenon of creative and innovative developments
- Quantitiy alone (of publications) often does not distinguish a “creative” or innovative scientist, however an ability to effectively communicate with apparently “disconnected” peers enables individuals to be involved with a broader work spectrum, and often results in more Novel ideas being formed from these individuals (Heinze and Bauer. 2007. Scientometrics, 70 (3): 811-830.
The Structure of Multidisciplinarity:
- Split problems into sub problems and solve each independently (mono disciplinary still)
- Integration of multiple monodisciplinary ideas into a cohesive unit
- The third way is to apply knowledge and paradigms gained in one discipline to a different discipline as a means of enhancing problem-solving potential
- I believe that we are focusing on the third method
(van Zuylen, 2000. TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT AND EDUCATION TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH RECORD (1729)75-81)
This is what I have developed so far and will continue to explore. I think to summarize, we need to decide which disciplinarily term we want to focus on (multidisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity, or transdisciplinarity).
I also noted that a major reward of multidisciplinary work is that more novel and integrative ideas come from the work, and are more likely to have an impact on society and in the real world. However, there is little reward in the current academic system for this type of innovation. Also, there is varying strcture to multidisciplinary work but I think we should focus on the ones that use ideas/ approaches from other disciplines to enhance their own problem solving abilities.
