Regina Bendix and Kilian Bizer
Dorothy Noyes (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252040894
- eISBN:
- 9780252099397
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252040894.001.0001
- Subject:
- Education, Higher Education
Both a vision for future scholarship and a slogan for university restructuring, interdisciplinarity promises to break through barriers to address today's complex challenges. Yet even high-stakes ...
More
Both a vision for future scholarship and a slogan for university restructuring, interdisciplinarity promises to break through barriers to address today's complex challenges. Yet even high-stakes projects often falter, undone by contradictory incentives, bureaucratic frameworks, communication breakdowns, and the strong feelings raised by urgent social debates. Jumping into collaborative research without preparation or ongoing attention, researchers often fall back on disciplinary habits and raise disciplinary defenses. Above all, there is never enough time. Born of six years' experience in the Göttingen Interdisciplinary Working Group on Cultural Property, this book examines social research as social process, identifying characteristic challenges of funded interdisciplinary projects: the clash of positivist, interpretivist, and normative approaches, the hierarchies and personalities among researchers, and the interaction of academic knowledge work with the common sense of social problems. While calling for reforms in research policy and administration, the book's immediate goal is to help researchers make the most of existing conditions. Drawing on economistic models of exchange and anthropological accounts of play and ritual, six chapters trace the life cycle of an interdisciplinary project--a temporary community of practice partially removed from everyday academic life--from its initial formulation to closure and aftermath. A seventh chapter provides recommendations for funders, administrators, principal investigators, and junior researchers. Reflexive attention to the research process can shepherd interaction across disciplines and capture insights as they emerge.Less
Both a vision for future scholarship and a slogan for university restructuring, interdisciplinarity promises to break through barriers to address today's complex challenges. Yet even high-stakes projects often falter, undone by contradictory incentives, bureaucratic frameworks, communication breakdowns, and the strong feelings raised by urgent social debates. Jumping into collaborative research without preparation or ongoing attention, researchers often fall back on disciplinary habits and raise disciplinary defenses. Above all, there is never enough time. Born of six years' experience in the Göttingen Interdisciplinary Working Group on Cultural Property, this book examines social research as social process, identifying characteristic challenges of funded interdisciplinary projects: the clash of positivist, interpretivist, and normative approaches, the hierarchies and personalities among researchers, and the interaction of academic knowledge work with the common sense of social problems. While calling for reforms in research policy and administration, the book's immediate goal is to help researchers make the most of existing conditions. Drawing on economistic models of exchange and anthropological accounts of play and ritual, six chapters trace the life cycle of an interdisciplinary project--a temporary community of practice partially removed from everyday academic life--from its initial formulation to closure and aftermath. A seventh chapter provides recommendations for funders, administrators, principal investigators, and junior researchers. Reflexive attention to the research process can shepherd interaction across disciplines and capture insights as they emerge.
Regina F. Bendix, Kilian Bizer, and Dorothy Noyes
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252040894
- eISBN:
- 9780252099397
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252040894.003.0001
- Subject:
- Education, Higher Education
This chapter examines the rise and the challenges of the funded interdisciplinary project as a format for research. A range of internal and external causes account for this rise: the complexity of ...
More
This chapter examines the rise and the challenges of the funded interdisciplinary project as a format for research. A range of internal and external causes account for this rise: the complexity of urgent social problems, disciplinary self-critiques, university resource constraints, the influence of neoliberal formats, and public pressure for accountability in research expenditures. Still, the very conditions that facilitate the inauguration of interdisciplinary ventures impede their success in practice. The chapter reviews the interpersonal, intellectual, professional, and institutional sources of team conflict and project dysfunction. It argues for a pragmatic approach of ongoing reflexive attention to social process within the research group, seeking not to overcome but to take account of the inevitable market logics, political agendas, and epistemological compromises.Less
This chapter examines the rise and the challenges of the funded interdisciplinary project as a format for research. A range of internal and external causes account for this rise: the complexity of urgent social problems, disciplinary self-critiques, university resource constraints, the influence of neoliberal formats, and public pressure for accountability in research expenditures. Still, the very conditions that facilitate the inauguration of interdisciplinary ventures impede their success in practice. The chapter reviews the interpersonal, intellectual, professional, and institutional sources of team conflict and project dysfunction. It argues for a pragmatic approach of ongoing reflexive attention to social process within the research group, seeking not to overcome but to take account of the inevitable market logics, political agendas, and epistemological compromises.
Regina F. Bendix, Kilian Bizer, and Dorothy Noyes
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252040894
- eISBN:
- 9780252099397
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252040894.003.0007
- Subject:
- Education, Higher Education
The concluding chapter sums up the book's insights with practical recommendations regarding the material requirements, project design, and social process of interdisciplinary research projects. ...
More
The concluding chapter sums up the book's insights with practical recommendations regarding the material requirements, project design, and social process of interdisciplinary research projects. Recommendations to granting organizations and university administrators address funding priorities, resources required, technical assistance, and criteria for assessment. Recommendations to principal investigators address the selection and composition of the research team, the distribution and supervision of responsibilities, and the needs of junior researchers. Additional recommendations for all researchers cover project design and research objectives, the sequencing of activities, the cultivation of interdisciplinary interaction, the capturing of emergent insights, the stages of a project life cycle, and the range of project outputs and outcomes in a larger ecology of scholarly communication.Less
The concluding chapter sums up the book's insights with practical recommendations regarding the material requirements, project design, and social process of interdisciplinary research projects. Recommendations to granting organizations and university administrators address funding priorities, resources required, technical assistance, and criteria for assessment. Recommendations to principal investigators address the selection and composition of the research team, the distribution and supervision of responsibilities, and the needs of junior researchers. Additional recommendations for all researchers cover project design and research objectives, the sequencing of activities, the cultivation of interdisciplinary interaction, the capturing of emergent insights, the stages of a project life cycle, and the range of project outputs and outcomes in a larger ecology of scholarly communication.
