Contextualized knowledge and interdisciplinarity. The case of social-ecological systems
(2012) Philosophy of interdisciplinarity: What is interdisciplinary success? — Location: Lund,Sweden (4.October.2012)
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- The current proposal aims at clarifying what criteria could be used for assessing the quality and potential of interdisciplinary research on sustainability issues. Specifically, we set out to: (1) clarify what interdisciplinarity implies (e.g. not only multidisciplinarity or cross- fertilization between alternative methodologies) and what types of interdisciplinarity it is useful to distinguish for purposes of research evaluation; (2) analyze the way interdisciplinarity is addressed in sustainability science and in dealing with social-ecological systems; and (3) identify conditions for the efficiency and efficacy of interdisciplinary research. Our analysis aims to reframe interdisciplinarity in terms of methodological pluralism and contextualized knowledge. Methodological pluralism refers to the need to consider the fit to context of different research methods, assumptions and epistemic values when making methodological choices. The context of research acts as a methodological ‘orientation device’, constraining the actual options available to the scientist while at the same time providing situational opportunities and guiding cues. By taking into account the specificity of its application domain, knowledge becomes contextualized. Interdisciplinarity provides the epistemic, institutional and social medium in which such a contextualization can take place.
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Popa, F., & Guillermin, M. (2012). Contextualized knowledge and interdisciplinarity. The case of social-ecological systems. Philosophy of interdisciplinarity: What is interdisciplinary success?, Lund,Sweden. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/69342