INTERSECTIONS
Investigating Interdisciplinarity and Transdisciplinarity: Intersections of Practices, Culture(s) and Policy in Collaborative Knowledge Production (INTERSECTIONS)
Overview
Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research (IDR and TDR) – collaborative research spanning methods, approaches, disciplines, and societal spheres – is trapped in a paradox. On the one hand, IDR and TDR promise to catalyse societal transformation and tackle societal challenges. This approach is therefore heavily promoted by universities, funders, and policy members. On the other hand, IDR and TDR face a range of barriers on an institutional, societal, and individual level.
One way through this impasse is to understand the multiple intersections that exist between cultures (knowledge), practices (researchers), and policy (institutions) in interdisciplinarity (ID) and transdisciplinarity (TD) to improve their capacity to address scientific and societal challenges.
ID and TD have been studied and theorised differently across different scientific communities. The various approaches have developed into different cultures of ID/TD. In some traditions, TD is characterised as problem-solving research focusing on sustainability issues, while other perspectives see its purpose in transcending boundaries of disciplines and synthesising methods and theories to address a unifying epistemological issue.
One aim of the INTERSECTIONS project is therefore to identify different approaches to ID and TD and characterise the distinctions between them.
The consolidation of the research on and the conceptual cultures of ID and TD is an important foundation for producing high-quality knowledge that leads to an increased understanding of collaborative research practices and how they contribute to tackling societal challenges. Knowledge cultures of ID/TD and practices of IDR/TDR therefore intersect and mutually influence each other. In addition to the theoretical conceptualisation, a solid methodological foundation is needed to investigate IDR/TDR practices.
The project, therefore, aims to advance the methodological and conceptual approaches for investigating and evaluating interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research and the factors that support or hinder its success.
Understanding interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary practices will moreover inform us about disconnections between the research and the environment it takes place in. Part of this environment are related bodies of policy, funding agencies, and related infrastructure. One well-known pitfall of inter- and transdisciplinary research projects is that they tend to take more time. Understanding this temporal aspect of inter- and transdisciplinary research could be a first step for funding programs to be adapted to and allow for higher quality in ID and TD.
We aim to contribute to an improvement of the collaborations at the intersections of research and policy by identifying potential disconnections that keep interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research from developing their full potential in addressing societal challenges.
Due to the current lack of a unified understanding and approach to ID/TD the wheel is continuously reinvented when it comes to ID and TD. This is not only the case for the academic realm, but also for the policy sphere. The differing conceptualisations and cultures of ID and TD within academia, within policy, and between academia and policy have led to misunderstandings that create adverse consequences. Many funding and evaluation structures show the need for improved communication between research and policy.
Approach and Methods
This project is situated in the fields of Science and Technology Studies (STS) and Cultural Studies of Science. This is represented by the methods employed, the questions studied as well as by the scientific community we target.
To investigate the sketched field, we will employ a combination of qualitative methods. In a first step, we conduct an extensive review of the literature on ID and TD. This will allow us to consolidate the theoretical approaches on ID and TD and lay the theoretical foundation for the empirical investigation. The complex search strings used to query Web of Science and Scopus, as well as the consolidated database of relevant literature resulting from this search and the subsequent selection process have been published as dataset/data in the ETH Research Collection in September 2023.
We will then conduct interviews and focus groups with members of both academia and policy. This will inform us about the currently circulating understandings of ID and TD in Switzerland and Europe.
Subsequently, we will conduct ethnographic fieldwork in three research centres in Switzerland that have agreed to collaborate with our research group. These explorations will provide insight into collaborative research practices and relevant influencing factors. Overall, we follow an approach of problematisation, aiming to challenge and defamiliarise existing preconceptions of ID and TD.
Outcome
By understanding the multiple intersections that exist between cultures, practices, and policy in ID/TD we envision creating the following outcomes:
- Enable the consolidation of a research program for investigating ID/TD by refining and expanding the theories and methods used for investigating interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary knowledge cultures.
- Enhance our understanding of the rapidly changing conditions for collaborative academic work.
- Contribute to policies for interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research and education that are grounded in aggregated evidence from different fields.
- Contribute to current policy debates around the impacts of and funding of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research in Switzerland and beyond.
Outputs from the first phase of the project can be consulted external page here.
Doctoral and Masters Theses
Below are the current and past doctoral and masters theses on the INTERSECTIONS project.
Underlying values in collaborative research practices and their evaluation – an empirical inquiry into resulting connections and disconnections
Doctoral candidate: Anne-Sophie Schaltegger
Timeframe: February 2022 – January 2026
Abstract: Inter- and transdisciplinary research are facing the paradox of being promoted for their transformative potential on the one hand, and facing a range of barriers on the other. One of those barriers is research evaluation, which often does not account for the unique conditions and characteristics of inter- and transdisciplinary research. These evaluation mechanisms and their effects on inter- and transdisciplinary research practices and their impact are still poorly understood. Values play an important role in research and its evaluation. But empirical investigations into those values, their roles and how the values of research and its evaluation relate to each other are scarce, especially in relation to the specific situation in Switzerland. My thesis will contribute to closing this gap by applying a qualitative, cultural approach and a mixed methodology leading up a grounded theory. The research questions guiding my research focus on the values involved in collaborative inter- and transdisciplinary research practices, the values involved in their evaluation as well as the intersections and disconnections between those two value systems. An initial literature review will inform about the existing research on values in inter- and transdisciplinary research and about prevailing values in related grey literature. Via ethnographic research in relevant national research projects, mixed with cognitive methods, values engaged in collaborative research practices in Switzerland will be investigated. These will be contrasted with a perspective on values engaged in related evaluation mechanisms through interviews and focus groups with representatives of the evaluation sphere. A final synthesis will result in a grounded theory that illuminates the intersections and disconnections between inter- and transdisciplinary research and its evaluation, aiding in detecting how this intersection can be improved to foster these research mode’s potential from a perspective of values.
The role of norms and governance in transdisciplinary research settings of emerging technologies
Doctoral candidate: Helena Winiger
Timeframe: September 2023 - August 2027
Abstract: The governance of technologies in society requires addressing complex problems rooted in technological advancement not only in the societal issues that follow, but also in their emergence. Inter- and transdisciplinary research is in high demand to address existing complex problems. Furthermore, the socio-technical innovation processes at the basis of existing and future problems are studied. But, despite existing policies, inter- and transdisciplinarity are not fully integrated into scientific practice. Besides, the societal governance of technologies is not yet responsive enough to address arising complex problems.
My doctoral project aims to study inter- and transdisciplinary research in domains involving emerging technologies. It focuses on the role of institutional norms and governance processes that are iterated in organizational practices and policies. A thorough understanding of such institutional norms aims to contribute to the co-production of participatory governance mechanisms for technology development and use by standardization or policy instruments. Furthermore, the outcome of this study will support an empirically grounded discussion and development of science policy and funding targeting inter- and transdisciplinary research related to emerging technologies in Switzerland and beyond.
In this study, qualitative methods are used. A literature review provides the position and framework of the study. It anchors the topic inter- and transdisciplinarily in the field of Science and Technology Studies. Interviews, focus groups, and multi-sited ethnographic research in Swiss research centers involving emerging technologies contribute empirically to the conceptual approach. Grounded theory guides the data analysis. Findings on institutional norms will feed into efforts towards participatory governance and responsible innovation, e.g., through tools to be applied in a transdisciplinary manner.
The Role of Emotions and Affection in Interdisciplinary Research
Master's student: Valeria Merlo
Timeframe: December 2023 - May 2024
Supervisor: PD Dr. Bianca Vienni-Baptista
Cultural Studies of Science and Technology
Transdisciplinarity Lab (D-USYS)
Co-Supervisor: Anne-Sophie Schaltegger, MSc
Cultural Studies of Science and Technology
Transdisciplinarity Lab (D-USYS)
Summary: Many of today’s societal problems, such as the loss of biodiversity due to intensified agriculture, are illdefined and have complex interrelationships. Addressing such problems requires interdisciplinary research (IDR), which involves collaboration across different fields. However, IDR faces significant challenges that impede its effectiveness. It is important to study these challenges in order to improve the conditions under which scientists conduct such research and to solve wicked societal problems.
This thesis investigates challenges related to emotional and affective dimensions in IDR. IDR involves high levels of collaboration and integration between different fields of knowledge, often requiring researchers to step out of their comfort zones and engage in discomfortable situations. This research aims to understand what scientists do to regulate their own emotional experience (emotional labour) and the emotional experience of others (affective labour) to navigate between comfort and discomfort. Furthermore, it investigates the interconnectedness between researchers' emotional and affective labour and their appraisal of collaborative situations on a comfort-discomfort continuum. Methodologically, this study is based on a comprehensive literature review as well as an ethnographic fieldwork. The ethnographic data was collected at the interdisciplinary research centre LIVES2 and includes participant observation, interviews as well as diary entries.
To contribute to the understanding of emotional and affective labour in the context of interdisciplinary research collaboration, this study firstly introduces a theoretical framework that explores the interconnectedness between emotional and affective labour and researchers’ appraisal of a situation. The proposed framework integrates the Learning Zone Model2 with the Process Model of Emotion Regulation3 as shown in Figure 1. Secondly, the framework is applied to analyse ethnographic field data. The findings of the ethnographic fieldwork show that researchers in interdisciplinary collaborations must navigate the comfort-discomfort continuum in three areas of (in)securities: disciplinary, career, and interpersonal (Figure 2). The strategies they used individually and collectively to navigate this continuum are summarized in Table 1. The findings illustrate how secure collective relationships support individuals in crossing disciplinary boundaries and emphasize the need for a non judgmental mindset to create a collective environment for sharing different perspectives. Furthermore, they demonstrate how the employed strategies influenced the researchers’ appraisal of emotional experiences by helping them to contextualise and relativise these experiences, to observe and alter appraisal patterns, and to accept discomforting experiences as less detrimental to their well-being. Additionally, it is demonstrated how the concept of mindfulness proves as a valuable lens to understand how specific strategies for emotional regulation can alter the way how situations are appraised.
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1 https://www.centre-lives.ch/en
2 Senninger, T. (2000). Abenteuer leiten - in Abenteuern lernen Methodenset zur Planung und Leitung kooperativer Lerngemeinschaften für
Training und Teamentwicklung in Schule, Jugendarbeit und Betrieb. Ökotopia Verlag.
3 Gross, J. J. (2013). Handbook of emotion regulation. Guilford publications.
Project core team
Funding
"Investigating interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity: intersections of practices, culture(s) and policy in collaborative knowledge production" (Intersections) is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), external page Programme PRIMA, Grant No. 201582, period 2022–2026.