The Philosophy of Interdisciplinarity Sustainabil

Authors: Henrik Thorén Johannes Persson

Publish Date: 2013/11/17

Volume: 44, Issue: 2, Pages: 337-355

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Abstract

Traditionally interdisciplinarity has been taken to require conceptual or theoretical integration However in the emerging field of sustainability science this kind of integration is often lacking Indeed sometimes it is regarded as an obstacle to interdisciplinarity Drawing on examples from sustainability science we show that problemfeeding ie the transfer of problems is a common and fruitfullooking way of connecting disparate disciplines and establishing interdisciplinarity We identify two species of problemfeeding unilateral and bilateral Which of these is at issue depends on whether solutions to the problem are fed back to the discipline in which the problem originated We suggest that there is an interesting difference between the problemfeeding approach to interdisciplinarity and the traditional integrative perspective suggested by among others Erich Jantsch and his colleagues The interdisciplinarity resulting from problemfeeding between researchers can be local and temporary and does not require collaboration between proximate disciplines By contrast to make good sense of traditional integrative interdisciplinarity we must arguably associate it with a longerterm global form of close interdisciplinary collaborationPhilosophers of science who have studied interdisciplinarity whether or not they deploy the term itself often focus on relationships obtaining between proximate disciplines or fields For instance since the 1970s the life sciences have been a prime source of material and numerous case studies have been made showing how our knowledge can grow and how discoveries can be made when fields such as biochemistry and cell biology interactHowever interdisciplinary collaboration can involve less proximate disciplines as well This is one reason why we want to look more closely from a philosophy of science perspective at a new kind of interdisciplinary case namely sustainability scienceThe other reason for focusing on sustainability science is this It is not clear that traditional accounts of interdisciplinarity capture a certain type of interdisciplinary collaboration that we believe is characteristic of sustainability research the transfer of problems and sometimes solutions from one discipline to the other We call this type of interdisciplinarity ‘problemfeeding’This article starts by presenting the traditional perspective and the difficulties it has handling the interdisciplinary field of sustainability science Then we introduce the notion of problemfeeding and compare it with recent discussion of the philosophy of interdisciplinarity We discuss two varieties of problemfeeding unilateral and bilateral Which of these is at issue depends on whether solutions to the problem are fed back to the discipline in which the problem originatedSince the early 1970s and certainly since the publication of Jantsch’s 1970/1972 the type and degree of conceptual or broadly speaking theoretical integration of the participating disciplines has been the primary basis on which to sort types of interdisciplinary encounter This focus on conceptual or theoretical relationships defines what might be called the traditional perspective on interdisciplinarity

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