Vol 11 - Thinking interdisciplinarity in practice

Call for papers

"Thinking interdisciplinarity in practice"

Special issue – Volume 11

Journal of Interdisciplinary Methodologies and Issues in Science



Adressing complex issues, whether in health (Kessel & Rosenfield, 2008), climate (Morandino et al., 2020), education (Morin, 1999; Masters, O'Toole, & Jodon, 2013)... implies a collaborative work between disciplines which is proven to be essential.

Be it a multidisciplinary, transdisciplinary or interdisciplinary work, it is a problematic of efficiency in order to develop new practices and better knowledge of phenomena. Research institutions are not mistaken. Encouraged within the framework of the multiple scientific CFP (calls for projects), researchers are invited/incited to collaborate.

This orientation of scientific work raises epistemological and methodological questions, or even evaluation questions for these new forms of collaborative work, since everyone has his own definition, either semantic intuition or definition by default. Many writings, including the first one by Piaget (1972), Rosenfield (1992), Nicolescu (1996), Morin (1999; 2003), Resweber (2000), Lenoir (2003) and the CIRET charter (1994), help to establish definitions and both situate collaborative work and guide its form. But everything indicates that the proposed categorizations are multiplying in the same movement as the disciplines are becoming more fragmented. This may be due to the impossibility of theorising the science that confines the analysis of interdisciplinarity to typological classification (Laflamme, 2011).

Taking collaborative work between scientific disciplines as an object of study leads us to both think and realize it in all its complexity in order to allow a fruitful dialogue between theory and practice while questioning the interest and limits of producing an expertise. The issues go far beyond the definitions that can be given to cooperation between disciplines; this is women and men who interact with or without difficulties, institutions that carry or support these works, common or different temporalities between the multiple actors of the research... A systemic viewpoint seems to be relevant to approach this problem, without being exclusive.

The expected articles may refer to different scientific disciplines and methodologies, however the focus will be not on the results of multi, inter or transdisciplinary studies, but in understanding how collaborative works are constructed, conducted, questioned and finalized in complexity with all the obstacles and levers that researchers may encounter.

This issue will be coordinated by researchers from different disciplines (computer science, linguistics, anthropology, psychology) with multiple methods and problematics. The ambition is to open a reflection that would allow the study of science and its practice in a dialogical approach.

This call is open to any contribution combining theory and practice of science in interdisciplinarity. For examples, a reflexive feedback on the building of a project and the articulation of disciplines and its evolution during the project, or studies on the collaborative work of researchers and its evolution in sociology of science, history of science or science studies...

Various questions can be studied:

  • What is the structure of the working group, its dynamics? How does it evolve over time?

  • What is the impact of the multi-, inter- or trans- factor on the organisational, cognitive and even affective aspects?

  • What are the contributions and obstacles linked to the diversity of disciplines, methods, etc.?

  • How do scientists understand these collaborations?

  • What could be the epistemology for interdisciplinarity and other forms of collaborative work?

 

Practical guidelines for submitting proposals

The call is open to proposals in French and English.

Abstracts, in the first step, should be up to 2,000 characters long. Abstracts in pdf format can be submitted until 31 September  2021, by email to Deborah Nourrit (deborah.nourrit@umontpellier.fr)

Once approved, authors must follow the submission process and the journal's editorial requirements (http://jimis.episciences.org/page/auteurs) for the full paper. Articles, no longer than 60,000 characters, are due by 31 December 2021. 

 

Guest editors: Deborah Nourrit (experimental psychology), Guillaume Alévêque (anthropology), Laurent Fauré (linguistics), Anne Laurent (computer science), Thérèse Libourel (computer science)

 

References

Kessel, F. & Rosenfield, P. (2008). Toward transdiciplinary research: historical contemporary perspectives. American Journal of Preventive Medecine, 35 (2), S225-S234.

Laflamme, S. (2011). Recherche interdisciplinaire et réflexion sur l’interdisciplinarité. Nouvelles perspectives en sciences sociales, 7(1), 49–64.

Lenoir Y. (2003). La transdisciplinarité, un phénomène naturel redécouvert mais aussi chargé de prétentions. L’autre Forum : le Journal des professeurs de l’université de Montréal, 7(3), 40-48.

Masters, C., O'Toole, V., Jodon, H. (2013) Multidisciplinary, team-based learnin: the simulated interdisciplinary to multidisciplinary progressive-level education( SIMPLE©) approach. Clinical Simulation in Nursing, 9, 171-178.

Morandino, C., van Doorn, E., MacDonald, N., Johnson, M.,Açma, B., Brevière, E., Campen, H., Caoru, S., Cocco, E., Endres, S., Hilmi, N., Hopkins, F., Liss, P., Maes, F., Martensson, M., Oeffner, J., Oloyede, M., Peters, A., Quack, B., Singh, P., Thomas, H. (2020). From Monodisciplinary via Multidisciplinary to an interdisciplinary approach investigating air-sea interactions- a SOLAS initiative. Coastal Management, 48 (4), 238-256.

Morin E. (1999). Les sept savoirs nécessaires à l’éducation du futur, Unesco, Paris.

Morin E. (2003). Sur l’interdisciplinarité. L’autre Forum : le Journal des professeurs de l’université de Montréal, 7 (3), 5–10.

Nicolescu B. (1996). La transdisciplinarité. Editions du rocher, Monaco.

Piaget J. (1972). The Epistemology of Interdisciplinary Relationships in L. Apostel et al. (dir.), Interdisciplinarity: Problems of Teaching and Research in Universities, Paris, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 127-139.

Resweber J.-P. (2000). Le Pari du Transdisciplinaire, L’Harmattan, Paris.

Rosenfield, P. (1992). The potential of transdiciplinary research for sustaining and sustaining and extending linkages between the health and social sciences. Social Science Medecine, 35 (11), 1343-1357.