Sustaining Interdisciplinary Collaboration

A Guide for the Academy

Regina Bendix, Kilian Bizer, Dorothy Noyes

• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9780252082375, 9780252040894
• eBook ISBN: 9780252099397
• Topic: Bildung
• Subtopic: Bildung Allgemein

At once a slogan and a vision for future scholarship, interdisciplinarity promises to break through barriers to address today's complex challenges. Yet even high-stakes projects often falter, undone by poor communication, strong feelings, bureaucratic frameworks, and contradictory incentives. This new book shows newcomers and veteran researchers how to craft associations that will lead to rich mutual learning under inevitably tricky conditions. Strikingly candid and always grounded, the authors draw a wealth of profound, practical lessons from an in-depth case study of a multiyear funded project on cultural property. Examining the social dynamics of collaboration, they show readers how to anticipate sources of conflict, nurture trust, and jump-start thinking across disciplines. Researchers and institutions alike will learn to plan for each phase of a project life cycle, capturing insights and shepherding involvement along the way.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• 1. The Interdisciplinary Project as Social Form
• 2. Zones, Exchanges, Boundaries, Communities: Thin and Thick Interdisciplinarity
• 3. From Cool Phenomena to Hot Problems: Slogans and Stances in the Research Group
• 4. Building Trust and Respecting Suspicion
• 5. Sociability in Social Research: Ritual, Play, and Ambiguity
• 6. Holding Up and Folding Up
• 7. Toward a Sustainable Interdisciplinarity: Recommendations
• Coda
• Notes
• References
• Index
• About the Authors