Threads Milestones and Visions Intersections of Interdisciplinarity And Team Science

1. Threads Milestones and Visions Intersections of Interdisciplinarity And Team Science Julie Thompson Klein Wayne State University

2. Presentism Superficial Nods Disconnects Interdisciplinary Transdisciplinary Team Science Past Present Future Vision

3. The White Rabbit put on his spectacles. “Where shall I begin, please your Majesty” he asked. “Begin at the beginning,” the King said gravely, “and go on till you come to the end: then stop.”

4. Ask a humanist: • Ancient Greece: ideas of synthesis, unity, integration • Tradition of holistic view of knowledge and culture Ask an educator: • Plato’s Academy • Tradition of breadth of knowledge • Rise of general education and core curriculum • Educational Theory: correlation of subjects integrative capacity of individual learner Or, ask a social scientist . . .

5. Problem-oriented Applied research Targeted programs Boundary crossing 1924: first committees to study such topics as interracial relations, scientific aspects of human migration, and the Eighteenth Amendment. Applied Social Science co-operative research mutual interdependence intercommunication

6. Or, ask a scientist .. . . • Manhattan Project • RAF • operations research ; Teamwork Boundary Crossing

7. Borzek & Keys: cooperative research (1944) Lawrence Bass Manual on ID teams (1975) interdisciplinary task force management interdisciplinary attack (1970s) Social Sciences: targeted research bringing together academic experts and local stakeholders in action research (1970s) Interdisciplinary research becoming part of agency profiles: DOD, NSF, NIH, NASA

8. Escalation in the 1980s:Problem and Exogenous Shift 1 OECD: “Communities Have Problems, Universities Have Departments” The University and the Community (1982) Change in demand for interdisciplinarity: • endogenous university interdisciplinarity • interdisciplinary exogenous to the university = weight shifted to university’s social mission = question disciplines on validity of demarcations applied to “real life”

9. Problem and Exogenous Shift 2 International economic competition in science-based fields of high technology Instrumental, Strategic, Opportunity ID Expanding sites of collaboration and boundary crossing Growing size of teams and co-authorships interactive research interprofessionalism boundary work

10. The Ascendancy of Transdisciplinarity

11. Evolution of Transdisciplinarity 1970 OECD Definition “a common system of axioms” overarching synthesis (i.e. anthropology) Emergence of Synthetic Frameworks general systems theory, feminist theory cultural critique, sustainability Discourse of Transcendence Tradition of unity and holism continues CIRET’s approach ground in complexity

12. Milestone of Alignment #1 2000 Zurich conference a “normative turn” regarding real-world problems SPPE, Austrian Landscape Project, German Socio-Ecological Framework and traditions of deliberative democracy Lebenswelt Joint problem solving Participation, Co-production of knowledge Contextualization Socially robust knowledge

13. 1970 1994 2000 2007 2008

14. Milestone of Alignment #2 2006 NCI conference on Team Science A “turning point” in building understanding of the need for transdisciplinary research in heath (Kessel and Rosenfield) Forerunner of SciTS conferences and publications New methodological and conceptual framework for analyzing multiple factors in health and well being transcendent interdisciplinary research 1990s concept of transdisciplinarity in health and social sciences taking hold in development world

16. Vision 1 Making Good on NAS Recommendations Culture change in structure and administration, procedures and policies, resources and infrastructure, recognition and incentives, education Researchers and Faculty members • immersion in language, cultures, and knowledge of collaborators Academic Institutions and Policies • joint programs: industry, government, NGOs • lessons from IDR in industrial and national labs • team-teaching credit

17. Vision 1 Making Good on NAS Recommendations Leaders of Geographically Dispersed Teams and Large Groups: Recommendation #4 Provide activities to develop shared knowledge among all participants, including team professional development opportunities. + shared vocabularies and work routines Public and Private Funders: Recommendation #8 Require authors of proposals for team-based research to include collaboration plans and, for interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary projects, specify how they will foster deep knowledge integration over the life of the research project.

18. Vision 2: Networking Intersecting Resources

19. Vision 2: Networking Intersecting Resources

20. Vision 3: Problem solving or problem choice? = One strand: product innovation, technology development, economic growth knowledge economy, academic capitalism = Another strand: democratic solutions to controversial problems such as sustainability and risks of technological modernizations public good Innovation Marketplace> translates into goods and services Landscape Ecology> translates knowledge about interactions among patterns and processes into designs for change to protect earth’s life-support system long term