Although the role and management of interdisciplinary research in knowledge development has received plenty of attention in recent years ambiguity remains, often hindering management efforts. To address this issue, this paper provides an integrated review of extant literature on interdisciplinary research. It focuses on integration processes and the main drivers and barriers to different modes of collaborative interdisciplinary research. The authors propose a different approach to considering interdisciplinary integration, based on two factors: the type of knowledge integration; and the durability of the context of that integration.As a result, four modes of interdisciplinary integration are characterized. The authors then consider how different groups of drivers of, and barriers to, interdisciplinary research affect those types of integration. Overall, the paper provides an integrated perspective for researchers, managers and policy-makers concerned with understanding the organization of interdisciplinary research.
In this paper, we explore the ways in which individuals deploy reflexive practices in order to avoid or engage with a call to change either oneself or the social context. We begin by developing a categorization of the modes of reflexive practice associated with avoidance or engagement. We go on to develop -through a relationally reflexive research process -three contributions that build on this. First, we build an understanding of what a repertoire of reflexive practices may include, and 'what is going on' in such reflexive practices. Second, we explain how reflexive practices can be mobilizing, thereby enabling shifts between avoidance and engagement modes, or fix action within a single mode. Third, we develop an understanding of the ways in which emotions and relationships influence how reflexive practices of either kind are deployed.
This paper contributes to the debate on the dynamics of the development of practices and their relation to the emergence of collaborative communities of practitioners. Our research is situated in a university that was seeking to promote and stimulate interdisciplinary research collaborations through a number of initiatives. We are concerned both with characterizing the practices that make this kind of collaboration possible, and with the emergence of a community that creates and endorses such collaborative practices. Our findings provide insights in relation to two particular questions. First, we report on the development of interdisciplinary practices and the emergence of community. Second, we consider how support interventions undertaken by the university stimulated the development of those practices. We develop theoretical and practical insights in these areas.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.