Habits of the Mind: Challenges for Multidisciplinary Engagement

Strober, Myra H.

doi:10.1080/02691720600847324

Cited by 45 publications

(60 citation statements)

References 8 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The exchanges comprised individual researchers leading an informal discussion about their research. Strober's (2006) study of academic seminars as a means of fostering conversations across disciplines influenced the choice of this intervention. As the number attending the inspirational exchanges grew, however, they transformed into lectures, reducing opportunities for informal discussions.…”

Section: Social Interactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Critical Evaluation of Interventions to Progress Transdisciplinary Research

Buizer

Ruthrof

Moore

et al. 2015

Society & Natural Resources

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Social Interactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Critical Evaluation of Interventions to Progress Transdisciplinary Research

Buizer

Ruthrof

Moore

et al. 2015

Society & Natural Resources

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Being a fox -able to devise many strategies for research -rather than a hedgehog [34] -using a single effective strategy through one's career -potentially contributes to an interest in and ability to undertake interdisciplinary research [8]. Academics to be successful, however, 'must all be certified hedgehogs before they can be foxes' ( [8], 324).…”

Section: What Made Interdisciplinary Research Possible?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Academics to be successful, however, 'must all be certified hedgehogs before they can be foxes' ( [8], 324). Most, in the United States and elsewhere, obtain their reputation and professional standing through relatively narrow specializations.…”

Section: What Made Interdisciplinary Research Possible?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A recent report by the National Institute of Medicine suggested that 'Some parts *Address correspondence to this author at the School of Environmental Science, Murdoch University, South Street, Murdoch WA 6150 Australia; Tel: +618 9360 6484; E-mail: S.Moore@murdoch.edu.au of the scientific frontier require…the mobilization of interdisciplinary research teams…increasingly, investigators will need to integrate knowledge…And greater prominence must be given to research in the behavioral and social sciences' ( [8], 316). Bridging the traditional divides among the social, natural, behavioral and engineering sciences has also been noted as one of the great intellectual challenges of this century [10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Interdisciplinary Ecotourism Research: Insights and Issues for Conservation Biology

Moore¹,

Newsome²,

Rodger³

et al. 2009

TOCONSBJ

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A continuing interest in interdisciplinary research characterizes conservation biology. This interest is a response in large part to the increasingly complex problems facing society. Analysis of recent ecotourism research, as an interdisciplinary enterprise, offers insights. As such, this paper analyses two projects -the social and ecological impacts of visitors to the south-western Australian forests, and of interactions between visitors and sea lions off the west coast of Australia. Analysis centers on issues of central concern for interdisciplinary research in conservation biology: poorly defined terms, lack of common goals, unclear or missing conceptual framework, insufficiently explained methods, and a lack of new knowledge achieved through integration. From the reviewed studies, interdisciplinary research appeared possible because the researchers used strategies from more than one discipline while adopting the paradigmatic position of ecology. Unresolved issues were how to work with potentially conflicting epistemologies and methodologies, and rewarding interdisciplinary research.

show abstract

“…Their success-and thus the success of the organizations they work for-is dependent on the particular set of skills that they have at their disposal, but in most cases, the decision of which skills to acquire is made by individuals, rather than organizations. The perception is that these workers choose to become more specialized as the problems they face become more complex (Strober (2006)) . This perception has generated a countervailing tide of money and institutional attention focused on promoting interdisciplinary efforts.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Specialists and generalists: Equilibrium skill acquisition decisions in problem-solving populations

Anderson

2012

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Many organizations rely on the skills of innovative individuals to create value, including academic and government institutions, think tanks, and knowledgebased firms. Roughly speaking, workers in these fields can be divided into two categories: specialists, who have a deep knowledge of a single area, and generalists, who have knowledge in a wide variety of areas. In this paper, I examine an individual's choice to be a specialist or generalist. My model addresses two questions: first, under what conditions does it make sense for an individual to acquire skills in multiple areas, and second, are the decisions made by individuals optimal from an organizational perspective? I find that when problems are single-dimensional, and disciplinary boundaries are open, all workers will specialize. However, when there are barriers to working on problems in other fields, then there is a tradeoff between the depth of the specialist and the wider scope of problems the generalist has available. When problems are simple, having a wide variety of problems makes it is rational to be a generalist. As these problems become more difficult, though, depth wins out over scope, and workers again tend to specialize. However, that decision is not necessarily socially optimal-on a societal level, we would prefer that some workers remain generalists.

show abstract

Habits of the Mind: Challenges for Multidisciplinary Engagement

Cited by 45 publications

References 8 publications

A Critical Evaluation of Interventions to Progress Transdisciplinary Research

A Critical Evaluation of Interventions to Progress Transdisciplinary Research

Interdisciplinary Ecotourism Research: Insights and Issues for Conservation Biology

Specialists and generalists: Equilibrium skill acquisition decisions in problem-solving populations

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About