Philosophical intervention and cross-disciplinary science: the story of the Toolbox Project

O’Rourke, Michael; Crowley, Stephen

doi:10.1007/s11229-012-0175-y

Cited by 129 publications

(73 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…In their comprehensive literature review, Wagner et al (2011) suggest that a consensus has emerged around the importance of the process of knowledge integration in interdisciplinary projects. The emphasis on integration highlights "the need to bring disparate knowledge regimes together" (O'Rourke and Crowley, 2012). At the same time, integration also represents the "Achilles' heel" of interdisciplinary projects exactly because interdisciplinary modes of research cut across different ontological and epistemological regimes (Repko, 2008).…”

Section: Interdisciplinary Integrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating social sciences and humanities in interdisciplinary research

Pedersen

2016

Palgrave Commun

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Recent attempts to integrate the social sciences and humanities (SSH) in funding for interdisciplinary research have been challenged by a number of barriers. In funding programmes, such as the EU Horizon 2020, the SSH are absent in most calls for contributions. This article revisits the main policy drivers for embedding SSH research in interdisciplinary research. By analysing recent policy initiatives, the article shows how policymakers across the world continue to be ambivalent regarding the role of the SSH. While many stakeholders acknowledge the need to integrate SSH research in solving key societal challenges, such as climate change, migration or national security, funding for SSH is limited and tends to focus on strategic interventions and instrumental solutions. By accounting for the diversity of interdisciplinary collaborations the article recommends a more contextsensitive approach to research funding, which acknowledges the heterogeneity and volatility of research across different knowledge environments. This article is published as part of a thematic collection on the concept of interdisciplinarity.

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Section: Interdisciplinary Integrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating social sciences and humanities in interdisciplinary research

Pedersen

2016

Palgrave Commun

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“…The difficulties and obstacles facing interdisciplinary teams have been well documented, including the challenges of collaborating when team members operate from different epistemologies, use specialized vocabularies, and hold personal values based on divergent worldviews (Ritti 1968, Sands et al 1990, O'Rourke and Crowley 2013. There may also be uneven team dynamics, wherein the natural sciences occupy a privileged position vis-à-vis experts from the social sciences or humanities (Biagioli 2009).…”

Section: Five-feature Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

A simplified approach to stakeholder engagement in natural resource management: the Five-Feature Framework

Talley¹,

Schneider²,

Lindquist³

2016

E&S

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ABSTRACT. We distill complex frameworks for stakeholder engagement into five main principles that scientists and natural resource managers can use in planning stakeholder engagement efforts. Many natural resource management professionals, including practitioners and scholars, increasingly recognize the need for, and potential benefits of, engaging stakeholders in complex decision-making processes, yet the implementation of these efforts varies wildly, reflecting great methodological and conceptual diversity. Given the dynamic and diverse natural resource management contexts in which engagement occurs and the often significant stakes involved in making decisions about natural resources, we argue that stakeholder engagement would benefit from a theoretical framework that is both agile and robust. To this end, five essential elements of stakeholder engagement are evaluated and organized to form the Five-Feature Framework, thereby providing a functional and approachable platform with which to consider engagement processes. Aside from introducing and developing the Five-Feature Framework, we apply the framework as a measure to evaluate the empirical case study literature involving stakeholder engagement in natural resource management in an effort to better understand the obstacles facing robust and genuine engagement in natural resource management. Our results suggest that the most basic principles of engagement are often absent from stakeholder engagement projects, which confirms the need for a functional framework. The Five-Feature Framework can be used to plan flexible, adaptable, and rigorous engagement projects in a variety of contexts and with teams that have varying backgrounds and experience. By virtue of its simplicity and functionality, the framework demystifies stakeholder engagement in order to help natural resource professionals build opportunities for collaborative decision-making and integrate citizen values and knowledge into complex management issues.

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“…This workshop is part of the Toolbox Project, an NSF-funded research effort that aims to understand and facilitate communication and collaboration in cross-disciplinary scientific research (toolbox-project.org). The Toolbox approach is a workshop-based dialogue method that employs philosophical concepts and methods in the form of dialogue prompts to structure conversation among collaborators about their research assumptions [23]. These prompts express views about core scientific concepts, e.g., "Scientific research must be hypothesis driven" and "Validation of evidence requires replication", and collectively the prompts are associated with a Likert scale (1-5/Disagree-Agree).…”

Section: Course Implementationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Teaching Interdisciplinary Sustainability Science Teamwork Skills to Graduate Students Using In-Person and Web-Based Interactions

et al. 2014

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Interdisciplinary sustainability science teamwork skills are essential for addressing the world's most pressing and complex sustainability problems, which inherently have social, natural, and engineering science dimensions. Further, because sustainability science problems exist at global scales, interdisciplinary science teams will need to consist of international members who communicate and work together effectively. Students trained in international interdisciplinary science skills will be able to hit the ground running when they obtain jobs requiring them to tackle sustainability problems. While many universities now have sustainability science programs, few offer courses that are interdisciplinary and international in scope. In the fall semester of 2013, we piloted a course for graduate students entitled "Principles of Interdisciplinary Sustainability Research" at Michigan Technological University. This course was part of our United States National Science Foundation Partnerships in International Research and Education project on bioenergy development impacts across OPEN ACCESS Sustainability 2014, 6 9429 the Americas. In this case study, we describe the course development and implementation, share critical insights from our experience teaching the course and student learning outcomes, and give recommendations for future similar courses.

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Philosophical intervention and cross-disciplinary science: the story of the Toolbox Project

Cited by 129 publications

References 16 publications

Integrating social sciences and humanities in interdisciplinary research

Integrating social sciences and humanities in interdisciplinary research

A simplified approach to stakeholder engagement in natural resource management: the Five-Feature Framework

Teaching Interdisciplinary Sustainability Science Teamwork Skills to Graduate Students Using In-Person and Web-Based Interactions

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