Investigating Interdisciplinary Collaboration

SCOTT FRICKEL is an associate professor of sociology and environment and society at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. He is author of Chemical Consequences: Environmental Mutagens and the Rise of Genetic Toxicology and coeditor of The New Political Sociology of Science and Fields of Knowledge. MATHIEU ALBERT is an associate professor in the department of psychiatry and a scientist in the Wilson Centre for Research in Education at the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada.  BARBARA PRAINSACK is a professor in the department of social science, health and medicine at King’s College London in the United Kingdom. She is the author or coauthor of several books including Solidarity in Biomedicine and Beyond.

"A most welcome contribution, filled with richly detailed case studies conducted by a stellar array of scholars. This volume scrutinizes key assumptions of the case for interdisciplinarity." - Jerry A. Jacobs (U. Pennsylvania, author of In Defense of Disciplines) "Interdisciplinary collaboration has been established as valuable to scientific creativity and vital to bringing knowledge effectively to major public issues. But discussion of what this means and how it works are still too often vague. This book will help, because it offers thoughtful and indeed disciplined case studies of how interdisciplinary collaboration works in practice." - Craig Calhoun (London School of Economics and Political Science) "This high quality volume makes a crucial contribution to our empirical understanding of the worlds of interdisciplinarity at a time when they are generating a great deal of interest from funding agencies, academic administrators and scholars alike. This book should be required reading for all concerned." - Michele Lamont (Harvard University, author of How Professors Think: Inside the Curious World of Academic Judgement) "A most welcome contribution, filled with richly detailed case studies conducted by a stellar array of scholars. This volume scrutinizes key assumptions of the case for interdisciplinarity." - Jerry A. Jacobs (U. Pennsylvania, author of In Defense of Disciplines) "Interdisciplinary collaboration has been established as valuable to scientific creativity and vital to bringing knowledge effectively to major public issues. But discussion of what this means and how it works are still too often vague. This book will help, because it offers thoughtful and indeed disciplined case studies of how interdisciplinary collaboration works in practice." - Craig Calhoun (London School of Economics and Political Science) "This high quality volume makes a crucial contribution to our empirical understanding of the worlds of interdisciplinarity at a time when they are generating a great deal of interest from funding agencies, academic administrators and scholars alike. This book should be required reading for all concerned." - Michele Lamont (Harvard University, author of How Professors Think: Inside the Curious World of Academic Judgement)

• ForewordHelga NowotnyPrefaceScott Frickel, Mathieu Albert, and Barbara PrainsackIntroduction: Investigating InterdisciplinaritiesScott Frickel, Mathieu Albert, and Barbara Prainsack  Part I: Interdisciplinary Cultures and CareersChapter 1: New Directions, New Challenges: Trials and Tribulations of Interdisciplinary ResearchDave McBee and Erin LeaheyChapter 2: The Frictions of Interdisciplinarity: The Case of the Wisconsin Institutes for DiscoveryGregory J. Downey, Noah Weeth Feinstein, Daniel Lee Kleinman, Sigrid Peterson, and Chisato FukudaChapter 3: Epistemic Cultures of Collaboration: Coherence and Ambiguity in InterdisciplinarityLaurel Smith-Doerr, Jennifer Croissant, Itai Vardi, and Timothy SaccoChapter 4: Interdisciplinary Fantasy: Social Scientists and Humanities Scholars Working in Faculties of MedicineMathieu Albert, Elise Paradis, and Ayelet Kuper  Part II: Disciplines and InterdisciplinarityChapter 5: Some Dark Sides of Interdisciplinarity: The Case of Behavior GeneticsAaron PanofskyChapter 6: A Dynamic, Multidimensional Approach to Knowledge ProductionRyan Light and jimi adamsChapter 7: Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Change in Six Social Sciences: A Longitudinal ComparisonScott Frickel and Ali O. Ilhan  Part III: Changing Context of Interdisciplinary ResearchChapter 8: “An Electro-Historical Focus with Real Interdisciplinary Appeal”: Interdisciplinarity at Vietnam-Era StanfordCyrus C.M. ModyChapter 9: Interdisciplinarity Reloaded? Drawing lessons from “Citizen Science”Barbara Prainsack and Hauke RieschChapter 10: One Medicine? Advocating (Inter)disciplinarity at the Interfaces of Animal Health, Human Health and the EnvironmentAngela Cassidy  Notes on Contributors