Issues in Interdisciplinary Studies Volume 07 (1989)

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https://hdl.handle.net/10323/3972

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Browsing Issues in Interdisciplinary Studies Volume 07 (1989) by Author "Gottlieb, Stephen"

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    Access to Interdisciplinary Information: Setting the Problem
    (Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, 1989) Bailis, Stanley; Gottlieb, Stephen; Klein, Julie Thompson
    Identifying and locating interdisciplinary literature, and ideas and information that reside in different disciplines, poses problems for researchers and students. Using electronic means of access, such as online indexes and abstracts and online library catalogs, has provided more flexibility and reduced the amount of time needed for the search process. But scholars continue to question the completeness of the resources for their interdisciplinary work. In part, the problems are due to structures of disciplinary literature and the various forms of access that support current academic and scholarly publications. Scholars can overcome some of the problems with flexible research approaches congruent with the available tools. More importantly, perhaps, groups of interdisciplinary researchers could initiate the development of a taxonomy and language specific to interdisciplinary study and teaching.
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    Interdisciplinarity and the Canon of Art History
    (Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, 1989) Bailis, Stanley; Gottlieb, Stephen; Klein, Julie Thompson
    With the recent overthrow of the canon of art history, interest in works of art as aesthetic form is being replaced by interest in them as representations of meaning. Not only are methods and theories of disciplines other than art history being used in understanding art; art is being used as data for other disciplines. Must canon shifts lead to interdisciplinarity? Does interdisciplinarity inevitably lead to the end of distinct academic disciplines?
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    Readings: An Invitation
    (Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, 1989) Bailis, Stanley; Gottlieb, Stephen; Klein, Julie Thompson
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    Textuality, Social Science and Society
    (Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, 1989) Bailis, Stanley; Gottlieb, Stephen; Klein, Julie Thompson
    The conflict that exists in our culture between the vocabularies of scientific discourse and of narrative discourse, between positivism and romanticism, objectivism and subjectivism, and between system and lifeworld can be synthesized through a poetics of truth that views social science and society as texts. The metaphor of textuality has two primary elements: semiotics of structure, referring to the syntax and grammar of knowledge and society, and hermeneutics, referring to semantics and pragmatics in the means that are conveyed through performances in specific settings. As this imagery is applied to social practices, it construes selves and societies as emerging from communicative interaction. Textual analysis of society reveals that received forms of knowledge are determined by structures like language, and that these structures are invented through acts of speech. Textuality can be seen as an adequate paradigm for civic communication, since it stresses the agency of speakers and enables us to join explanation of the regulative principles of our systems with understanding of meaning in our lifeworlds.
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    The Loss of Innovation: Peer Review in Multi- and Interdisciplinary Research
    (Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, 1989) Bailis, Stanley; Gottlieb, Stephen; Klein, Julie Thompson
    Multi- and interdisciplinary research, processes of synthesizing new questions and paradigms between two or more fields, are particularly sensitive to inept peer reviewing. This is primarily because: a) such science is difficult to evaluate because it is new; b) evaluation of the results is difficult; c) the grant system favors those who write well; and d) scientists and the public believe that funding should depend upon principle of equal access for equal merit. In reviewing multidisciplinary projects, reviewers must assess each investigator's skill in his/ her particular area, as well as determine that the project head has adequate administrative ability. In reviewing interdisciplinary research, each investigator must be evaluated for secondary competence in the other field(s) as well as in his/her primary field. Moreover, reviewers should also possess appropriate secondary competences. Review of interdisciplinary research must, in addition, take into account methodology of the proposal, clarity of ideas expressed, and closeness of the two (or more) fields. Reviewers of multi- and interdisciplinary research play critical roles in the progress of science and must possess well-educated intuition, flexibility, and sensitivity to their simultaneous responsibilities as guardians of competence and innovation.
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    William Bechtel, Integrating Scientific Disciplines
    (Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, 1989) Bailis, Stanley; Gottlieb, Stephen; Klein, Julie Thompson