7 The interdisciplinary research process

Abstract

This book provides case studies of the performance of interdisciplinary research. It is hoped that these case studies will prove instructive both to students and other scholars as they perform interdisciplinary research. This introductory chapter does not provide a detailed overview of these case studies: Brief descriptions of each chapter are provided in the Preface, and a discussion of lessons learned and questions raised is provided in the concluding chapter. Rather, this chapter engages some broad questions regarding the very possibility of identifying superior strategies for performing interdisciplinary research. In doing so, it provides the rationale for the case studies that follow: It is both feasible and desirable to identify interdisciplinary best practices. Is there a best way of doing interdisciplinary research? If so, what is it? Do practicing interdisciplinarians across different fields seem to follow some set of universal practices or strategies? These broad questions drive this chapter. The first section addresses a set of epistemological and practical questions regarding the possibility and advisability of an “interdisciplinary research process.” The second reviews efforts to develop such a process. In particular, it discusses the process outlined in Repko (2008)—in which the chapters in this book are grounded—and how this relates to other suggestions in the scholarly literature regarding an interdisciplinary research process. As various characteristics of the interdisciplinary research process are identified, later chapters that particularly exemplify them are noted.