Interdisciplinary Research as a Complicated System

Abstract

Notwithstanding the rapidly growing body of literature on interdisciplinary research, several of the crucial dynamics in interdisciplinary research systems remain poorly understood and undertheorized. To this effect we seek to provide a ‘fundamental’ ontology of interdisciplinary research systems. We principally understand an interdisciplinary research system as a complex system consisting of researchers from different disciplines that have undergone a pseudomorphosis (i.e. a false formation) into a complicated system through the formation of a central organizing principle. The central organizing principle provides a stricter definition of the research problem and subsequently coalesces the intentionality of system agents through a unification of their disparate aims and methodologies. This pseudomorphosis is thereby associated with an exchange of individual freedom for organizational utility resulting in internal tensions which are, we argue, most prominently expressed in the interplay of epistemic incompatibilities between disciplines. We explore three frameworks for successfully navigating these incompatibilities: circumvention, which is based on avoidance of areas of disciplinary incompatibility; pragmatism, which is based on ignoring areas of compatibility; and disciplinary synthesis which involves a paradigm shift in researchers’ understanding of their disciplinary propositions resolving perceived incompatibilities. It is anticipated that this paper may be of benefit to researchers and organizers seeking to effectively structure interdisciplinary research projects, specifically in terms of framing the research problem and the modes of inquiry, and in structuring the interdisciplinary research team.