Revisiting the Issue of Interdisciplinarity and Disciplinary Distinctions in Social Sciences

Koray Değirmenci

doi:10.26417/ejms.v6i1.p45-50

Abstract

Interdisciplinarity depicts a theoretical and pedagogical approach and a set of academic practices that has been increasingly more popular and widespread. Being more than a general term describing theoretical, pedagogical and institutional activities, interdisciplinarity has radically altered the conception of disciplinary distinctions and caused various disciplines to redefine their symbolic and methodological boundaries. Moreover, academic communities are on the way of changing their symbolic and institutional territories, very solidly defined at times, upon influence of interdisciplinarity. This article focuses on the concept of interdisciplinarity with respect to the relatively long history of disciplinary distinctions and attempts to critically analyze the various definitions of and problematic points regarding the concept.

Highlights

Interdisciplinarity, when it first emerged as a concept, described a more efficient method of education by bringing together the methods and knowledge of different disciplines
In this relatively long historical light of the division of social and human sciences into objective disciplines, this paper aims to problematize interdisciplinarity, to reveal how interdisciplinarity emerges and to reveal the theoretical implications of interdisciplinarity, which is a concrete practice of interrogating traditional disciplinary distinctions
Another difficulty arises from the implementation of integration which fundamentally differs it from multidisciplinarity. This process, which is based on the methodologically and epistemologically consistent analysis of different disciplines, the use of different tools designed for the subject area and the establishment of the basic principles of the interdisciplinary field, undoubtedly presents its own difficulties

Summary

Introduction

Interdisciplinarity, when it first emerged as a concept, described a more efficient method of education by bringing together the methods and knowledge of different disciplines. It is true that the concept of discipline notion tends to define a particular specialty or specialization practice and, in particular, to create 'disciplinary disciplines' with the same specialization practice on the institutional level This is a fairly accurate observation especially in areas such as cultural studies or communication that have begun to take root in the institutional sense. When the basic rationale of interdisciplinarity is understood, it would be clear that this is only a seemingly contradiction, that interdisciplinarity is not merely a discipline of different disciplines, which is to bring the boundaries of these disciplines together In this relatively long historical light of the division of social and human sciences into objective disciplines, this paper aims to problematize interdisciplinarity, to reveal how interdisciplinarity emerges and to reveal the theoretical implications of interdisciplinarity, which is a concrete practice of interrogating traditional disciplinary distinctions

Disciplinary Distinctions in Social Sciences and the Rise of Interdisciplinarity

Some Problems of Interdisciplinarity

Conclusion