Inter- and Transdisciplinary Research: Integration at stake!

For the second time, the Network for Transdisciplinary Research (td-net)[1] organizes, with the Institute of Geography[2] of the University of Berne (Switzerland) and in partnership with the Stiftung Mercator Schweiz[3], an annual conference dedicated to practices, methodologies and epistemologies of inter- and transdisciplinary research and teaching. After having focused on the theme of Problem Framing as a decisive and determining initial phase of the research process (see td-conference 2008[4]), the theme selected for 2009 is Integration, considered as the process of relating knowledge and perspective of the academic and non-academic experts involved in the research.

Such integration can be more or less targeted to an overall synthesis, ranging from mutual exchange and learning about different perspectives to jointly developing a theoretical understanding or a quantitative model of the issue at stake. The status of integration as one of the core elements of inter- and transdisciplinarity explains why the label “Integrative Studies” often figures as a synonym for inter- and transdisciplinary research.

By not only transgressing disciplinary boundaries but including knowledge from academic and non-academic experts, an approach to integration has to support two major integrative moves: first, academic expert knowledge has to be linked to non-academic expert knowledge in ways that are conducive to problem solving and, second, the specific knowledge from highly specialized disciplines has to be made accessible and transferable to concrete life-world contexts.

The td-conference 2009 Integration in Inter- and Transdisciplinary research: Forging Collective Concepts, Methods and Practices — Changing Structures specifically aims to:

• learn about practical experiences of integrating concepts, methods and practices from research and teaching on issues of gender, health, environment, new technologies or science-and-literature/arts, among others;

• self-reflectively address the norm, values and institutional factors that drive and enable or hinder integrative frameworks;

• present and critically discuss theoretical, conceptual and methodological models and “tool kits” for integration;

• collectively forge theories, concepts and practices to integration in inter- and transdisciplinary research.

Abstract proposals can but submitted until June 16, 2009[5].

Provisional program and participation conditions[6].

Illustration: Automania, “Spider Web Gravity Well”, 10.2.2006, Flickr[7] (Creative Commons[8] license).