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{{short description|Combination of two or more academic disciplines into one activity}}
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'''Interdisciplinarity''' or '''interdisciplinary studies''' involves the combination of multiple [[academic discipline]]s into one activity (e.g., a research project).<ref>{{cite journal |last=Nissani |first = M. |year=1995 |title=Fruits, Salads, and Smoothies: A Working definition of Interdisciplinarity |journal = The Journal of Educational Thought |volume=29 |issue=2 |pages=121–128 |jstor=23767672 }}</ref> It draws knowledge from several other fields like sociology, anthropology, psychology, economics, etc.  It is about creating something by thinking across boundaries. It is related to an ''[[interdiscipline]]'' or an ''interdisciplinary field,'' which is an organizational unit that crosses traditional boundaries between [[Outline of academic disciplines|academic disciplines]] or [[School of thought|schools of thought]], as new needs and professions emerge. Large [[engineering]] teams are usually interdisciplinary, as a [[power station]] or [[mobile phone]] or other project requires the melding of several specialties. However, the term "interdisciplinary" is sometimes confined to academic settings.

The term ''interdisciplinary'' is applied within education and training pedagogies to describe studies that use methods and insights of several established disciplines or traditional fields of study. Interdisciplinarity involves researchers, students, and teachers in the goals of connecting and integrating several academic schools of thought, professions, or technologies—along with their specific perspectives—in the pursuit of a common task. The [[epidemiology]] of [[HIV/AIDS]] or [[global warming]] requires understanding of diverse disciplines to solve complex problems. ''Interdisciplinary'' may be applied where the subject is felt to have been neglected or even misrepresented in the traditional disciplinary structure of research institutions, for example, [[women's studies]] or ethnic area studies. Interdisciplinarity can likewise be applied to complex subjects that can only be understood by combining the perspectives of two or more fields.

The [[adjective]] ''interdisciplinary'' is most often used in educational circles when researchers from two or more disciplines pool their approaches and modify them so that they are better suited to the problem at hand, including the case of the team-taught course where students are required to understand a given subject in terms of multiple traditional disciplines.  For example, the subject of [[land use]] may appear differently when examined by different disciplines, for instance, [[biology]], [[chemistry]], [[economics]], [[geography]], and [[politics]].

==Development==
Although "interdisciplinary" and "interdisciplinarity" are frequently viewed as twentieth century terms, the concept has historical antecedents, most notably [[Greek philosophy]].<ref name="ausburg">{{cite book |last = Ausburg |first = Tanya |title=Becoming Interdisciplinary: An Introduction to Interdisciplinary Studies |edition=2nd |location = New York |publisher=Kendall/Hunt Publishing |year=2006 }}</ref> [[Julie Thompson Klein]] attests that "the roots of the concepts lie in a number of ideas that resonate through modern discourse—the ideas of a unified science, general knowledge, synthesis and the integration of knowledge",<ref>{{cite book |last = Klein |first = Julie Thompson |title=Interdisciplinarity: History, Theory, and Practice |url = https://archive.org/details/interdisciplinar00kleirich |url-access = registration |location=Detroit|publisher=Wayne State University |year = 1990 }}</ref> while Giles Gunn says that [[Ancient Greece|Greek]] [[historians]] and [[Playwright|dramatists]] took elements from other realms of knowledge (such as [[medicine]] or [[philosophy]]) to further understand their own material.<ref>{{cite book |last = Gunn |first = Giles |chapter=Interdisciplinary Studies |editor-last = Gibaldi |editor-first = J. |title = Introduction to Scholarship in Modern Language and Literatures|chapter-url = https://archive.org/details/introductiontosc00giba |chapter-url-access = registration |location=New York |publisher=Modern Language Association |year=1992 |pages = [https://archive.org/details/introductiontosc00giba/page/239 239–240] |isbn = 978-0873523851 }}</ref> The building of [[Roman roads]] required men who understood [[surveying]], [[material science]], [[logistics]] and several other disciplines. Any broadminded humanist project involves interdisciplinarity, and history shows a crowd of cases, as seventeenth-century Leibniz's task to create a system of universal justice, which required linguistics, economics, management, ethics, law philosophy, politics, and even sinology.<ref>{{cite journal|author=José Andrés-Gallego|title=Are Humanism and Mixed Methods Related? Leibniz's Universal (Chinese) Dream|journal=Journal of Mixed Methods Research|volume=29|issue=2|year=2015|pages=118–132|doi=10.1177/1558689813515332|s2cid=147266697}}</ref>

Interdisciplinary programs sometimes arise from a shared conviction that the traditional disciplines are unable or unwilling to address an important problem. For example, social science disciplines such as [[anthropology]] and [[sociology]] paid little attention to the social analysis of [[technology]] throughout most of the twentieth century. As a result, many social scientists with interests in technology have joined [[science, technology and society]] programs, which are typically staffed by scholars drawn from numerous disciplines. They may also arise from new research developments, such as [[nanotechnology]], which cannot be addressed without combining the approaches of two or more disciplines. Examples include [[quantum information processing]], an amalgamation of [[quantum physics]] and [[computer science]], and [[bioinformatics]], combining [[molecular biology]] with computer science. [[Sustainable development]] as a research area deals with problems requiring analysis and synthesis across economic, social and environmental spheres; often an integration of multiple social and natural science disciplines. Interdisciplinary research is also key to the study of health sciences, for example in studying optimal solutions to diseases.<ref>{{cite journal|author1=J.S. Edge|author2=S.J. Hoffman|author3=C.L. Ramirez|author4=S.J. Goldie|year=2013|title=Research and Development Priorities to Achieve the "Grand Convergence": An Initial Scan of Priority Research Areas for Public Health, Implementation Science and Innovative Financing for Neglected Diseases: Working Paper for the Lancet Commission on Investing in Health|location=London, England|journal=The Lancet|url=http://globalhealth2035.org/sites/default/files/working-papers/goldie-team-rd-cih-working-paper.pdf|access-date=31 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161022180542/http://globalhealth2035.org/sites/default/files/working-papers/goldie-team-rd-cih-working-paper.pdf|archive-date=22 October 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> Some institutions of higher education offer accredited degree programs in Interdisciplinary Studies.

At another level, interdisciplinarity is seen as a remedy to the harmful effects of excessive specialization and isolation in [[information silo]]s. On some views, however, interdisciplinarity is entirely indebted to those who specialize in one field of study—that is, without specialists, interdisciplinarians would have no information and no leading experts to consult. Others place the focus of interdisciplinarity on the need to transcend disciplines, viewing excessive specialization as problematic both epistemologically and politically. When interdisciplinary collaboration or research results in new solutions to problems, much information is given back to the various disciplines involved. Therefore, both disciplinarians and interdisciplinarians may be seen in complementary relation to one another.

==Barriers==
Because most participants in interdisciplinary ventures were trained in traditional disciplines, they must learn to appreciate differences of perspectives and methods. For example, a discipline that places more emphasis on quantitative rigor may produce practitioners who are more scientific in their training than others; in turn, colleagues in "softer" disciplines who may associate quantitative approaches with difficulty grasp the broader dimensions of a problem and lower rigor in theoretical and qualitative argumentation. An interdisciplinary program may not succeed if its members remain stuck in their disciplines (and in disciplinary attitudes). Those who lack experience in interdisciplinary collaborations may also not fully appreciate the intellectual contribution of colleagues from those discipline.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Urbanska|first1=Karolina|last2=Huet|first2=Sylvie|last3=Guimond |first3=Serge |date=4 September 2019 |title = Does increased interdisciplinary contact among hard and social scientists help or hinder interdisciplinary research? |journal=PLOS ONE |language=en|volume=14|issue=9|pages=e0221907|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0221907|pmid=31483810|pmc=6726372|bibcode=2019PLoSO..1421907U|issn=1932-6203 |doi-access=free}}</ref> From the disciplinary perspective, however, much interdisciplinary work may be seen as "soft", lacking in rigor, or ideologically motivated; these beliefs place barriers in the career paths of those who choose interdisciplinary work.  For example, interdisciplinary grant applications are often refereed by [[peer review]]ers drawn from established [[Academic discipline|disciplines]]; interdisciplinary researchers may experience difficulty getting funding for their research. In addition, untenured researchers know that, when they seek [[promotion (rank)|promotion]] and [[tenure]], it is likely that some of the evaluators will lack commitment to interdisciplinarity. They may fear that making a commitment to interdisciplinary research will increase the risk of being denied tenure.

Interdisciplinary programs may also fail if they are not given sufficient autonomy. For example, interdisciplinary faculty are usually recruited to a [[joint appointment]], with responsibilities in both an interdisciplinary program (such as [[women's studies]]) and a traditional discipline (such as [[history]]). If the traditional discipline makes the tenure decisions, new interdisciplinary faculty will be hesitant to commit themselves fully to interdisciplinary work. Other barriers include the generally disciplinary orientation of most scholarly journals, leading to the perception, if not the fact, that interdisciplinary research is hard to publish. In addition, since traditional budgetary practices at most universities channel resources through the disciplines, it becomes difficult to account for a given scholar or teacher's salary and time. During periods of budgetary contraction, the natural tendency to serve the primary constituency (i.e., students majoring in the traditional discipline) makes resources scarce for teaching and research comparatively far from the center of the discipline as traditionally understood. For these same reasons, the introduction of new interdisciplinary programs is often resisted because it is perceived as a competition for diminishing funds.

Due to these and other barriers, interdisciplinary research areas are strongly motivated to become disciplines themselves. If they succeed, they can establish their own research funding programs and make their own tenure and promotion decisions. In so doing, they lower the risk of entry. Examples of former interdisciplinary research areas that have become disciplines, many of them named for their parent disciplines, include [[neuroscience]], [[cybernetics]], [[biochemistry]] and [[biomedical engineering]]. These new fields are occasionally referred to as "interdisciplines". On the other hand, even though interdisciplinary activities are now a focus of attention for institutions promoting learning and teaching, as well as organizational and social entities concerned with education, they are practically facing complex barriers, serious challenges and criticism. The most important obstacles and challenges faced by interdisciplinary activities in the past two decades can be divided into "professional", "organizational", and "cultural" obstacles.<ref>{{cite book |last = Khorsandi |first = Ali Taskoh |title = Interdisciplinary Higher Education; Criticism, Challenges and Obstacles |url = http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1014&context=researchday |date=18 July 2011}}</ref>

==Interdisciplinary studies and studies of interdisciplinarity==
An initial distinction should be made between interdisciplinary studies, which can be found spread across the academy today, and the study of interdisciplinarity, which involves a much smaller group of researchers. The former is instantiated in thousands of research centers across the US and the world. The latter has one US organization, the Association for Interdisciplinary Studies<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.units.muohio.edu/aisorg/ |title = Association for Interdisciplinary Studies Homepage - Association for Interdisciplinary Studies - Oakland University |website = www.units.muohio.edu }}</ref> (founded in 1979), two international organizations, the International Network of Inter- and Transdisciplinarity<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.inidtd.org/ |title = INIT-Home |website = www.inidtd.org |access-date = 15 April 2013 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130531162407/http://www.inidtd.org/ |archive-date = 31 May 2013 |url-status = dead }}</ref> (founded in 2010) and the Philosophy of/as Interdisciplinarity Network<ref>{{cite web |url = http://pin-net.gatech.edu/ |title = PIN / HOME |website = pin-net.gatech.edu |access-date = 15 April 2013 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130616003443/http://pin-net.gatech.edu/ |archive-date = 16 June 2013 |url-status = dead }}</ref> (founded in 2009). The US's research institute devoted to the theory and practice of interdisciplinarity, the Center for the Study of Interdisciplinarity at the University of North Texas, was founded in 2008 but is closed as of 1 September 2014, the result of administrative decisions at the University of North Texas.<ref>{{cite web |title = Center for the Study of Interdisciplinarity |url = https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/unt/csid/20140911224746/http://csid.unt.edu/news.html#closing |website = University of Texas |access-date = 2017-11-26 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171201031129/https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/unt/csid/20140911224746/http://csid.unt.edu/news.html#closing |archive-date = 1 December 2017 |url-status = dead }}</ref>

An '''interdisciplinary study''' is an academic program or process seeking to synthesize broad [[perspective (cognitive)|perspectives]], knowledge, skills, interconnections, and [[epistemology]] in an educational setting. Interdisciplinary programs may be founded in order to facilitate the study of subjects which have some coherence, but which cannot be adequately understood from a single disciplinary perspective (for example, women's studies or [[medievalism|medieval studies]]). More rarely, and at a more advanced level, interdisciplinarity may itself become the focus of study, in a critique of institutionalized disciplines' ways of segmenting knowledge.

In contrast, '''studies of interdisciplinarity''' raise to self-consciousness questions about how interdisciplinarity works, the nature and history of disciplinarity, and the future of knowledge in [[post-industrial society]]. Researchers at the Center for the Study of Interdisciplinarity have made the distinction between philosophy 'of' and 'as' interdisciplinarity, the former identifying a new, discrete area within philosophy that raises epistemological and metaphysical questions about the status of interdisciplinary thinking, with the latter pointing toward a philosophical practice that is sometimes called 'field philosophy'.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/23/experiments-in-field-philosophy/?_r=0 | title = Experiments of Field Psychology | work=Opinionator | date=23 November 2010|last = Frodeman |first = Robert}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Frodeman | first1 = Robert | last2 = Briggle | first2 = Adam | last3 = Holbrook | first3 = J. Britt | year = 2012 | title = Philosophy in the Age of Neoliberalism | journal = Social Epistemology | volume = 26 | issue = 3–4| pages = 311–330 | doi = 10.1080/02691728.2012.722701 | s2cid = 143872826 }}</ref>

Perhaps the most common complaint regarding interdisciplinary programs, by supporters and detractors alike, is the lack of synthesis—that is, students are provided with multiple disciplinary perspectives but are not given effective guidance in resolving the conflicts and achieving a coherent view of the subject. Others have argued that the very idea of synthesis or integration of disciplines presupposes questionable politico-epistemic commitments.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Holbrook | first1 = J. Britt | year = 2013 | title = What is interdisciplinary communication? Reflections on the very idea of disciplinary integration | url = https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc171458/ | journal = Synthese | volume = 190 | issue = 11 | pages = 1865–1879 | doi = 10.1007/s11229-012-0179-7 | s2cid = 8553978 | access-date = 29 January 2019 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151120085356/http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc171458/ | archive-date = 20 November 2015 | url-status = dead }}</ref> Critics of interdisciplinary programs feel that the ambition is simply unrealistic, given the knowledge and intellectual maturity of all but the exceptional undergraduate; some defenders concede the difficulty, but insist that cultivating interdisciplinarity as a habit of mind, even at that level, is both possible and essential to the education of informed and engaged citizens and leaders capable of analyzing, evaluating, and synthesizing information from multiple sources in order to render reasoned decisions.

While much has been written on the philosophy and promise of interdisciplinarity in academic programs and professional practice, social scientists are increasingly interrogating academic discourses on interdisciplinarity, as well as how interdisciplinarity actually works—and does not—in practice.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Barry, A.|author2=G. Born |author3=G. Weszkalnys |name-list-style=amp|year=2008|title= Logics of interdisciplinarity |journal=Economy and Society|volume=37|issue=1|doi=10.1080/03085140701760841|pages=20–49 |s2cid=17283125 |url = http://users.sussex.ac.uk/~ir28/IDR/Barry2008.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author1=Jacobs, J.A.|author2=S. Frickel|name-list-style=amp|year=2009|title=Interdisciplinarity: a critical assessment|journal=Annual Review of Sociology|volume=35|pages=43–65|url=https://proseminarcrossnationalstudies.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/interdisciplinarity_ars_2009.pdf|doi=10.1146/annurev-soc-070308-115954|access-date=31 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161022141520/https://proseminarcrossnationalstudies.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/interdisciplinarity_ars_2009.pdf|archive-date=22 October 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Strathern, M.|year=2004|title=Commons and borderlands: working papers on interdisciplinarity, accountability and the flow of knowledge|location=Wantage|publisher=Sean Kingston Publishing }}</ref> Some have shown, for example, that some interdisciplinary enterprises that aim to serve society can produce deleterious outcomes for which no one can be held to account.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Hall, E.F. |author2=T. Sanders|name-list-style=amp|year=2015 |title=Accountability and the academy: producing knowledge about the human dimensions of climate change|journal=Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute|volume=21|issue=2|pages=438–61|doi=10.1111/1467-9655.12162|doi-access=free|hdl=1807/68882|hdl-access=free}}</ref>

===Politics of interdisciplinary studies===
Since 1998, there has been an ascendancy in the value of interdisciplinary research and teaching and a growth in the number of bachelor's degrees awarded at U.S. universities classified as multi- or interdisciplinary studies. The number of interdisciplinary bachelor's degrees awarded annually rose from 7,000 in 1973 to 30,000 a year by 2005 according to data from the National Center of Educational Statistics (NECS). In addition, educational leaders from the Boyer Commission to Carnegie's President [[Vartan Gregorian]] to [[Alan I. Leshner]], CEO of the [[American Association for the Advancement of Science]] have advocated for interdisciplinary rather than disciplinary approaches to problem-solving in the 21st century.  This has been echoed by federal funding agencies, particularly the [[National Institutes of Health]] under the direction of [[Elias Zerhouni]], who has advocated that grant proposals be framed more as interdisciplinary collaborative projects than single-researcher, single-discipline ones.

At the same time, many thriving longstanding bachelor's in interdisciplinary studies programs in existence for 30 or more years, have been closed down, in spite of healthy enrollment. Examples include Arizona International (formerly part of the [[University of Arizona]]), the School of Interdisciplinary Studies at [[Miami University]], and the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies at [[Wayne State University]]; others such as the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies at [[Appalachian State University]], and [[George Mason University]]'s [[New Century College]], have been cut back. Stuart Henry{{citation needed|date=April 2017}} has seen this trend as part of the [[hegemony]] of the disciplines in their attempt to recolonize the experimental knowledge production of otherwise marginalized fields of inquiry. This is due to threat perceptions seemingly based on the ascendancy of interdisciplinary studies against traditional academia.

==Examples==
* [[Communication science]]: Communication studies takes up theories, models, concepts, etc. of other, independent disciplines such as [[sociology]], [[political science]] and [[economics]] and thus decisively develops them.<ref>[[Christian Schäfer]], Wie viel Politik steckt in der Kommunikationswissenschaft? Zum Stellenwert politikwissenschaftlicher Theorien in der Kommunikationswissenschaft. In: Haschke, Josef F./Moser, André M. (eds.): Politik-Deutsch, Deutsch-Politik: Aktuelle Trends und Forschungsergebnisse. Beiträge zur 6. Fachtagung des DFPK (Düsseldorfer Forum Politische Kommunikation, vol. 1; {{ISSN|2191-8791}}), Berlin: Frank & Timme, pp. 37-58.</ref>
* [[Environmental science]]: Environmental science is an interdisciplinary [[earth science]] aimed at addressing [[environmental issues]] such as [[global warming]] and [[pollution]], and involves the use of a wide range of [[scientific discipline]]s including [[geology]], [[chemistry]], [[physics]], [[ecology]], and [[oceanography]].<ref>"[https://www.seas.harvard.edu/environmental-science-engineering Environmental Science & Engineering]", Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220828064650/https://www.seas.harvard.edu/environmental-science-engineering |date=28 August 2022 }}.</ref> Faculty members of environmental programs often collaborate in interdisciplinary teams to solve complex global environmental problems.<ref>"[https://evsc.as.virginia.edu/research Research]", Department of Environmental Sciences - College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Virginia. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220828064650/https://evsc.as.virginia.edu/research |date=28 August 2022 }}.</ref> Those who study areas of [[environmental policy]] such as [[environmental law]], [[sustainability]], and [[environmental justice]], may also seek knowledge in the environmental sciences to better develop their expertise and understanding in their fields.<ref>"[https://seas.umich.edu/academics/master-science/environmental-policy-and-planning Environmental Policy and Planning]", University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220828064650/https://seas.umich.edu/academics/master-science/environmental-policy-and-planning |date=28 August 2022 }}.</ref>
* [[Knowledge management]]: Knowledge management discipline exists as a cluster of divergent schools of thought under an overarching knowledge management umbrella by building on works in computer science, economics, human resource management, information systems, organizational behavior, philosophy, psychology, and strategic management.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Serenko | first1 = Alexander | year = 2021 | title = A Structured Literature Review of Scientometric Research of the Knowledge Management Discipline: A 2021 Update |url=http://www.aserenko.com/papers/Serenko_Structured_Literature_Review_JKM.pdf |s2cid-access=free | journal = Journal of Knowledge Management | volume = 25 | issue = 8| pages = 1889–1925 | doi = 10.1108/JKM-09-2020-0730 | s2cid = 233907050 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230312140513/http://www.aserenko.com/papers/Serenko_Structured_Literature_Review_JKM.pdf |archive-date= Mar 12, 2023 }}</ref>
* [[Materials science]]: Field that combines the scientific and engineering aspects of materials, particularly [[solid]]s. It covers the design, discovery and application of new materials by incorporating elements of [[physics]], [[chemistry]], and [[engineering]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ashby |first=M. F. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/123358414 |title=Materials : engineering, science, processing and design |date=2007 |publisher=Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann |others=Hugh Shercliff, David Cebon |isbn=978-0-08-047149-5 |location=Oxford |oclc=123358414}}</ref>
* [[Provenance research]]: Interdisciplinary research comes into play when clarifying the path of artworks into public and private art collections and also in relation to human remains in natural history collections.<ref>[[Nils Seethaler]]: The Charité Human Remains Project - interdisciplinary research and restitution of human remains. In: Mitteilungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte, vol. 33, 2012, pp. 103-108.</ref>
* [[Sports science]]: Sport science is an [[interdisciplinary science]] that researches the problems and manifestations in the field of [[sport]] and movement in cooperation with a number of other sciences, such as sociology, ethics, biology, medicine, biomechanics or pedagogy.<ref>Klaus Willimczik: ''Sportwissenschaft interdisziplinär - Geschichte, Struktur und Gegenstand der Sportwissenschaft ''. Geschichte, Struktur und Gegenstand der Sportwissenschaft. Feldhaus Verlag, Hamburg 2001.</ref>
* Transport sciences: Transport sciences are a field of science that deals with the relevant problems and events of the world of transport and cooperates with the specialised legal, ecological, technical, psychological or pedagogical disciplines in working out the changes of place of people, goods, messages that characterise them.<ref>Hendrik Ammoser, Mirko Hoppe: ''[https://tu-dresden.de/bu/verkehr/ivw/ressourcen/dateien/diskuss/2006_2_diskusbtr_iwv.pdf?lang=de Glossary of Transport and Transport Sciences] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221207105715/http://tu-dresden.de/bu/verkehr/ivw/ressourcen/dateien/diskuss/2006_2_diskusbtr_iwv.pdf?lang=de |date=7 December 2022 }}'' (PDF; 1,3&nbsp;MB)'', published in the series ''Discussion Papers from the Institute of Economics and Transport'', [[Technische Universität Dresden]]. Dresden 2006. {{ISSN|1433-626X}}</ref>
* [[Venture research]]: Venture research is an interdisciplinary research area located in the [[human sciences]] that deals with the conscious entering into and experiencing of borderline situations. For this purpose, the findings of [[evolutionary theory]], [[cultural anthropology]], [[social sciences]], [[behavioural research]], [[differential psychology]], [[ethics]] or [[pedagogy]] are cooperatively processed and [[evaluation|evaluated]].<ref>Michael Apter: ''Im Rausch der Gefahr. Why more and more people seek the thrill''. Munich 1994.</ref><ref>Siegbert A. Warwitz: ''Vom Sinn des Wagens. Why people take on dangerous challenges.'' In: German Alpine Association (ed.): ''Berg 2006''. Tyrolia Publishing House. Munich-Innsbruck-Bolzano. P. 96-111.</ref>

==Historical examples==
There are many examples of when a particular idea, almost on the same period, arises in different disciplines. One case is the shift from the approach of focusing on "specialized segments of attention" (adopting one particular perspective), to the idea of "instant sensory awareness of the whole", an attention to the "total field", a "sense of the whole pattern, of form and function as a unity", an "integral idea of structure and configuration". This has happened in painting (with [[cubism]]), physics, poetry, communication and [[educational theory]]. According to [[Marshall McLuhan]], this [[paradigm shift]] was due to the passage from an era shaped by [[mechanization]], which brought sequentiality, to the era shaped by the instant speed of electricity, which brought simultaneity.<ref>[[Marshall McLuhan]] (1964) ''[[Understanding Media]]'', p.13 {{cite web |url=http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/theory/McLuhan-Understanding_Media-I-1-7.html |title=McLuhan: Understanding Media |access-date=4 September 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071011132326/http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/theory/McLuhan-Understanding_Media-I-1-7.html |archive-date=11 October 2007  }}</ref>

==Efforts to simplify and defend the concept==
An article in the ''Social Science Journal'' attempts to provide a simple, common-sense, definition of interdisciplinarity, bypassing the difficulties of defining that concept and obviating the need for such related concepts as [[transdisciplinarity]], pluridisciplinarity, and multidisciplinary:<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Nissani|first=M.|date=1997|title=Ten cheers for interdisciplinarity: The Case for Interdisciplinary Knowledge and Research|journal=Social Science Journal|volume=34|pages=201–216|issue=2|doi=10.1016/S0362-3319(97)90051-3}}</ref>

{{blockquote|To begin with, a discipline can be conveniently defined as any comparatively self-contained and isolated domain of human experience which possesses its own community of experts. Interdisciplinarity is best seen as bringing together distinctive components of two or more disciplines. In academic discourse, interdisciplinarity typically applies to four realms: knowledge, research, education, and theory. Interdisciplinary knowledge involves familiarity with components of two or more disciplines. Interdisciplinary research combines components of two or more disciplines in the search or creation of new knowledge, operations, or artistic expressions. Interdisciplinary education merges components of two or more disciplines in a single program of instruction. Interdisciplinary theory takes interdisciplinary knowledge, research, or education as its main objects of study.}}

In turn, interdisciplinary ''richness'' of any two instances of knowledge, research, or education can be ranked by weighing four variables: number of disciplines involved, the "distance" between them, the novelty of any particular combination, and their extent of integration.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Nissani|first=M.|date=1995|title=Fruits, Salads, and Smoothies: A Working Definition of Interdisciplinarity|url=http://www.uta.edu/faculty/repko/INTS_4391/SMOOTHIE.htm|journal=Journal of Educational Thought|volume=29|pages=119–126|issue=2|access-date=31 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160806082618/http://www.uta.edu/faculty/repko/INTS_4391/SMOOTHIE.htm|archive-date=6 August 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Interdisciplinary knowledge and research are important because:

# "Creativity often requires interdisciplinary knowledge.
# Immigrants often make important contributions to their new field.
# Disciplinarians often commit errors which can be best detected by people familiar with two or more disciplines.
# Some worthwhile topics of research fall in the interstices among the traditional disciplines.
# Many intellectual, social, and practical problems require interdisciplinary approaches.
# Interdisciplinary knowledge and research serve to remind us of the unity-of-knowledge ideal.
# Interdisciplinarians enjoy greater flexibility in their research.
# More so than narrow disciplinarians, interdisciplinarians often treat themselves to the intellectual equivalent of traveling in new lands.
# Interdisciplinarians may help breach communication gaps in the modern academy, thereby helping to mobilize its enormous intellectual resources in the cause of greater social rationality and justice.
# By bridging fragmented disciplines, interdisciplinarians might play a role in the defense of academic freedom."<ref name=":0" />

==Quotations==
{{blockquote|"The modern mind divides, specializes, thinks in categories: the Greek instinct was the opposite, to take the widest view, to see things as an organic whole [...]. The [[Ancient Olympic Games|Olympic games]] were designed to test the [[arete]] of the whole man, not a merely specialized skill [...]. The great event was the [[pentathlon]], if you won this, you were a man. Needless to say, the Marathon race was never heard of until modern times: the Greeks would have regarded it as a monstrosity."<ref>{{cite book |title = The Greeks |url = https://archive.org/details/greeks00kitt |url-access = registration |last = Kitto |first = H.D.F. |publisher = Penguin |year = 1957 |isbn = 978-0140135213 |location = Middlesex |pages = [https://archive.org/details/greeks00kitt/page/173 173–4] }}</ref>}}

{{blockquote|"Previously, men could be divided simply into the learned and the ignorant, those more or less the one, and those more or less the other. But your specialist cannot be brought in under either of these two categories. He is not learned, for he is formally ignorant of all that does not enter into his specialty; but neither is he ignorant, because he is 'a scientist,' and 'knows' very well his own tiny portion of the universe. We shall have to say that he is a learned ignoramus, which is a very serious matter, as it implies that he is a person who is ignorant, not in the fashion of the ignorant man, but with all the petulance of one who is learned in his own special line."<ref>{{cite book |title = The Revolt of the Masses|last = Ortega y Gasset |first = José|publisher = New American Library|year = 1932|location = New York}}</ref>}}

{{blockquote|"It is the custom among those who are called 'practical' men to condemn any man capable of a wide survey as a visionary: no man is thought worthy of a voice in politics unless he ignores or does not know nine-tenths of the most important relevant facts."<ref>{{cite book |url=http://drnissani.net/MNISSANI/pagepub/NR.html |title=Lives in the Balance: the Cold War and American Politics, 1945-1991 |author1=Bertrand Russell |author2=Nissani, M. |publisher=Hollowbrook |year=1992 |isbn=978-0893416591 |access-date=15 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161019052230/http://drnissani.net/MNISSANI/pagepub/NR.html |archive-date=19 October 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref>}}

==See also==
{{div col}}
* [[Commensurability (philosophy of science)]]
* [[Double degree]]
* [[Encyclopedism]]
* [[Holism]]
* [[Holism in science]]
* [[Integrative learning]]
* [[Interdiscipline]]
* [[Interdisciplinary arts]]
* [[Interdisciplinary teaching]]
* [[Interprofessional education]]
* [[Meta-functional expertise]]
* [[Methodology]]
* [[Polymath]]
* [[Science of team science]]
* [[Social ecological model]]
* [[Science and technology studies]] (STS)
* [[Synoptic philosophy]]
* [[Systems theory]]
* [[Thematic learning]]
* Periodic table of human sciences in [[Tinbergen's four questions]]
* [[Transdisciplinarity]]
{{div col end}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite journal | last1 = Alderman | first1 = Harold | author-link3 = Lawrence Haddad | last2 = Chiappori | first2 = Pierre Andre | last3 = Haddad | first3 = Lawrence | last4 = Hoddinott | first4 = John |author-link4=John Hoddinott (economist) | year = 1995| title = Unitary Versus Collective Models of the Household: Time to Shift the Burden of Proof? | journal = World Bank Research Observer | volume = 10 | issue = 1| pages = 1–19 | doi=10.1093/wbro/10.1.1}}
* {{cite book|author=Augsburg, Tanya|year=2005|title=Becoming Interdisciplinary: An Introduction to Interdisciplinary Studies|publisher=Kendall/Hunt}}
* [https://interdisciplinarystudies.org/ Association for Interdisciplinary Studies]
* {{cite book|author=Bagchi, Amiya Kumar|year=1982|title=The Political Economy of Underdevelopment|url=https://archive.org/details/politicaleconomy0000bagc|url-access=registration|location=New York|publisher= Cambridge University Press}}
* {{cite book|author=Bernstein, Henry|year=1973|chapter=Introduction: Development and The Social Sciences|editor=Henry Bernstein |title=Underdevelopment and Development: The Third World Today|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/underdevelopment0000bern|chapter-url-access=registration|location=Harmondsworth|publisher=Penguin|pages=[https://archive.org/details/underdevelopment0000bern/page/13 13–30]|isbn=9780140807233 }}
* [https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc406372/ Center for the Study of Interdisciplinarity]
* [http://www.manchester.ac.uk/cidra/ Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in the Arts (University of Manchester)]
* {{Citation | last1 = Chambers | first1 = Robert | author-link = Robert Chambers (development scholar) | contribution = Qualitative approaches: self-criticism and what can be gained from quantitative approaches | editor-last = Kanbur | editor-first = Ravi | editor-link = Ravi Kanbur | title = Qual–quant: qualitative and quantitative poverty appraisal - complementaries, tensions, and the way forward | pages = 22–25 | publisher = Cornell University | location = Ithaca, New York | year = 2001 | url = http://www.arts.cornell.edu/poverty/kanbur/QQZ.pdf | postscript = .}}
* {{cite journal | last1 = Chubin | first1 = D. E. | year = 1976 | title = The conceptualization of scientific specialties | journal = The Sociological Quarterly | volume = 17 | issue = 4 | pages = 448–476 | doi=10.1111/j.1533-8525.1976.tb01715.x }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070513110836/http://www.cfis.ubc.ca/ College for Interdisciplinary Studies, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada]
* {{cite book |author1=Callard, Felicity |author2=Fitzgerald, Des |year=2015|title=Rethinking Interdisciplinarity across the Social Sciences and Neurosciences |location=Basingstoke |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan }}
* {{cite web |author1=Davies. M.|author2=Devlin, M. |year=2007 |title=Interdisciplinary Higher Education: Implications for Teaching and Learning |publisher=Centre for the Study of Higher Education, The University of Melbourne |url = http://www.cshe.unimelb.edu.au/pdfs/InterdisciplinaryHEd.pdf |access-date=7 November 2007|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071202175644/http://www.cshe.unimelb.edu.au/pdfs/InterdisciplinaryHEd.pdf|archive-date=2 December 2007|url-status=dead}}
* Frank, Roberta: [https://oakland.edu/Assets/upload/docs/AIS/Issues-in-Interdisciplinary-Studies/1988-Volume-06/06_Vol_6_pp_139-151_Interdisciplinary_The_First_Half_Century_(Roberta_Frank).pdf {{"'}}Interdisciplitarity': The First Half Century"], ''Issues in Integrative Studies 6'' (1988): 139-151.
* {{cite journal|author1=Frodeman, R.|author2=Mitcham, C.|title=New Directions in Interdisciplinarity: Broad, Deep, and Critical|journal=Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society|volume=27|date=Fall 2007|number=6|pages=506–514|doi=10.1177/0270467607308284|s2cid=145008466}}
* {{cite journal | last1 = Franks | first1 = D. | last2 = Dale | first2 = P. | last3 = Hindmarsh | first3 = R. | last4 = Fellows | first4 = C. | last5 = Buckridge | first5 = M. | last6 = Cybinski | first6 = P. | year = 2007 | title = Interdisciplinary foundations: reflecting on interdisciplinarity and three decades of teaching and research at Griffith University, Australia | journal = Studies in Higher Education | volume = 32 | issue = 2| pages = 167–185 | doi = 10.1080/03075070701267228 | s2cid = 144173921 }}
* Frodeman, R., Klein, J.T., and Mitcham, C. ''Oxford Handbook of Interdisciplinarity''. Oxford University Press, 2010.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20200630060710/https://evergreen.edu/ The Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington]
* Gram Vikas (2007) Annual Report, p.&nbsp;19.
* {{cite journal | last1 = Granovetter | first1 = Mark | year = 1985 | title = Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness | url = http://www.ntpu.edu.tw/social/upload/P_320080917150621.pdf | journal = The American Journal of Sociology | volume = 91 | issue = 3 | pages = 481–510 | doi = 10.1086/228311 | s2cid = 17242802 | access-date = 2017-10-25 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140802151525/http://www.ntpu.edu.tw/social/upload/P_320080917150621.pdf | archive-date = 2 August 2014 | url-status = dead}}
* [http://www.shef.ac.uk/philosophy/department/hangseng/ Hang Seng Centre for Cognitive Studies]
* {{cite journal | last1 = Harriss | first1 = John | year = 2002 | title = The Case for Cross-Disciplinary Approaches in International Development | journal = World Development | volume = 30 | issue = 3 | pages = 487–496 | doi=10.1016/s0305-750x(01)00115-2}}
* {{cite journal | last1 = Henry | first1 = Stuart | year = 2005 | title = Disciplinary hegemony meets interdisciplinary ascendancy: Can interdisciplinary/integrative studies survive, and if so how? | url = https://our.oakland.edu/bitstream/handle/10323/4435/03_Vol_23_pp_1_37_Disciplinary_Hegemony_Meets_Interdisciplinary_Ascendancy_Can_Interdisciplinary_Integrative_Studies_Survive,_and_If_So,_How_(Stuarty_Henry).pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y | journal = Issues in Integrative Studies | volume = 23 | pages = 1–37 }}
* Indiresan, P.V. (1990) ''Managing Development: Decentralisation, Geographical Socialism And Urban Replication''. India: Sage
* [http://www.colum.edu/interarts/ Interdisciplinary Arts Department, Columbia College Chicago]
* [https://www.science.org/content/article/interdisciplinarity-and-tenure/ Interdisciplinarity and tenure/]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100805205655/http://www.pz.harvard.edu/interdisciplinary/ Interdisciplinary Studies Project, Harvard University School of Education, Project Zero]
* {{cite journal | last1 = Jackson | first1 = Cecile | year = 2002 | title = Disciplining Gender? | journal = World Development | volume = 30 | issue = 3| pages = 497–509 | doi=10.1016/s0305-750x(01)00113-9}}
* {{cite journal|author1=Jacobs, J.A.|author2=Frickel, S.|year=2009|title=Interdisciplinarity: A Critical Assessment|journal=Annual Review of Sociology|volume=35|pages=43–65|url=http://proseminarcrossnationalstudies.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/interdisciplinarity_ars_2009.pdf|doi=10.1146/annurev-soc-070308-115954}}
* {{cite journal | last1 = Johnston | first1 = R | year = 2003 | title = Integrating methodologists into teams of substantive experts | url = https://www.cia.gov/csi/kent_csi/pdf/v47i1a06p.pdf | journal = Studies in Intelligence | volume = 47 | issue = 1 | access-date = 8 August 2006 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060810192438/https://www.cia.gov/csi/kent_csi/pdf/v47i1a06p.pdf | archive-date = 10 August 2006 | url-status = dead}}
* {{Cite journal | last = Kanbur | first = Ravi | author-link = Ravi Kanbur | title = Economics, social science and development | journal = World Development | volume = 30 | issue = 3 | pages = 477–486 | doi = 10.1016/S0305-750X(01)00117-6 | date = March 2002 | hdl = 1813/57796 | url = http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/127666/files/Cornell_Dyson_wp0119.pdf }}
* {{Citation | last1 = Kanbur | first1 = Ravi | author-link = Ravi Kanbur | contribution = Q-squared?: a commentry on qualitative and quantitative poverty appraisal | editor-last = Kanbur | editor-first = Ravi | editor-link = Ravi Kanbur | title = Q-squared, combining qualitative and quantitative methods in poverty appraisal | pages = 2–27 | publisher = Permanent Black Distributed by Orient Longman | location = Delhi Bangalore | year = 2003 | isbn = 9788178240534 | postscript = .}}
* {{cite book|author=Kaplan Andreas|year=2021|editor=Emerald|title=Higher Education at the Crossroads of Disruption: the University of the 21st Century|url=https://books.emeraldinsight.com/page/detail/Higher-Education-at-the-Crossroads-of-Disruption/?k=9781800715042}}
* Klein, Julie Thompson (1996) ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=bNJvYf3ROPAC&q=interdisciplinarity Crossing Boundaries: Knowledge, Disciplinarities, and Interdisciplinarities]'' (University Press of Virginia)
* Klein, Julie Thompson (2006) "[https://www.oakland.edu/Assets/upload/docs/AIS/Klein_Resource_Review.pdf Resources for interdisciplinary studies]." ''Change'', (Mark/April). 52–58
* {{cite journal | last1 = Kleinberg | first1 = Ethan | author-link = Ethan Kleinberg | year = 2008 | title = Interdisciplinary studies at the crossroads | journal = Liberal Education | volume = 94 | issue = 1| pages = 6–11 }}
* Kockelmans, Joseph J. editor (1979) ''Interdisciplinarity and Higher Education'', [[The Pennsylvania State University Press]] {{ISBN|9780271038261}}.
* {{cite journal | last1 = Lipton | first1 = Michael | year = 1970 | title = Interdisciplinary Studies in Less Developed Countries | journal = Journal of Development Studies | volume = 7 | issue = 1| pages = 5–18 | doi=10.1080/00220387008421343}}
* Yifang Ma, [[Roberta Sinatra]], Michael Szell, [https://arxiv.org/abs/1811.00286/ Interdisciplinarity: A Nobel Opportunity, November 2018]
* Gerhard Medicus [https://www.uibk.ac.at/psychologie/humanethologie/einfuehrung-in-die-humanethologie/medicus/ Interdisciplinarity in Human Sciences (Documents No. 6, 7 and 8 in English)]
* Moran, Joe. (2002). Interdisciplinarity.
* [https://gallatin.nyu.edu/ NYU Gallatin School of Individualized Study, New York, NY]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090303022959/http://www.povertyactionlab.org/research/rand.php Poverty Action Lab]
* {{Citation | last1 = Ravallion | first1 = Martin | contribution = Can qualitative methods help quantitative poverty | editor-last = Kanbur | editor-first = Ravi | title = Q-squared, combining qualitative and quantitative methods in poverty appraisal | pages = 58–67 | publisher = Permanent Black Distributed by Orient Longman | location = Delhi Bangalore | year = 2003 | isbn = 9788178240534 }}
* Rhoten, D. (2003). [https://web.archive.org/web/20060524060847/http://www.hybridvigor.net/interdis/pubs/hv_pub_interdis-2003.09.29.pdf A multi-method analysis of the social and technical conditions for interdisciplinary collaboration].
* [https://socialecology.uci.edu/ School of Social Ecology at the University of California, Irvine]
* {{cite journal | last1 = Schuurman | first1 = F.J. | year = 2000 | title = Paradigms Lost, paradigms regained? Development studies in the twenty-first century | journal = Third World Quarterly | volume = 21 | issue = 1 | pages = 7–20 | doi=10.1080/01436590013198| s2cid = 145181997 }}
* {{cite book | last = Sen | first = Amartya | author-link = Amartya Sen | title = Development as freedom | publisher = Oxford University Press | location = New York | year = 1999 | isbn = 9780198297581 }}
* Siskin, L.S. & Little, J.W. (1995). The Subjects in Question. Teachers College Press. about the departmental organization of high schools and efforts to change that.
* [[Joseph Stiglitz|Stiglitz, Joseph]] (2002) Globalisation and its Discontents, United States of America, W.W. Norton and Company
* Sumner, A and M. Tribe (2008) International Development Studies: Theories and Methods in Research and Practice, London: Sage
* Thorbecke, Eric. (2006) "The Evolution of the Development Doctrine, 1950–2005". UNU-WIDER Research Paper No. 2006/155. United Nations University, World Institute for Development Economics Research
* [http://learningforsustainability.net/research/interdisciplinary.php Trans- & inter-disciplinary science approaches]- A guide to on-line resources on integration and trans- and inter-disciplinary approaches.
* [https://www.truman.edu/majors-programs/majors-minors/interdisciplinary-studies-program/ Truman State University's Interdisciplinary Studies Program]
* {{cite news |last = Waldman |first = Amy |year=2003 |title = Distrust Opens the Door for Polio in India |url = https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C03E5D81430F93AA25752C0A9659C8B63&sec=health&spon=&pagewanted=all|access-date=4 November 2008 |newspaper=The New York Times }}
* Peter Weingart and Nico Stehr, eds. 2000. ''Practicing Interdisciplinarity'' (University of Toronto Press)
* {{cite book|author1=Peter Weingart|author2=Britta Padberg|title=University Experiments in Interdisciplinarity: Obstacles and Opportunities|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=73NEBQAAQBAJ&pg=PP1|date=30 April 2014|publisher=transcript Verlag|isbn=978-3-8394-2616-6}}
* {{cite journal | last1 = White | first1 = Howard | year = 2002 | title = Combining Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches in Poverty Analysis | journal = World Development | volume = 30 | issue = 3| pages = 511–522 | doi=10.1016/s0305-750x(01)00114-0}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Interdisciplinary fields}}
* [https://interdisciplinarystudies.org Association for Interdisciplinary Studies]
* ''[https://www.bu.edu/sociology/files/2011/03/nsf-workshop-report.pdf National Science Foundation Workshop Report: Interdisciplinary Collaboration in Innovative Science and Engineering Fields]''
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090210034617/http://www.interdisciplines.org/interdisciplinarity ''Rethinking Interdisciplinarity'' online conference], organized by the [http://www.institutnicod.org Institut Nicod], CNRS, Paris [broken]
* [https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc406372/ Center for the Study of Interdisciplinarity] at the University of North Texas
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090207204519/http://www.revuelabyrinthe.org/ ''Labyrinthe. Atelier interdisciplinaire''], a journal (in French), with a special issue on [https://web.archive.org/web/20090208010853/http://www.revuelabyrinthe.org/sommaire1593.html ''La Fin des Disciplines?'']
* [http://www.rupkatha.com ''Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities: An Online Open Access E-Journal''], publishing articles on a number of areas
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070927185937/http://www.afscet.asso.fr/resSystemica/V4-2004/entete-2004.html Article about interdisciplinary modeling] (in French with an English abstract)
* Wolf, Dieter. [https://web.archive.org/web/20120309010605/http://www.dieterwolf.net/pdf/Unity_of_Knowledge_1.pdf Unity of Knowledge], an interdisciplinary project
* [[Soka University of America]] has no disciplinary departments and emphasizes interdisciplinary concentrations in the Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences, International Studies, and Environmental Studies.
* [http://www.systemsX.ch/ SystemsX.ch – The Swiss Initiative in Systems Biology]
* [https://emberpublishinghouse.wordpress.com/2020/05/29/tackling-your-inner-5-year-old/ Tackling Your Inner 5-Year-Old: Saving the world requires an interdisciplinary perspective]
{{-}}
{{Engineering fields}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Academia]]
[[Category:Academic discipline interactions]]
[[Category:Knowledge]]
[[Category:<!--Professions-->Occupations]]
[[Category:Pedagogy]]
[[Category:Philosophy of education]]