Logics of interdisciplinarity

Abstract

This paper interrogates influential contemporary accounts of interdisciplinarity, in which it is portrayed as offering new ways of rendering science accountable to society and/or of forging closer relations between scientific research and innovation. The basis of the paper is an eighteen-month empirical study of three interdisciplinary fields that cross the boundaries between the natural sciences or engineering, on the one hand, and the social sciences or arts, on the other. The fields are: 1) environmental and climate change research, 2) ethnography in the IT industry and 3) art-science. In the first part of the paper, in contrast to existing accounts, we question the idea that interdisciplinarity should be understood in terms of the synthesis of two or more disciplines. We stress the forms of agonism and antagonism that often characterize relations between disciplinary and interdisciplinary research, and distinguish between three modes of interdisciplinarity. In the second part we outline three distinctive logics or rationales that guide interdisciplinary research. In addition to the logics of accountability and innovation, we identify the logic of ontology, that is, an orientation apparent in diverse interdisciplinary practices in each of our three fields towards effecting ontological transformation in the objects and relations of research. While the three logics are interdependent, they are not reducible to each other and are differently entangled in each of the fields. We point to the potential for invention in such interdisciplinary practices and, against the equation of disciplinary research with autonomy, to the possibility of forms of interdisciplinary autonomy.     

Giving Peace a Chance: Croatia's Branitelji and the Imperative of Reintegration

This article focuses on ex-combatants (branitelji) in the town of Vukovar. It argues that while veterans currently present an obstacle to inter-ethnic reconciliation, this need not be the case; they can potentially play an important role as peace builders. As a first step, however, they need to be reintegrated into society, and to a large extent this has not yet happened. The purpose of this article is thus to reflect on possible ways of advancing the reintegration process, focusing on the core themes of identity and trauma.     

Not the only game in towns: explaining changes in municipal councils in post-revolutionary Tunisia

This study sheds light on the relationship between local and national elites during political transitions. Examining local councils in post-revolutionary Tunisia (2011–2013), it examines why and when the composition of councils changed in the absence of local elections. The study yields two important lessons. First, changes in councils resulted from a power struggle between national and local elites. Councils were more likely to remain in place when local parties and unions helped council members resist pressures from above. The interplay of local and national actors, and not the council’s competencies, explains when changes took place. Second, all councils became politicized in the process. Far from being caretaker councils impartially addressing local needs, the councils were institutions playing important roles in the struggles between local and national political elites. Councils were arenas in which political power, and notions of legitimate representation, were contested in the absence of elections. The argument is supported by quantitative analyses of original data and four comparative case studies based on qualitative fieldwork. The findings highlight the importance of local councils in transition processes and provide a basis for further work exploring local-national engagement in democratization.     

Recent developments

THE COMPANY EXECUTIVE AND THE LAW, by David Springfield, published by Heinemann. (1970) at £1. 15s. (£3. 3s., hardback). 296 pp.

CONTRACT, by F. R. Davies, published by Sweet and Maxwell (Concise College Texts series) (1970) at £1. 1s. (paperback), 233 pp.

LABOUR ORGANISATIONS: A MACRO AND MICRO SOCIOLOGICAL COMPARISON, by Mark Van de Vall, published by Cambridge University Press (1970) at £2. 15s. 257 pp.

THE LAW OF TORT IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT, by Mary Bell Cairns, published by Shaw &; Sons (2nd. ed., 1970) at £4. 4s. 272 pp.

INDUSTRIAL LAW NOTEBOOK, by Norman M. Selwyn, published by Butterworths (1970) at 12s. 81 pp.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ON THE LAW OF MEETINGS by R.S. Sim, published by Butterworths at 10s. 80 pp.

DECISION ON EUROPE, by Derek H. Hene, published by Jordan &; Sons (1970) at £2. 15s. 224 pp.     

Human dignity in concept and practice

Policy Sciences - Dignity seems to be something that virtually all people want. It is a seminal expression of the human experience that gains authority through the convergent demands of people...     

Under the quasi-judicial state: H-1B employment rights in an era of judicial retrenchment

Foreign workers holding H-1B visas gained recourse to federal employment rights under the Immigration & Nationality Act (INA) for the very first time when Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1990 (IMMACT90). This paper examines H-1B employment rights enforcement under the INA as it has intersected with broader features of the American legal system: what political scientists call judicial retrenchment and the quasi-judicial state. I first show how H-1B rights, already limited by the domestic politics that shaped the IMMACT, became subject to judicial retrenchment when the federal courts confined H-1B disputes under the INA to the quasi-judicial state at the Department of Labor (DOL). I then use published data on DOL investigation outcomes, published and unpublished administrative case records, and judicial cases reviewing agency action to examine the extent to which and how H-1B workers can use the quasi-judicial state to solve workplace problems. My empirical findings contribute to a new understanding of the relationship between rights retrenchment, the judiciary, and the rise of alternatives to court in immigration and employment law and point to possible fine-grained changes for future immigration reform.