
Sustaining Interdisciplinary Collaboration
A Guide for the Academy
University of Illinois Press
Published on 28. March 2017
Book
Paperback/Softback
144 pages
978-0-252-08237-5 (ISBN)
Description
At once a slogan and a vision for future scholarship, interdisciplinarity promises to break through barriers to address today's complex challenges. Yet even high-stakes projects often falter, undone by poor communication, strong feelings, bureaucratic frameworks, and contradictory incentives. This new book shows newcomers and veteran researchers how to craft associations that will lead to rich mutual learning under inevitably tricky conditions. Strikingly candid and always grounded, the authors draw a wealth of profound, practical lessons from an in-depth case study of a multiyear funded project on cultural property. Examining the social dynamics of collaboration, they show readers how to anticipate sources of conflict, nurture trust, and jump-start thinking across disciplines. Researchers and institutions alike will learn to plan for each phase of a project life cycle, capturing insights and shepherding involvement along the way.
Reviews / Votes
"A deeply helpful guide born of careful observation, research, and--especially--firsthand experiences. Every page sparkles with insights and helpful guidance while at the same time presenting what turns into a captivating story. I could easily identify one hundred faculty colleagues desperate to have this book in hand."--Jason Baird Jackson, Director, Mathers Museum of World Cultures at Indiana University Bloomington"Rarely, if ever, have we seen such a clear-eyed ethnography of the political economy of the Western academic workplace. This book should be required reading for anyone who professes to care not just about interdisciplinarity, but about the short- and long-term future of curiosity-driven knowledge as well. Buy a copy for yourself, and then buy one for every administrator in sight. We can and should all recognize ourselves in here and, having done so, we should ask--regardless of discipline--what can be done to challenge the variety of neoliberal practices with which we are complicit in our own research?"--Antoinette Burton, Director, Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities
"Sustaining Interdisciplinary Collaboration is a timely book, perhaps even a necessary book, in the now years-long moment of the most recent rise of interdisciplinarity in academia."--Journal of Folklore Research
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Baltimore
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
1 black & white photograph, 1 line drawing
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 30 mm
Weight
227 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-252-08237-5 (9780252082375)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Regina Bendix | Kilian Bizer | Dorothy Noyes
Sustaining Interdisciplinary Collaboration
A Guide for the Academy
E-Book
03/2017
1st Edition
University of Illinois Press
€32.40
Available for download
Persons
Regina F. Bendix is a professor of cultural anthropology and European ethnology at the University of Goettingen. She is coeditor of the journal Narrative Culture. Kilian Bizer is a professor of economic policy and director of the Center for European Governance and Economic Development Research as well as the Institute for Small Business Economics at the University of Goettingen. Dorothy Noyes is a professor in the departments of English and comparative studies at the Ohio State University. She is the author of Humble Theory: Folklore's Grasp on Social Life.
Content
TitleCopyrightContentsPreface1. The Interdisciplinary Project as Social Form2. Zones, Exchanges, Boundaries, Communities: Thin and Thick Interdisciplinarity3. From Cool Phenomena to Hot Problems Slogans and Stances in the Research Group4. Building Trust and Respecting Suspicion5. Sociability in Social Research: Ritual, Play, and Ambiguity6. Holding Up and Folding Up7. Toward a Sustainable Interdisciplinarity: RecommendationsCodaNotesReferencesIndex