Table Of ContentOutside the Lines
Issues in Interdisciplinary Research
Starting from the premise that interdisciplinarity plays a critical
role in the research community, Outside the Lines explores the
nature and practice of interdisciplinary research in Canada.
The authors, aided by contributions from others active in the
field, address the ways in which interdisciplinarity is defined, posi-
tioned, and handled by researchers, universities, and critics, and
examine such topics as "myths" of interdisciplinarity, postmodern
critiques of interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity and research grant
allocation, women's studies, Canadian studies, environmental
studies, and "emerging" disciplines.
Outside the Lines combines a theoretical examination of discipli-
narity and interdisciplinarity as forms of knowledge production
and organization with practical information about the basic dif-
ficulties and conundrums involved in the practice of interdiscipli-
nary research.
LIORA SALTER is professor and director of graduate studies,
Osgoode Hall Law School, and is cross-appointed to environmen-
tal studies, York University.
ALISON HEARN is part-time professor of cultural studies, Trent
University.
This page intentionally left blank
Outside the Lines
Issues in Interdisciplinary Research
LIORA SALTER AND
ALISON HEARN
McGill-Queen's University Press
Montreal & Kingston • London • Buffalo
McGill-Queen's University Press 1996
ISBN 0-7735-1438-4
Legal deposit fourth quarter 1996
Bibliotheque nationale du Quebec
Printed in the United States on acid-free paper
McGill-Queen's University Press is grateful to the
Canada Council for support of its publishing program.
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Main entry under title:
Outside the lines : issues in interdisciplinary research.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7735-1438-4
i. Interdisciplinary research, i. Salter, Liora. n. Hearn,
Alison Mary Virginia, in. Social Sciences and
Humanities Research Council of Canada.
0180.55.148097 1997 001.4 096-990030-9
Typeset in Palatino 10/12
by Caractera inc., Quebec City
Contents
Preface vii
Introduction 3
1 Disciplines 16
2 Interdisciplinarity 26
3 The Experience of Interdisciplinarity 44
Perseverance, Pictures, and Parts
ELLEN BALKA / 46
"Agency" and "Agencies," or Interdisciplinarities
I Have Known
CAROLINE ANDREW / 52
On Finding One's Way in the Uncharted Swamps of
Interdisciplinarity
MARGRIT EICHLER / 58
4 The Practice of Interdisciplinarity 63
Computer Music and Acoustic Communication:
Two Emerging Interdisciplines
BARRY TRUAX / 64
(Re)producing Interdisciplinarity: Social Studies of Medicine at
McGill
ALBERTO CAMBROSIO / 73
Thirty-Five Years on the Beaver Patrol: Canadian Studies as
Collective Scholarly Activity
JILL VICKERS / 78
vi Contents
Falling between Schools: Some Thoughts on the Theory and
Practice of Interdisciplinarity
JOHN B. ROBINSON / 85
5 Bridging Two Cultures 93
Easier Said Than Done: Biologists, Ergonomists, and
Sociologists Collaborate to Study Health Effects of the Sexual
Division of Labour
KAREN MESSING / 95
Surveying an Interdisciplinary CASM
STEPHEN E. FIENBERG and JUDITH M. TANUR / 1O2
Interdisciplinarity and the Ethics of Health Science Research on
Human Subjects in Canada
JUDITH MILLER / 109
6 Evaluating Interdisciplinarity 118
An Interdisciplinary Committee within a Disciplinary Research
Funding Structure: The Experience of the First Two Years
GERDA R. WEKERLE / 121
Networks of Centres of Excellence: Opportunities for
Interdisciplinarity
ELAINE ISABELLE / 129
7 Changing the Map 136
8 Charting New Territories 158
9 Conclusion 173
Notes 185
Bibliography 193
Contributors 209
Preface
Good things take time, as dealing with interdisciplinary research
should teach us. This book has certainly taken a long time. It began
as a report undertaken at our initiative, with support from the then
President of the Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada
(SSHRC), Dr Paule Leduc, and the Executive Director, Dr Louise
Dandurand. We appreciate their support. SSHRC has been, and con-
tinues to be in the case of Dr Dandurand, well served by their efforts
in every regard.
When the report was submitted, a seminar was scheduled with
senior staff of SSHRC. It was suggested about this time that the report
should reach a much wider audience. After all, the book deals with
problems that interdisciplinary researchers face all the time, and not
with the administrative problems of a funding council or the univer-
sities. These problems are not resolved with a few reforms, no matter
how well intentioned and occasionally far-reaching they might be.
A report does not make a good book. Major revisions were called
for, and they were made. The report was intended as a dialogue; we
invited colleagues to join us and make this dialogue a real one. Their
contributions required yet another rethinking, since a dialogue does
not translate well into the pages of a book; transcribed interviews
and conference proceedings are excellent examples of the pitfalls of
moving lively dialogue onto the cold surface of the written page.
There were also many reviewers along the route. Now, some years
later, we finally have a book.
viii Preface
Of course some things have changed. Let us take some credit for
a few of these changes, and for some of the discussions of interdis-
ciplinarity in various universities across Canada. The environment is
much more welcoming of interdisciplinarity than it was even a few
years ago, and there is more experience with handling the problems
raised by interdisciplinary research.
Let us also say that, even now, many people still assume that
interdisciplinarity and team research are the same thing. There
remains a naive faith that interdisciplinarity will be created when a
mix of disciplinary scholars are included in the same research initia-
tive, even though each conducts his or her own study. Too often, the
only "interdisciplinary" aspect of an indisciplinary research project
is the management of the project.
We wish we could say that the problems we once wrote about are
no longer fresh or relevant. We cannot. Whatever consolation this
offers us as writers and editors, this situation also distresses us because
we are, first and foremost, committed to the research enterprise.
Many have been patient with us through the long period of gesta-
tion: SSHRC, McGill-Queen's University Press, and our contributors,
especially. Students have put up with bad photocopies; colleagues
have all but given up on ever seeing this volume in book form. But
our families deserve the prize. They have put up with all of our many
distractions, preoccupations, and frustrations. For the most part, they
have done so with exemplary good grace.
Grace is a quality worth pondering. In essence, it involves listening
to others and appreciating what animates them, however foreign or
difficult it may seem. This is precisely what good interdisciplinary
research requires.
Outside the Lines
