Meetings of the minds : knowledge integration processes in transdisciplinary science
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Academic institutions invest in interdisciplinary research centers to promote innovative knowledge creation. As prior work on these research efforts has examined either established interdisciplinary collaborations or completed intellectual products, we have a limited understanding of how interdisciplinary research centers emerge and develop over time. This longitudinal ethnographic study on a new Transdisciplinary Premature Birth Research Center sheds light on the early stages of knowledge integration and their impact on the outcomes of interdisciplinary science. The Center's research efforts consisted of four heterogeneous teams: Placental Function, Pattern Recognition, Bioinformatics, and Microbiome. In order to promote knowledge integration among the scientists, the Center organized research group meetings for the different projects. These meetings occurred at various knowledge boundaries that created conditions for the emergence of boundary struggles. Across the four projects, boundaries were established around different objects of contention. I define them as either abstract or concrete scientific objects that demonstrate the points where the scholars' perspectives begin to differ and create boundary struggles in meeting discussions. Whereas in the Placental Function, Pattern Recognition, and Bioinformatics meetings the objects of contention hindered knowledge integration efforts over time, in the Microbiome meetings the actors successfully integrated their varied expertise around a shared goal. I suggest this outcome related to the concrete goal and the fact that the meeting participants navigated differences in their cross-functional roles, rather than disciplinary backgrounds. The different objects of contention and their long-term impact on scientific work shine light on how difficult interdisciplinary collaboration actually is.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2015 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Mäkinen, Elina |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Graduate School of Education. |
| Primary advisor | McFarland, Daniel A |
| Primary advisor | Powell, Walter W |
| Thesis advisor | McFarland, Daniel A |
| Thesis advisor | Powell, Walter W |
| Thesis advisor | Cook, Karen S |
| Thesis advisor | Willinsky, John, 1950- |
| Advisor | Cook, Karen S |
| Advisor | Willinsky, John, 1950- |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Elina Mäkinen. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Graduate School of Education. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2015. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2015 by Elina Inkeri Maekinen
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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