Definitions and Categories: Epistemologies of Race and Critique

One of the striking and important features of The Eurocentric Conception of World Politics is the breadth and depth of literature over two and a half centuries which is examined. Hobson reveals irrefutably the centrality of racialised thought to the foundations of the disciplinary field of International Relations. Such an exercise necessarily encounters difficult methodological questions. This contribution to the forum reflects on the methodological and epistemological challenges of the critique of racial thought. How should we define racialised or racist thought, and how should we distinguish the various strands of racial and eurocentric thought? Does it matter if a critique of racial thought employs modes of categorisation and typology which seem to mirror the epistemological or methodological features of some strands of racial thought itself?     

Looking for Feminism

This paper explores the linkages between metropolitan intellectual politics and the process of knowledge production within third‐world/anti‐imperial locations – defined geographically or otherwise – about previously understudied subjects from or in the third world. Specifically, the paper focuses on the growing body of research on Muslim women in colonial India to foreground ways in which a certain notion of feminism, as a metanarrative of emergence and progress towards an apparently known end, informs and shapes this literature. In terms of its broader implications, the paper is an attempt to think through some of the problems of writing histories of difference, and especially feminist histories, in any context.     

跨学科研究与当代中国史学科发展的前景

当代中国史是历史学家族中最年轻的一门学科,也是最富发展潜力的一门学科,其优势和活力主要表现在能够充分借鉴、运用和整合其他学科的理论和方法。在当代中国史学科中提倡跨学科研究,一方面是指运用其他学科的理论和方法拓宽当代中国史研究的范围,从而更好地体现当代中国史学科的整体性、综合性;另一方面是指借鉴其他学科的理论和方法,从新的视角或新的思路拓展当代中国史研究的深度,增强其学术性与科学性。越来越多的学术实践表明,整合其他学科的理论和方法、实现自身的进步已成为当代中国史学科发展的重要趋势。     

Interdisciplinary Research and the American University

Abstract

The rise and fall of physical theories may have common features with the appearances and the disappearances of fashion, their political and economic roots. The history and philosophy of scientific methodology form the background to the consideration of big physics, accelerator research, and of small physics carried out with electronic equipment. The first is fashionable, the second not yet. It is concluded that science is a perpetual race, enjoyable for scientists to run.     

Ecosystem Management Research: Clarifying the Concept of Interdisciplinary Work

Abstract

Ecosystem management (EM) is a process for addressing environmental problems. It draws on research from multiple disciplines in order to ensure long-term maintenance of socio-ecological systems. The present study evaluates the definition of interdisciplinary work among researchers involved in generating data use (EM). The goal is twofold: to generate further discussions in research supporting EM, and to better situate this research in the broader context of interdisciplinary science. Using an online questionnaire, data was collected from 119 researchers. A cluster analysis identified both distinct and shared understandings of the concept. A logistic regression analysis identified the extent to which personal characteristics and researchers’ understandings of interdisciplinary theory determine definitions of interdisciplinary work. Researchers differ on the terminology but share an understanding about what it is: both a ‘way to do research’ and a ‘way of thinking about research’. Differences between researchers suggest a growing interest in developing deeper engagements with theoretical discussions of interdisciplinarity. Results are discussed in the context of the current state of development of research for EM and its contributions to sustainability.     

Thinking Outside the Box: Interdisciplinary Integration of Teaching and Research on an Environment and Development Study Programme

Abstract

Interdisciplinary education and research are increasingly in demand in land use, environment and development because understanding complex human-nature relationships requires a holistic approach. While the need for interdisciplinarity is acknowledged by most, in practice, traditional disciplines are still accorded greatest scientific recognition. This article illustrates how interdisciplinarity has been approached on an international education and research programme. A major challenge was how to strike a balance between interdisciplinarity and specialization, and a specific model based on problem-oriented group work and specialized research teams was developed which successfully negotiated this divide, according to a comprehensive student evaluation. International co-operation among Denmark, Thailand, Malaysia, South Africa, Swaziland, and Botswana has revealed structural and cultural barriers to the implementation of interdisciplinary programmes. Successful negotiation of these barriers requires personal relations based on long-term commitment which was achieved in this case through the study programme and annual joint student field courses.     

Here Lies the Supreme Court: Revisited

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Eco-Archaeometry: Interdisciplinary Applications in Egypt

Abstract

One of the problems currently faced by modern society is the worldwide catastrophic deterioration of archaeological and cultural sites directly exposed to the action of the environment. Frequently, it has proved difficult to identify the processes responsible for these deteriorations, which are often the result of an abrupt change in site specific environmental conditions. To understand them a broad interdisciplinary approach is needed, and consequently, a substantial input from several disciplines, such as archaeology and archaeometric, environmental and conservation sciences, is necessary. Such interaction is particularly necessary on a basic research level, and can best be achieved if the relevant disciplines are drawn together a priori on equal footing into a complementary effort in eco-archaeometry. The primary goal of eco-archaeometry is to identify and quantify physicochemical processes which cause the deterioration of ancient cultural patrimony. Its findings are essential prerequisites for the development of optimum, safe methods for conservation and preservation of ancient monuments. Some examples of the eco-archaeometric approach in Egypt are summarised and it is demonstrated that without an interdisciplinary approach such studies would not have been successful.     

Erasmus Darwin: Master of Interdisciplinary Science

Abstract

Dr Erasmus Darwin (1731–1802) was by profession a physician, at Lichfield and later Derby, and was widely regarded as the leading doctor in Britain, author of the massive treatise Zoonomia (1794–6). His many original contributions to science cover a wide range of disciplines, including physics, chemistry, geology, meteorology, plant growth and nutrition and evolutionary biology. He was a prolific inventor, a close friend of Boulton and Watt, and a leading spirit in the ‘Lunar Society’ of Birmingham. In the 1790s he became the most famous poet of the day with his Botanic Garden, which greatly influenced Coleridge, Wordsworth and others.     

Smell: A Challenge to Interdisciplinary Science

Abstract

The sense of smell remains an intractable problem and a challenge to interdisciplinary sciences. Not only are there no primary odors or periodic table of scents but there are no satisfactory numerical identifications by visual, auditory or somesthetic methods of measurement. A particle-wave relation may exist to reconcile the correlation of many odors with infrared spectra, but the vibrational theory of smell is currently out of fashion. Structure-activity relationships have been studied in human olfactory processes and have yielded perfume compounds of great value to commerce. Research on pheromones is intense to control insects, and the further study of human pheromones may even reveal an unsuspected communications system. At present, interdisciplinary sciences can well be guided by the artist-perfumer for what seems a millennium of research in molecular biology.     

The Meaning and Purpose of Interdisciplinary Studies As Applied to Development Economics

Abstract

There are three distinct reasons for interdisciplinary work in development studies. First, specialists in different disciplines may work together on a specific practical planning problem. Second, assumptions, concepts or method evolved in one discipline may yield fruitful results when applied to the problem previously treated by another. Third, the concepts, model and paradigms may have to be recast so as to encompass variable previously separated in distinct disciplines because of tbe demand of the social reality of a different culture. This is illustrated with the concept ‘capital'. There is a conservative and a radical version. In the former, new wine can be poured into old bottle; in the latter, wholly new concepts and models must be constructed.