Exploring Interdisciplinarity: The Significance of Metaphoric and Metonymic Exchange

• Main Authors: Anne Dalke, Paul Grobstein, Elizabeth McCormack
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Athabasca University Press 2006-10-01
• Series: Journal of Research Practice
• Subjects: disciplinary training; emergent systems; generativity; interdisciplinary conversation; metaphor; metonym
• Online Access: http://jrp.icaap.org/index.php/jrp/article/view/43/54

Drawing upon five years of experience with an interdisciplinary initiative, colleagues in biology, literary studies, and physics offer a framework by which to understand the nature and value of interdisciplinary work. Effective interdisciplinary exchange depends on a dynamic and mutual interplay that challenges normally unexamined disciplinary assumptions. Effective interdisciplinary exchange can not only reinvigorate the disciplines but also engage them more effectively in a common intellectual enterprise, one that in turn is able to engage more effectively with a wide range of human concerns beyond the academy.