A comment of Renate Klaassen of 4TU.CEE Delft on ‘Disentangling the different layers of interdisciplinarity’ was included in a special issue of the Journal of Science Communication. She comments that scholars investigating teamwork crossing disciplines have different definitions and understandings about what interdisciplinarity is, which can be related to the field these experts represent. Based on the discussions during the Humboldt University’s “Interdisciplinarity revisited” lecture series, Klaassen explains various distinctions scholars make regarding interdisciplinarity. She discusses the differences between wider and closer interdisciplinarity and how interdisciplinarity could be extended to include the public as well. She brings examples for the bottom-up and top-down organisation of interdisciplinarity in institutions.
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Disentangling the different layers of interdisciplinarity
About the special issue
The comment is part of the special issue “Science communication as a design challenge in transdisciplinary collaborations” on the topic of science communication as an enabler of transdisciplinary learning and complex problem-solving in higher education. The special issue contains articles about:
- Cross-disciplinary communities of practices, sequential interdependence or integrative collaboration;
- The voice of the layman and experts; who has the right to speak;
- The necessity of systems thinking, design thinking and participative collaboration in the format of science for the people, science with the people and science by the people. Contributors are from different continents and provide a range of perspectives.
The special issue was edited by Eva Kalmar from the Science Education and Communication department from TU Delft and her colleague Hanneke Stenfert from the professional field.