Slaymaker et al. (2021) argue that geomorphology is poorly known and has little influence outside its practitioners and therefore should be recast as both a geoscience and a landscape science. The ...only evidence they evince for the claim about the lack of influence of geomorphology is that it is not evident in the publications from international environmental programs. This is far from a convincing case and does not support their view that geomorphology should be recast. We contend that most geomorphological influence is at the national, regional to local scale, not internationally. Our main concern with their proposal is however that a change of language could confuse potential users and students, with the opposite effect to what they wish.
This special issue of the journal Coolabah comprises contributed papers that examine the relationships between place, placescape and landscape – Australian places and imaginings. Australian ...perspectives of place and cultural production unavoidably confront issues of identity simultaneously from antipodean and elsewhere vantage points.
Philosophers were reluctant to address interdisciplinarity during the 20th century. But things have changed in the 21st century, since a two-level relationship between philosophy and ...interdisciplinarity has been established: philosophy of interdisciplinarity and philosophy as interdisciplinarity. Thus far scholars have shown more interest in exploring the first level of that relationship.
The aim of this article is to closely examine the developmental path of a philosophy of interdisciplinarity envisioned and constructed by Jan Cornelius Schmidt in the past two decades. In our opinion, it has reached two milestones. The first (2008) being the one in which he clarified the vague notion of interdisciplinarity and classified its four types with the help of philosophy of science, and the second (2011) being the one in which he opted for problem-oriented interdisciplinarity. Schmidt’s philosophy of interdisciplinarity has reached its (current) peak (2022), resulting in a philosophical framework which promotes problem-orientation and critical-reflexivity in interdisciplinary endeavors. Thereby Schmidt has created prerequisites for the construction of philosophy as interdisciplinarity.
How to best approach the Anthropocene in terms of knowledge is an open question. In this paper we outline and discuss how the Anthropocene is imagined as an ongoing project attempting to develop ...systems of knowledge. Referring to Paul J. Crutzen, Reinhold Leinfelder, and Jan Zalaciewicz, we show how a tradition is forming around the notion of diverse Anthropocene knowledges as unified but split into two, more particularly, into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and social sciences and humanities (SSH). After a reading of two representative takes on the Anthropocene and knowledge by Carolyn Merchant and Timothy Morton and Dominic Boyer respectively, we conclude that, despite attempts at interdisciplinarity and knowledge integration, the current ways of approaching the Anthropocene as a field of knowledge involve an uneasy mix of unification and stratification. We end by suggesting ways of overcoming this situation.
How to best approach the Anthropocene in terms of knowledge is an open question. In this paper we outline and discuss how the Anthropocene is imagined as an ongoing project attempting to develop ...systems of knowledge. Referring to Paul J. Crutzen, Reinhold Leinfelder, and Jan Zalaciewicz, we show how a tradition is forming around the notion of diverse Anthropocene knowledges as unified but split into two, more particularly, into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and social sciences and humanities (SSH). After a reading of two representative takes on the Anthropocene and knowledge by Carolyn Merchant and Timothy Morton and Dominic Boyer respectively, we conclude that, despite attempts at interdisciplinarity and knowledge integration, the current ways of approaching the Anthropocene as a field of knowledge involve an uneasy mix of unification and stratification. We end by suggesting ways of overcoming this situation.
▶ We study characteristics of researchers related to (inter) disciplinary research collaboration. ▶ Female scientists are more engaged in interdisciplinary research collaboration. ▶ Years of research ...experience are positively related to both types of collaboration. ▶ Work experience in firms or government increases interdisciplinary collaboration. ▶ Disciplinary collaborations contribute more to a career than interdisciplinary collaborations.
There is a lack of understanding regarding the optimal conditions for interdisciplinary research. This study investigates what characteristics of researchers are associated with disciplinary and interdisciplinary research collaborations and what collaborations are most rewarding in different scientific disciplines. Our results confirm that female scientists are more engaged in interdisciplinary research collaborations. Further, a scientist's years of research experience are positively related with both types of collaboration. Work experience in firms or governmental organizations increases the propensity of interdisciplinary collaborations, but decreases that of disciplinary collaborations. Disciplinary collaborations occur more frequent in basic disciplines; interdisciplinary collaborations more in strategic disciplines. We also found that in both types of disciplines, disciplinary collaborations contribute more to career development than interdisciplinary collaborations. We conclude with three recommendations for science and innovation policy, while emphasising the need to distinguish between different scientific disciplines.
Background: Recently, scholars have called for increasing so-called “soft-skills” held by engineering students, particularly their ability to empathize. In response, educational researchers at Texas ...Tech University developed a series of “humanities-driven STEM” (HDSTEM) courses, undergraduate courses co-taught by humanities and sciences professors. These courses expose students to an academic topic from both a humanities and STEM-based approach. This study examines the coursework of engineering students enrolled in “History and Engineering in the Second World War.” Purpose: We examine the ways that engineering students expressed and developed empathetic positions in their coursework over the trajectory of the HDSTEM course. Design: Students completed four “design, measure, analyze, improve, control” (DMAIC) assignments in this course, wherein they examined a feat of engineering developed during World War 2. During the second and third assignment, they added an “empathize” step (EDMAIC). We use content and discourse analyses to compare their four assignments, especially the ways in which they empathize. We also rated their first and last assignments on an empathy rubric, using Pearson’s correlations of interrater reliability to determine empathetic growth. Results: Controlling for the additional empathy step, students regularly had more to say when asked to empathize. Discourse analysis revealed students attempting various rhetorical moves and constructions of an empathetic identity within their coursework, even the final assignment that did not ask them to empathize. Pearson’s correlations show, on average, a 1-point of empathetic growth for each student on a 4-point scale (r = .72; p < .01). Conclusions: If we are to teach empathetic and other humanitarian skills to engineering students, we must develop a space where this kind of thinking, and these reflections, are normalized. Doing so does not necessarily require an HDSTEM framework, but requires intentional course design to discuss and foster these attitudes.
How Psychology Can Help Limit Climate Change Nielsen, Kristian S.; Clayton, Susan; Stern, Paul C. ...
The American psychologist,
01/2021, Letnik:
76, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has encouraged psychologists to become part of the integrated scientific effort to support the achievement of climate change targets such as keeping ...within 1.5°C or 2°C of global warming. To date, the typical psychological approach has been to demonstrate that specific concepts and theories can predict behaviors that contribute to or mitigate climate change. Psychologists need to go further and, in particular, show that integrating psychological concepts into feasible interventions can reduce greenhouse gas emissions far more than would be achieved without such integration. While critiquing some aspects of current approaches, we describe psychological research that is pointing the way by distinguishing different types of behavior, acknowledging sociocultural context, and collaborating with other disciplines. Engaging this challenge offers psychologists new opportunities for promoting mitigation, advancing psychological understanding, and developing better interdisciplinary interactions.
Public Significance Statement
Addressing climate change requires unprecedented societal transformations within a short time frame. Psychological research has the potential to improve current and future initiatives to mitigate climate change; however, realizing this potential requires heightened attention to the climate impact of the behaviors we study and greater collaboration and integration across disciplines.
•The term nexus can be understood as a buzzword, combining ambiguity of meaning with strong normative resonance.•For key UK stakeholders the nexus has multiple and heterogeneous meanings; there is ...not (yet) a singular ‘nexus discourse’.•The term nexus is being strategically appropriated into powerful managerial discourses in natural resource debates.•The nexus is used to express an ‘integrative imaginary’, assuming that integration in various domains is possible and desirable.•There is need to keep the nexus an open ‘matter of concern’. Social sciences have key roles to play in this process.
The existence of a water-energy-food ‘nexus’ has been gaining significant attention in international natural resource policy debates in recent years. We argue the term ‘nexus’ can be currently seen as a buzzword: a term whose power derives from a combination of ambiguous meaning and strong normative resonance. We explore the ways in which the nexus terminology is emerging and being mobilised by different stakeholders in natural resource debates in the UK context. We suggest that in the UK the mobilisation of the nexus terminology can best be understood as symptomatic of broader global science-policy trends, including an increasing emphasis on integration as an ideal; an emphasis on technical solutions to environmental problems; achievement of efficiency gains and ‘win-wins’; and a preference for technocratic forms of environmental managerialism. We identify and critique an ‘integrative imaginary’ underpinning much of the UK discourse around the concept of the nexus, and argue that attending to questions of power is a crucial but often underplayed aspect of proposed integration. We argue that while current efforts to institutionalise the language of the nexus as a conceptual framework for research in the UK may provide a welcome opportunity for new forms of transdisciplinary, they may risk turning nexus into a ‘matter of fact’ where it should remain a ‘matter of concern’. In this vein, we indicate the importance of critique to the development of nexus research.
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