Interdisciplinarity: History, Theory, and Practice [Paperback]

Julie Thompson Klein (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 331 pages
• Publisher: Wayne State Univ Pr (February 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814320880
• ISBN-13: 978-0814320884
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #667,891 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting subject, but not the best communication..., October 26, 2009

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L. St John - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Interdisciplinarity: History, Theory, and Practice (Paperback)

This book was a required text for my Integrative Studies course. And it does go over an interesting, under-discussed topic - interdisciplinarity (or for those that have spell-check, which doesn't recognize that nice long word, interdisciplinary studies). It goes over the definition(s), the history, and the problems involved with interdisciplinarity, which I doubt I would have ever found elsewhere. It has a good collection of different studies.

That said, however, I found that the author has confused a large, complex vocabulary with good, effective writing. Many of the chapters use large, complex words that break up the flow of reading, when small and simple words would have communicated the message better. Good writing is NOT about how fancy you sound - it's about how well you communicate your point. I found my attention wavering within each chapter at the overuse of prefixed and suffixed words. There is also an overabundance of "quotations" going on that don't need to be there. I can't quite tell whether she's quoting someone and leaving out the citation, or if she's using quotations for emphasis - but she does it a lot. I personally had difficulty following one of the chapters that involves a lot of metaphor encases in quotations.

Is it a bad book? No, not really. But if you get easily distracted by a lot of "quoted words" and mish-mashed prefix-suffix words, then this might be a difficult read.

5.0 out of 5 stars A good reference for everyone, November 30, 2010

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Claire Li - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Interdisciplinarity: History, Theory, and Practice (Paperback)

Dr. Julie Thompson Klein is a professor of humanities in the Interdisciplinary Studies Program at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan (U.S.A.). With her abundant experiences in exploring the theoretical background of the concept "Interdisciplinarity" and how it could be applied to daily practice, Dr. Klein provides readers with a comprehensive, thoughtful and well-balanced overview of the history, theory and practice of "Interdisciplinarity", a concept which refers to the interaction among and the integration of two or more disciplines.

To start off the great journey to obtain understanding of what "Interdisciplinarity" entails, the origin and historical development of the concept is reviewed in the first part of the book. Whereas some individuals hold the opinion that "Interdisciplinarity" is deeply rooted in the ideas of those remarkable "interdisciplinary thinkers" - such as Plato and Aristotle, others do think that "Interdisciplinarity" did not emerge until the twentieth century. However, the general recognition and identification of the term only happened within the last few decades, starting from 1960s. In general, the modern concept has been shaped by: 1) the attempts to preserve historical ideas of unity; 2) the emergence of organized interdisciplinary research and education programs; 3) the broadening of traditional disciplines; 4) the happening of identifiable interdisciplinary movements. In addition, "Interdisciplinarity", which refers to the integration and synthesis of different disciplines, is very different from both "Multidisciplinarity" - juxtaposition of disciplines with no interaction, and "Transdisciplinarity" - thorough assimilation of new knowledge through synthesizing multiple disciplines.

In the second part of the book, the rhetoric of "Interdisciplinarity" is proposed by the author in terms of its imagery representations, such as the machine and the organism. In addition, "Interdisciplinarity" could demonstrate the limitations of "Disciplinarity". Furthermore, as the core activity of "Interdisciplinarity", borrowing does bring certain advantages, but blind adoption of which would be counter-productive as well. Lastly, a "Disciplinary Paradox" between disciplinary work being the base for interdisciplinary work and the potential of disciplinary work, if being abused, to undermine "Interdisciplinarity" is explained by the author to shed light on interdisciplinary practice.

Dr. Klein discusses three realms of interdisciplinary practice, namely, interdisciplinary problem-focused research, interdisciplinary care, and interdisciplinary education. Apart from illustrating how "Interdisciplinarity" plays out in these three distinct but somewhat related fields on a theoretical level, Dr. Klein also offers real-life examples from various parts of the world, which is extremely beneficial to readers' understanding and picturing. For example, at the University of Washington's Department of Family Medicine, the interdisciplinary care was achieved by inviting a medical social worker, a clinical pharmacist, nurses, a member of the hospital library staff, and a dietary staff to physicians' morning rounds. Moreover, teamwork is a dominant theme in all three kinds of practice. Good teamwork, in the author's opinion, is the definite key to success no matter which field one is referring to.

As a PhD student majoring in occupational science, an academic discipline which focuses on studying the form, the function, and the meaning of human occupation (Zemke, & Clark, 1996), I found the whole book fascinating because it provided me with a novel perspective to look at occupational science both as a profession and as a discipline. It is common for occupational scientists to conduct their research in an interdisciplinary research team rather than acting solo. Based on the broad nature of occupational science, successful occupational science research heavily depends on cooperation between occupational scientists and professionals from other disciplines, such as psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, neuroscientists, and engineers. Moreover, the knowledge within the field of occupational science informs and enriches other disciplines as well. Therefore, a win-win situation would results by carrying out interdisciplinary research projects. Second, the program of occupational science is highly interdisciplinary. Take the PhD program at University of Southern California as an example. Besides the core occupational science coursework, there is an explicit requirement in which students select a cognate that takes a minimum of four courses from another department. As a result, interdisciplinary dialogue is greatly facilitated as students communicate with professors and students from other disciplines. In addition, interdisciplinary seminars and conferences such as those organized by the Society for the Study of Occupation (SSO) include experts from other disciplines who dialogue with occupational science faculty and students. Last but not least, an essential part of the PhD program is the immersion in an interdisciplinary research team. For instance, in the Pressure Ulcer Prevention Study research team, professionals and scholars from multiple disciplines, such as occupational therapists, nurses, occupational scientists, and statisticians, work together to investigate the effectiveness of the Lifestyle Redesign intervention in helping patients prevent pressure ulcers following a spinal cord injury.

In a word, since increasing "Interdisciplinarity" is the general trend in the contemporary society, it is very likely that a reader, no matter whether he or she is a researcher, a healthcare professional, an educator/student, or a person with another background, will find the book helpful in reshaping and deepening the understanding towards the concept of "Interdisciplinarity".

Reference
Zemke, R. & Clark, F. (1996). Occupational science: The evolving discipline. Philadelphia: F.A. Davis. Preface-

4.0 out of 5 stars A good reference source, November 24, 2009

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A. Kuo (LA, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Interdisciplinarity: History, Theory, and Practice (Paperback)

This book was published in 1990. Some of the issues regarding interdisciplinary work raised by the author continue to exist today. It is definitely a good reference book for understanding the history of interdisciplinarity development. Coming from an Occupational Science background which is a discipline devoted to the study of human occupation and rooted in interdisciplinary studies, reading the book helped me to better appreciate efforts invested by my predecessors to establish groundwork for collaborative research that have thus been oblivious.
Otherwise being highly descriptive, this book had an interesting analogy that I particularly liked. The example of Wheeler's fable of elephant housing aptly illustrated the difficulty inherent in interdisciplinary problem focused research. Collaborative endeavors to solving a problem by various fields could end in failure regardless of expertise if such recommendations are made independent of knowing the real needs. Of course, interdisciplinary work has evolved over the years and collaborations between disciplines through time may have become more effective. The chapter on borrowing which warned about problems in using concepts and theories out of context with possible distortion and misunderstanding also highlighted salient issue such as responsibility of user for the borrowed material. At the end of the book, I found the practical techniques for enhancing interdisciplinarity integration informative.
The author compared interdisciplinary studies to area studies. It was not clear what the author meant in reference to `area' studies. However, the point she made regarding disciplinary work providing fundamental tools for problem-solving in interdisciplinary focused research somewhat parallels the link between occupational science and occupational therapy. Occupational Science constitutes a body of interdisciplinary knowledge and informs occupational therapy practice with a strong emphasis on translational research. In general, this book served as a helpful starting point for comprehending interdisciplinarity.