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Controversies and Interdisciplinarity: Beyond disciplinary fragmentation for a new knowledge model
Edited by Jens Allwood, Olga Pombo, Clara Renna and Giovanni Scarafile
[Controversies 16] 2020
► pp. 235–254

Chapter 12
The pointer finger and the pilgrim shell

Ethics of listening, resistance to change and interdisciplinarity

| University of Pisa

One of the risks to the study of interdisciplinary dynamics is to limit the analysis to a description of the visible structures through which it is in action.

Indeed, there are a number of factors which, although invisible, may contribute to the success or failure of an interdisciplinary enterprise.

Through the examination of two case studies, I examine these implicit factors, which underlie the development of interdisciplinarity. In particular, the role of habits, identity factors and the very inadequacy of rational arguments are examined. In a dialectic between invisible and visible emerges the picture of a complex phenomenon to which Caravaggio’s Seven Works of Mercy alludes in the final part of the essay.

Keywords: reframing, change, connection, invisibility, human factor
Article outline
  • 1.Beyond theoreticism: Research perspectives on interdisciplinarity
    • 1.1The “I don’t know what they represent, but I’m against them” syndrome
      • 1.1.1Lack of knowledge of the basic nature of other disciplines
      • 1.1.2Lack of an effective mechanism for communication between disciplines
      • 1.1.3Lack of an adequate medium of exchange of information among disciplines
      • 1.1.4Improper allocation or channeling of funds
      • 1.1.5Personal and interpersonal problems
    • 1.2Make interdisciplinarity work
  • 2.The human factor and change
    • 2.1Aware and unconscious resistance: The role of reframing
      • 2.1.1Insufficiency of rational arguments
      • 2.1.2Change and identity
      • 2.1.3The role of habits
      • 2.1.4Role of best practices
      • 2.1.5Threshold guardians
  • 3.Existing inside the maps: Connection and visibility
    • 3.1Existing outside the maps: Invisibility and connection
  • 4.Conclusion: The pointer finger and the pilgrim shell
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 15 October 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cvs.16.12sca
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