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@Maxkemman Groningen University Interdisciplinary Collaborations as Trading Zones @MaxKemman University of Luxembourg | March 21, 2017 Groningen University Today • About me • What is an academic discipline • What is interdisciplinarity • Trading zones • Practicing trading zones • Conclusions About me • BSc Cognitive Artificial Intelligence (Utrecht University 2006-2009) • MSc Information Science (Utrecht University 2009-2011) • Junior researcher History department (Erasmus University Rotterdam 2011-2014) • PhD Candidate History department/Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (University of Luxembourg 2014-present) Twitter: @MaxKemman Blog: www.maxkemman.nl About my PhD Digital History as methodological interdisciplinarity: using tools, methods, and concepts from other disciplines to the benefit of historical research (Klein 2014) Alignment of scholarly values with digital technology as two-way street: • The tool needs to fit the practices (social shaping) • The practices need to fit the tools (technological determinism) Other interests • Google Scholar • Open access, open data • Digital libraries: linked data • Artificial Intelligence What is an academic discipline? What makes your discipline a discipline? How is it different from Computer Science? Why did you choose this discipline? Becher & Parry (2005) The Endurance of the Disciplines Disciplines can be described according to 2 aspects: cognitive & social Cognitive aspect • Subject - 'a particular, restricted aspect of reality' (Whitley 1974) • Techniques of enquiry • Methods • Resources • "Sustain an active and reasonably well-organised research frontier or pattern of conceptual development" Social aspect • Incorporation within a typical academic organisation • Shared set of cultural values • Recognition by the Academy at large • Journals, conferences, associations Sugimoto & Weingart (2015) The kaleidoscope of disciplinarity • Cognitive • Social • Communicative (discourse) • Separatedness (boundary work) • Tradition • Institutional Communicative Technical terminology per field: • Hermeneutics • Annotation • Query • Event Communicative Becher (1987) Disciplinary discourse Praising peers • History: scholarly, original, rigorous, stimulating, well-written • Sociology: rigorous, stimulating, persuasive, powerful, perceptive • Physics: elegant, economical, productive Criticising peers • History: thin, 'sound', sloppy, jargon-ridden • Sociology: Anecdotal, contentious • Physics: sloppy, 'accurate', 'rigorous' Separatedness Gieryn (1983) Boundary-Work and the Demarcation of Science from Non- Science Boundary work: defining a disciplinary field by contrasting it with other fields Just as readers come to know Holmes better through contrasts to his foil Watson, so does the public better learn about "science" through contrasts to "non-science." P. 791 Limitations of concept of 'discipline' Is Digital History a disciplinary activity? • No room for different practices within a single department • No room for people from outside university Communities of Practice • Mutual engagement (involving regular interaction). • Joint negotiated enterprise (mutual goal and accountability). • Shared repertoire of negotiable resources (such as jargon and practices). (Wenger, 1998) Limitations: • No room for non-human engagement Epistemic Cultures [T]hose sets of practices, arrangements and mechanisms bound together by necessity, affinity and historical coincidence which, in a given area of professional expertise, make up how we know what we know Knorr Cetina (2007) Conclusions Disciplines demarcate a group of peers, concerned with specific techniques, and subjects More flexible concepts are "community of practice" or "epistemic culture" Why would we want to be interdisciplinary? Wanneer er reden is om verschillende disciplines te onderscheiden ... is er tevens reden ze niet met elkaar te vermengen Ankersmit (1983) What is interdisciplinarity? Did any of you follow courses from other disciplines? Why? What are limitations of your discipline? Multi, Inter, Trans Choi & Pak (2006) Multidisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity in health research, services, education and policy • Multi-: "draws on knowledge from different disciplines but stays within the boundaries of those fields" (additive) • Inter-: "analyzes, synthesizes and harmonizes links between disciplines into a coordinated and coherent whole" (interactive) • Trans-: "integrates the natural, social, and health sciences in a humanities context, and in so doing transcends each of their traditional boundaries" (holistic) A case for transdisciplinarity Gibbons (1994) The New Production of Knowledge Mode 1: complex of ideas, methods, values, norms, and ensure "compliance with what is considered sound scientific practice" Mode 1 Mode 2 • Problems are solved within academic context and • Problems are solved within interests of the community context of application • Disciplinary • Transdisciplinary • Homogeneous • Heterogeneous • Hierarchical, tends to preserve its form • Heterarchical and transient • + More socially accountable and reflexive Challenges to practicing interdisciplinarity Let's view interdisciplinary per the typology of Becher & Parry (2005) Cognitive challenges • Subject - 'a particular, restricted aspect of reality' (Whitley 1974) • Techniques of enquiry • Methods • Resources • "Sustain an active and reasonably well-organised research frontier or pattern of conceptual development" Social challenges • Incorporation within a typical academic organisation • Shared set of cultural values • Recognition by the Academy at large • Journals, conferences, associations "What do you call a grad student without a supervisor: Interdisciplinary." - @ChadGaffield (via @AcademicsSay) Conclusions Interdisciplinarity is interesting, but not the easiest route to take To be truly interdisciplinary, need coordination Trading Zones [A]n arena in which radically different activities could be locally, but not globally, coordinated Galison (1996) Local vs global? The assumption is that the different communities in this 'arena' cannot coordinate actions on a global scale Why not? For example, why can't history and computer science do that? • Ideas of what is interesting • Values of what is important • Jargon • Communication (e.g., publications) Global incommensurability Cannot judge one discipline in the terminology of another No neutral ground on which to compare the two Local coordination Define common goals Create a shared language: pidgin/creole Establish shared practices? Acculturation & Dimensions [T]he process by which the beliefs and practices of one community diffuse across the boundaries of another and subsequently alter the second community's practices and interpretations Barley (1988) • Contact & Participation • Cultural maintenance • Coercion Collins et al (2007) Trading zones and interactional expertise What kind of trading zones do we see with Digital History? Homogeneous Heterogeneous Collaboration Digital History as inter-language Digital History as fractioned trading zone - A new discipline? - A dual citizenship for practioners and research - McCarty (2005) objects? - Svensson, Klein, Hunter, Rieder & Röhle Coercion Digital History as subversive Digital History as enforced - Historians assuming the practice - A power struggle of who decides what the digital of Computer Science, but not the expertise (or technology will do? vice versa)? - Mounier (2015) Problem: DH discussed as a homogeneous phenomenon, a single trading zone Fractioned trading zones Commonly assumed the category of digital humanities TZ Two different types: boundary objects and interactional expertise Boundary objects [O]bjects which are both plastic enough to adapt to local needs and the constraints of the several parties employing them, yet robust enough to maintain a common identity across sites. They are weakly structured in common use, and become strongly structured in individual site use. Star & Griesemer (1989) Related to the earlier mentioned pidgin Interactional expertise Evans & Collins (2010) describe 3 forms of expertise: 1. No expertise 2. Interactional expertise 3. Contributory expertise Both types of experts share the same social environment Interactional experts can share the discussion, but not add in practice Imitation Game Contact & Participation • Digital History as collaboration with (a.o.) computer scientists • Digital History as end-users of tools • Digital History as building tools independently • Project • Lab • International network • THATCamp Different forms of interdisciplinarity Interdisciplinarity can then occur on several levels: • Contact between different disciplines • Individuals taking methods, concepts, tools from other disciplines • Within a discipline focused around a subject, with different methods/concepts around it When is a discipline? Conclusions Global incommensurability between disciplines Within trading zones: local coordination Acculturation: what happens when you are long enough in a TZ? Practicing Trading Zones Sit in groups of 4, with people from different backgrounds Discuss the following questions • What do you understand by data? • What is evidence? • Can research be objective? • What are questions you can ask to distinguish an expert from non-expert in your discipline? Conclusions (last time) Academia structured into disciplines Interdisciplinary research promising for engaging with a subject from different perspectives, but not easy Within interdisciplinary contact, trading zones form to coordinate language and practices
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