Future Directions in Social Science a Workshop on the Emergence of Problem-Based Interdisciplinarity
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Future Directions in Social Science A Workshop on the Emergence of Problem-based Interdisciplinarity April 11-12, 2019 Arlington, VA George Loewenstein, Carnegie Mellon University Kathleen Musante, University of Pittsburgh Joshua A. Tucker, New York University Prepared by: Tim Olsen, VT-ARC Kate Klemic, VT-ARC David Montgomery, OUSD(R&E)/Basic Research and OUSD(Policy)/Strategy Future Directions Workshop series Workshop sponsored by the Basic Research Office, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research & Engineering Contents Director's Note iii Executive Summary 1 Introduction 3 Challenges to Conducting Interdisciplinary Social Science Research 5 Opportunities for Interdisciplinary Social Science Research 8 Trajectory For Interdisciplinary Social Science Research 11 Conclusion 14 Appendix A: Trajectory for Interdisciplinary Social Science Research 15 Appendix B: Workshop Attendees 16 Appendix C: Workshop Prospectus 22 Appendix D: Workshop Agenda 24 ii Director's Note Over the past century, scientific advancement and technological development have brought remarkable new capabilities and insights that have had profound influence on social life. Ranging from telecommunications, energy, and electronics to medicine, transportation, and defense, technologies that were unimaginable decades ago—such as the internet and mobile devices—now shape the way we live, work, and interact with our environment. And as environments change, so do the social contexts in which people interact and see themselves being connected. Central to discussions around security, broadly defined, is the capacity of the global basic research community to understand the social implications of science, technology, and the wider context in which sociality plays out. Being aware of the trajectories of fundamental research, within the context of global challenges, empowers stakeholders to identify and seize potential opportunities. The Future Directions Workshop series, sponsored by the Ba- sic Research Office in the Office of the Under Secretary of De- fense for Research and Engineering, seeks to examine emerg- ing research areas that—in the natural and formal sciences—are most likely to transform future technology capabilities and—in the social sciences—innovatively inform about how the social world works. These workshops gather distinguished academic researchers from around the globe to engage in an interactive dialogue about the promises and challenges of each emerging basic research area and how they could impact future capabilities and understanding. Chaired by leaders in the field, these work- shops encourage unfettered considerations of the prospects of fundamental science areas from the most talented minds in the research community. Reports from the Future Direction Workshop series capture these discussions and therefore play a vital role in developing basic re- search priorities. In each report, participants are challenged to address the following important questions: • How will the research impact science and technology capa- bilities of the future? Innovation is the key • What is the trajectory of scientific advancement over the next few decades? to the future, but basic • What are the most fundamental challenges to progress? This report is the product of a workshop held on April 11-12, research is the key to 2019 at the Basic Research Innovation Collaboration Center in Arlington, VA on the future of problem-based interdisciplinary future innovation. social science research. It is intended as a resource to the Sci- – Jerome Isaac Friedman, ence and Technology community, including the broader federal Nobel Prize Recipient (1990) funding community, federal laboratories, domestic industrial base, and academia. iii Executive Summary An in-depth understanding of the ways in which humans effect • Cross-fertilization of research methodologies: New devel- change and the impact of change on humans is critical to antici- opments in data availability—such as fMRI in economics or pating and shaping both the opportunities and challenges posed social media data in political science—require the adoption by a world in which the pace of change seems to be ceaselessly of new methodological techniques—such as the rise of lab increasing. This understanding requires integration of conceptual experiments in economics and political science—from other and theoretical frameworks, approaches to data collection, and fields (e.g., neuroscience and data science). Multidisciplinary methods of analysis—long the role of the social sciences both as research can greatly speed this process. individual disciplines, and, most importantly, in concert with other • Establishment of new, unidentified fields: Past examples social sciences, as well as the natural and biomedical sciences, and of new fields growing out of interdisciplinary efforts—such the humanities. The current complexity and pace of change inten- as behavioral economics or neuroscience—show the tre- sifies the need for, and value of, developing new approaches to mendous possibilities for research development, including conduct and disseminate multidisciplinary social science research. areas that cannot presently be envisioned. The Future Directions in Social Science Workshop was convened The workshop also identified four general categories of chal- on April 11-12 in Arlington, VA, with the goal identifying opportu- lenges facing researchers interested in pursuing interdisciplinary nities for, and challenges to, conducting interdisciplinary research research in the social sciences: in the social sciences. Interdisciplinary research is defined as re- search that either occurs across multiple existing academic disci- • Culture challenges: Different lexicons and methodological plines, or in the space between disciplines. It can be conducted approaches are used and privileged across different disci- by a single individual working across disciplines (“single scholar in- plines. terdisciplinary research”), by teams of people from different disci- • Professional challenges: There are more barriers to publica- plines working within their own disciplinary traditions but in collab- tion, promotion, and recognition for interdisciplinary social orative projects (“multidisciplinary research”), or by teams working science research, especially as such efforts often generate across disciplines (“interdisciplinary teams”). The workshop aimed publications with larger numbers of co-authors than is cur- to elucidate the potential benefits of interdisciplinary research, the rently common in the social sciences and may be published existing barriers to conducting interdisciplinary research, oppor- outside of traditional disciplinary journals. tunities for overcoming those barriers, and timelines for concrete • Training challenges: Current scholarly training is dominated steps to support the continued development of interdisciplinary by disciplinary models, and the special administrative skills social science research. needed to manage larger team-based research projects. • Financial/Resource challenges: Current funding pipelines The workshop was divided into two parts. On the first day, par- are largely oriented along disciplinary lines, and, in some ticipants were split into three smaller groups, each of which ad- cases, there are mismatches between the level of funding dressed the potential value of, as well as impediments to, interdis- traditionally needed to support disciplinary research and the ciplinary research by focusing on a particular problem: technology significantly larger grants necessary to sustain interdisciplin- and sociality; information and politics; and migration and stasis. ary efforts. This is especially the case when establishing large These three topics were chosen because they highlight subjects of scale research labs, which are not currently present in most inquiry where the potential benefits from interdisciplinary research of the social sciences but may be necessary to realize many appear large, and thus represented good case studies for think- of the interdisciplinary benefits identified in this report. ing through the existing challenges to interdisciplinary research, as well as creative solutions for overcoming those challenges. The The workshop also identified severalpotential solutions for over- discussions of the individual research topics then formed the ba- coming these challenges: sis for plenary discussions on the second day to produce general assessments of the potential benefits of an expansion of interdis- • Establishment of explicitly interdisciplinary (high profile) ciplinary research, the challenges inherent in doing so, and oppor- journals and funding opportunities, including funding to tunities for overcoming these challenges. sustain research labs in the social sciences. • New models of graduate—and post-graduate—training that The workshop identified potential benefits from interdisciplinary bridges the disciplinary divides. research in the social sciences, most of which fell into one of the • Establishment of intellectual spaces (e.g., summer institutes) following three categories: where scholars from different disciplines with common prob- lem-based interests can learn from one another and break- • A more thorough research approach to pressing chal- down barriers to collaboration with the goal of initiating tar- lenges: There are large problem areas currently challenging geted research collaborations. society for which traditional disciplinary research approach- • New approaches to training