Cultural Competence in Interdisciplinary Collaborations: A Method for Respecting Diversity in Research Partnerships

Abstract

There is growing recognition of the need by funding agencies, universities, and research units for interdisciplinary research to tackle complex societal problems that cannot be adequately addressed by single disciplines alone. Interdisciplinary collaboration capitalizes on a diversity of perspectives and practices that each discipline offers in hopes of providing innovative solutions to multifaceted problems. However, for interdisciplinary work to be effective, members of the collaboration must recognize that cultural differences exist between and within disciplines. This paper conceptualizes disciplines as cultural groups and advocates for culturally competent practices to facilitate interdisciplinary research and practice. Specifically, each participant in interdisciplinary collaborations must value diversity, develop the capacity for self-assessment, work towards understanding one's own disciplinary culture, and be sensitive to the dynamics inherent when cultures interact. Additionally, members of any interdisciplinary endeavor must be cognizant of power dynamics at play and avoid such things as tokenism, informal hierarchies, and disciplinary policing. Through awareness of one's own disciplinary culture and sensitivity to others, interdisciplinary research and practice may provide creative solutions to important problems.

Epistemological Pluralism: Reorganizing Interdisciplinary Research

“…Whereas any given discipline is dynamic and composed of different theoretical and methodological approaches, it will tend to share a language, a set of tools, and http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol13/iss2/art46/ epistemological commitments (Petts et al 2008, Reich andReich 2006). Multidisciplinary research arises when multiple researchers investigate a single problem, but do so as if each were working within their own disciplinary setting.…”

Communication Barriers and Lessons Learned in Energy Policy

“…Collaborative policy-centered work requires a high degree of self-evaluation, cultural sensitivity, and adaptability to working with others [25], yet many graduate students and scholars never receive training in these areas. As outlined above, university researchers face several institutional and disciplinary barriers when wanting to engage in this type of work.…”

Cooperation across Organizational Boundaries: Experimental Evidence from a Major Sustainability Science Project

“…These boundaries are distinct and carry separate challenges and complexities. The interdisciplinary boundary is well known to academics, and well-studied [26][27][28]. Within the SSI, faculty and doctoral students have been forced to face their significant disciplinary differences directly, with mixed results [23].…”