Interdisciplinary Agricultural Research in Canada

Abstract

The activities and accomplishments of agricultural economists conducting interdisciplinary research in association with other agricultural scientists in Canada are reviewed and evaluated. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada instituted an interdisciplinary research program with the placement of agricultural economists at Research Centres in the early 1970s. University-and government-employed agricultural economists have produced a large number of important studies for the benefit of the agricultural industry in Canada. However, less than 3% of the articles published in this journal since its inception in 1952 report on interdisciplinary research. Interdisciplinary research in agriculture has been hampered by organizational weaknesses and inherent difficulties associated with conducting this type of research. Les auteurs font un survol critique des activités et des réalisations des recherches interdisciplinaires conduites au Canada par les économistes agricoles en collaboration avec les autres chercheurs agricoles.Au début des années 70, le ministère fédéral de l'Agriculture et de l'Agroalimentaire instituait un programme de recherche multidisciplinaire dans le cadre duquel des agro-économistes étaient postés dans divers centres de recherches agronomiques. Les agro-économistes à l'emploi des universités et de l'État ont produit un grand nombre de travaux importants pour l'avancement du secteur agricole canadien. Malheureusement moins de 3 % des articles publiés dans notre Revue depuis son lancement en 1952 font état de recherches multidisciplinaires. Les recherches multidisciplinaires en agriculture se heurtent au Canada à des lacunes organisationnelles et aux difficultés inhérentes à la conduite de ce type de recherche.

Interdisciplinarity in the environmental sciences: barriers and frontiers

“…Associated with this increase in measured interdisciplinarity was a decrease in the evenness with which those citations were distributed. The increase in interdisciplinarity might therefore be viewed as subdisciplines reaching out gradually, to incrementally incorporate more citations from new areas, an analogy that fits well with the idea of interdisciplinarity evolving (Klein et al 1998;Barry et al 2008). It is possible that the observed increase in interdisciplinarity is the result of a greater propensity to Figure 5 Network maps based on multidimensional scaling (MDS) ordination.…”

“…The increase in interdisciplinarity might therefore be viewed as sub-disciplines reaching out gradually, to incrementally incorporate more citations from new areas, an analogy that fits well with the idea of interdisciplinarity evolving (Klein et al . 1998; Barry et al . 2008).…”

“…Interdisciplinarity, however, is not novel and such approaches can be seen as an evolutionary process (Klein et al 1998;Barry et al 2008). Disciplines are continually changing and evolving over time.…”

Crossing Borders: Toward a trans-disciplinary scientific identity

“…Some researchers point to organizational weaknesses and interpersonal problems (Klein et al, 1998). Dif culties arise, for example, when members of different departments with loyalties to well-de ned disciplinary interests are required to expend time in collaborative planning and decision-making for the uncertain purpose of breaking new ground (Urbina et al, 1999).…”