Transdisciplinarity as a Nonimperial Encounter

For an Open Sociology

Bibliographic Data

ID4480640
AuthorsG Steinmetz (0000-0002-5081-1114, University of Michigan, corresponding author)
Year2007
Volume91
Issue1
Pages48-65
Publication date2007-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThesis Eleven (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0725-5136 • E-ISSN: 1461-7455
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0725513607082002
OpenAlexW2020453922
LanguageEN
Citations received25
References cited46

In this article I argue for a transdisciplinary approach to the human or social sciences. There is little ontological or epistemological justification for a division among these disciplines. I recommend that sociology stop worrying about policing its disciplinary boundaries and begin to encourage various forms of intellectual transculturation. I then analyze barriers to transdisciplinarity by comparing disciplines to states and comparing the relations among disciplines to different sorts of imperial practice, or interstate relations. The most common interdisciplinary strategies are analogous to the informal, nonterritorial imperialism practiced globally by the United States. Three other forms of interdisciplinarity are discussed: the annexation of one discipline by another - a situation that is analogous to colonialism; nonhegemonized systems of equal disciplines (analogous to the Westphalian state system); and nonimperial `traveling' and transculturation among disciplines (analogous to the practices of members of weak or declining imperial states

Discipline · Epistemology · Social science · Sociology · State (computer science · Transculturation · Transdisciplinarity · Anthropology · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Interdisciplinary Research and Collaboration · Philosophy · Philosophy and History of Science

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