Abstract
“Let me tell you a story…” It’s the ultimate hook: the promise of being welcomed into memorable experience. This is arguably the first form of knowledge mobilization. It is how we have evolutionarily developed a manner in which to foster common ground. Stories shape our identities and social norms. This threshold of shifting dialogues from caustic polarity to common purpose is what we are hardwired for. The field of interdisciplinary is from ‘the spaces between’: disruption at the thresholds and liminalities of disciplinary boundaries. If a problem is sufficiently complex, it cannot be addressed from one perspective. To contextualize complexity, I establish an epistemology of interdisciplinarity as a disposition; interdisciplinary as a state of disruption. We articulate our most pressing problems, rooted in identities expressed as stories, that influence behaviour. These are not from singular perspectives or fields, but at levels of scale, focusing on the emerging future. We are experiencing disruption at a global scale. Its impact is shared experience. ‘In the time of COVID’ is code for ‘pivotal moment’. How we have shaped ourselves as society is experiencing disruption to those systems. If we shift our focus from addressing symptoms, beyond systems, to paradigmatic level change, the system can see itself, and we can see ourselves within it. It is with a disposition of disruption that interdisciplinarians explore broadly and widely; then, rigorously and ruthlessly articulate the questions to effect change. Let me tell you a story… it is one you will recognize, because together, it is ours.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2021 Special Focus—The Opportunities of Crisis: Resilience and Change in World History
KEYWORDS
Interdisciplinarity, Metaphor, Liminalities, Epistemology, Social research, Identity, Knowledge Mobilization, Disruption
