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In Defense of Disciplines
Interdisciplinarity and Specialization in the Research University
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2014
About this book
Calls for closer connections among disciplines can be heard throughout the world of scholarly research, from major universities to the National Institutes of Health. In Defense of Disciplines presents a fresh and daring analysis of the argument surrounding interdisciplinarity. Challenging the belief that blurring the boundaries between traditional academic fields promotes more integrated research and effective teaching, Jerry Jacobs contends that the promise of interdisciplinarity is illusory and that critiques of established disciplines are often overstated and misplaced.
Drawing on diverse sources of data, Jacobs offers a new theory of liberal arts disciplines such as biology, economics, and history that identifies the organizational sources of their dynamism and breadth. Illustrating his thesis with a wide range of case studies including the diffusion of ideas between fields, the creation of interdisciplinary scholarly journals, and the rise of new fields that spin off from existing ones, Jacobs turns many of the criticisms of disciplines on their heads to mount a powerful defense of the enduring value of liberal arts disciplines. This will become one of the anchors of the case against interdisciplinarity for years to come.
Drawing on diverse sources of data, Jacobs offers a new theory of liberal arts disciplines such as biology, economics, and history that identifies the organizational sources of their dynamism and breadth. Illustrating his thesis with a wide range of case studies including the diffusion of ideas between fields, the creation of interdisciplinary scholarly journals, and the rise of new fields that spin off from existing ones, Jacobs turns many of the criticisms of disciplines on their heads to mount a powerful defense of the enduring value of liberal arts disciplines. This will become one of the anchors of the case against interdisciplinarity for years to come.
Author / Editor information
Jerry Jacobs is professor of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. He is coauthor, with Ann Boulis, of The Changing Face of Medicine: Women Doctors and the Evolution of Health Care in America and, with Kathleen Gerson, The Time Divide: Work, Family, and Gender Inequality, among others. He lives near Philadelphia.
Reviews
“I congratulate Jerry Jacobs for the rigor of his research and the strenuousness of his arguments. There is revealing new information and necessary clarity and clarification in these pages. His critique of some of the most egregious assaults on the disciplines is especially noteworthy, and the case studies are valuable. This is a book that we need.”
— Harvey J. Graff, Ohio State University“Jerry Jacobs’s new book provides the missing counterpoint to the fanfare for interdisciplinary collaboration that has swept over much of academe during the last three decades. Thanks to Jacobs’s creative and painstaking research, we now know that disciplines are not the ‘silos’ they are so often made out to be; instead, they are surprisingly open to good ideas and new methods developed elsewhere. Nor are universities rigidly bound to the disciplines—instead, they, routinely foster interdisciplinary work through dozens of organized research centers. This book is more than a necessary corrective. It is a well-crafted piece of social science, equally at home in the worlds of intellectual history, organizational studies, and quantitative methods. It deserves to be read by all who care about the future of universities—defenders and critics of the disciplines alike.”
— Steven G. Brint, University of California, Riverside“At a time of undue hoopla about interdisciplinarity, this is a sobering, highly readable, and data-driven defense of retaining disciplinary units as the primary mode of organizing research universities. A must read for those concerned with the future of knowledge innovation.”
— Myra H. Strober, Stanford University“This is a timely, subtle and much needed evaluation of interdisciplinarity as a far reaching goal sweeping around the globe. Jerry Jacobs sets new standards of discussion by documenting with great new data the long term fate of interdisciplinary fields and the centrality of disciplines to higher education and the modern research university.”
— Karin Knorr Cetina, University of Chicago“An important work. . . . Jacobs puts his knowledge of the university and his keen sociological eye to good use and bases his discussion on existing studies and on primary and secondary data. His use of citation analyses to explore the issue of the flow of information among disciplines is particularly impressive, as is his chapter-long analysis of the interdisciplinary limitations of the field of American studies. . . . Highly recommended.”
— ChoiceTopics
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Frontmatter
i -
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Contents
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Figures
vi -
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Tables
vii -
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Preface
ix -
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1. Introduction
1 - Part One. Academic Disciplines, Specialization, and Scholarly Communication
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2. The Critique of Disciplinary Silos
13 -
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3. Dynamic Disciplines
27 -
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4. Specialization, Synthesis, and the Proliferation of Journals
54 -
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5. Disciplines, Silos, and Webs
76 -
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6. Receptivity Curves: Educational Research and the Flow of Ideas
100 - Part Two. Interdisciplinary Alternatives
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7. Antidisciplinarity
123 -
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8. American Studies: Interdisciplinarity over Half a Century
153 -
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9. Integrative Undergraduate Education
188 -
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10. Implementing Interdisciplinarity
210 -
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Appendix: Data Sources
229 -
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Notes
233 -
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References
249 -
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Index
267
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
October 21, 2019
eBook ISBN:
9780226069463
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook ISBN:
9780226069463
Keywords for this book
interdisciplinary; specialization; specializing; research; academic; scholarly; college; university; professor; promotion; tenure; learning; education; national institute of health; analysis; boundaries; academia; higher ed; graduate school; grad student; liberal arts; data; studies; biology; economics; history; pedagogy; communication; undergraduate; teaching
Audience(s) for this book
For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research
