UNDERSTAND YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES - Time and Flexibility
Our experience: with our project we were very fortunate to have time (four years) and the flexibility to cultivate and encourage our interdisciplinarity. For the first year we worked out what the main project themes were, where the research was to be based, and how it was to be structured. Using some of the exercises in this toolkit we spent time getting to know each other and developing strong colleague relationships. Our second and third years were devoted to the research process and proved the most challenging in terms of working as a team and encouraging interdisciplinarity. Our final year has seen us adopt a much slower, more thoughtful pace – using the time to reflect on the project, its findings and to begin to write about our work.
Why?
As with any research project the length of time you have to conduct the research and the degree of flexibility over what you do, whether in the design of the research or its objectives, is vital to what you can achieve. The same could be said for how interdisciplinary a project can be. However, interdisciplinarity has added time challenges. As discussed elsewhere in the toolkit, the conventions of other disciplines, their language, culture and methods, need to be understood and appreciated. A way of working then needs to be agreed which draws upon your combined expertise. All of this takes time. As discussed, our experience was a very fortunate one, as we had plenty of time to consider what we were doing and the space to carve out our interdisciplinary way of working.
How?
With any interdisciplinary project you need to be realistic about what you can achieve in the length of time you have and within the constraints of your project remit. If this is a matter of months then the degree of interdisciplinarity achievable may be significantly less than a project with several years to evolve and develop. Likewise, if your research is strictly bound by budget or strict aims and objectives, then the ability to create your own particular style of interdisciplinarity may be restricted.
This does not mean that interdisciplinarity is impossible; it is just a word of warning about not being over ambitious. For instance, a project of a matter of months may not see the longer term changes to team members from different disciplines that a project of several years may realise. Similarly, hybridisation of methods, and the production of transdisciplinary approaches may not be as easily attainable or recognisable in projects where budget cannot be freely moved from one area to another.
The exercises can still be used though and interdisciplinarity encouraged whatever the length of the project.