Garforth, L and Kerr, EA (2011) Interdisciplinarity and the social sciences: capital, institutions and autonomy’. British Journal of Sociology, 4 (62). 657 - 676. ISSN 0007-1315
Abstract
Recent discussions about disciplinarity and interdisciplinarity in the social sciences have tended to map and critique methods, theories and approaches to knowledge production, but spend less time exploring the ways in which institutional constraints and personal trajectories produce different kinds of disciplinarity and interdisciplinarity. In this paper we present findings on interdisciplinarity from UK research undertaken as part of an EC project on knowledge, gender and institutions. The research involved a small survey (n = 14), in-depth interviews (n = 5), two focus groups (n = 7) and observation of social scientists in one university department between June 2006 and April 2007. We reflect on the unwillingness of social scientists to confront the conditions of our academic labour in an account of our difficulties with gaining access and respondents in this study, before moving on to consider some of the different ways in which interdisciplinarity and disciplinary commitments were related to particular forms of scientific and symbolic capital. We go on to discuss this in relation to the autonomy of academic teaching-and-research staff compared to contract researchers, and consider the implications of our findings for the future of interdisciplinarity and the social sciences.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2011, Wiley. This is the accepted version of the following article:Garforth, L and Kerr, EA (2011) Interdisciplinarity and the social sciences: capital, institutions and autonomy’. British Journal of Sociology, 4 (62). 657 - 676, which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-4446.2011.01385.x Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Interdisciplinarity; social sciences; scientific capital; autonomy; heteronomy; institutions |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Education, Social Sciences and Law (Leeds) > School of Sociology and Social Policy (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 09 Apr 2014 08:18 |
Last Modified: | 16 Sep 2016 14:09 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-4446.2011.01385.x |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/j.1468-4446.2011.01385.x |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:43374 |