59 min
S1E30. Host Mike Livermore on Interdisciplinary Engagement Free Range with Mike Livermore
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- Education
Host Mike Livermore concludes Season 1 of Free Range with a solo episode on the value of interdisciplinary engagement.
Livermore begins with the theory behind the podcast—speaking with guests with various perspectives and backgrounds relating to the environment and sustainability—and the tradeoffs between being a generalist rather than a specialist. (0:43 – 4:32) In this episode, he wants to explore the questions around interdisciplinary scholarship and engagement: Why do people do it? How is it useful? How is it done in a productive way? (4:37 – 11:20)
To begin, it is useful to understand why disciplines exist in the first place. A functional defense of disciplines is that they help us structure our knowledge production. (11:22 – 15:27) There is utility in modeling the world at different scales and reducing complexity of the models. Even though boundaries are somewhat arbitrary, they can help provide needed structure, and porous boundaries allow for productive crossover. Disciplinary boundaries also often seem to track something important about our world and how we understand it. (15:28 – 25:07). In the humanities, the boundaries are not as clearly world-tracking as they are within the sciences but may be more related to how we understand the world. (25:08 – 29:21) The value of disciplines is the creation of collections of people who share knowledge and research questions and methods, which promotes the progressive production of knowledge over time. (29:28 – 39:39)
Notwithstanding the value of disciplines, there is a place for interdisciplinary engagement. The value of such research is to combine various perspective. But while certain projects can be of interest to all fields involved, finding research that is rewarding for researches in many diverse fields is a big challenge in interdisciplinary collaboration. (39:40 – 56:23)
Livermore wraps up his thoughts on what makes interdisciplinary collaboration work, such as respect for one another’s disciplines, taking the time to understand what motivates them, and knowing the difference between normative and empirical questions. He concludes the episode with what motivates him personally, describing interest and appreciation in interdisciplinary engagement as an ‘aesthetic of knowledge.’ The overarching goal of Free Range is to create an opportunity to appreciate all of the interesting and difficult work being done across disciplines in the area of sustainability and the environment. (56:25 – 1:02:17)
Host Mike Livermore concludes Season 1 of Free Range with a solo episode on the value of interdisciplinary engagement.
Livermore begins with the theory behind the podcast—speaking with guests with various perspectives and backgrounds relating to the environment and sustainability—and the tradeoffs between being a generalist rather than a specialist. (0:43 – 4:32) In this episode, he wants to explore the questions around interdisciplinary scholarship and engagement: Why do people do it? How is it useful? How is it done in a productive way? (4:37 – 11:20)
To begin, it is useful to understand why disciplines exist in the first place. A functional defense of disciplines is that they help us structure our knowledge production. (11:22 – 15:27) There is utility in modeling the world at different scales and reducing complexity of the models. Even though boundaries are somewhat arbitrary, they can help provide needed structure, and porous boundaries allow for productive crossover. Disciplinary boundaries also often seem to track something important about our world and how we understand it. (15:28 – 25:07). In the humanities, the boundaries are not as clearly world-tracking as they are within the sciences but may be more related to how we understand the world. (25:08 – 29:21) The value of disciplines is the creation of collections of people who share knowledge and research questions and methods, which promotes the progressive production of knowledge over time. (29:28 – 39:39)
Notwithstanding the value of disciplines, there is a place for interdisciplinary engagement. The value of such research is to combine various perspective. But while certain projects can be of interest to all fields involved, finding research that is rewarding for researches in many diverse fields is a big challenge in interdisciplinary collaboration. (39:40 – 56:23)
Livermore wraps up his thoughts on what makes interdisciplinary collaboration work, such as respect for one another’s disciplines, taking the time to understand what motivates them, and knowing the difference between normative and empirical questions. He concludes the episode with what motivates him personally, describing interest and appreciation in interdisciplinary engagement as an ‘aesthetic of knowledge.’ The overarching goal of Free Range is to create an opportunity to appreciate all of the interesting and difficult work being done across disciplines in the area of sustainability and the environment. (56:25 – 1:02:17)
59 min