van manen (2001) transdiscipliniraty and new production of knowledge

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Qualitative Health Research

DOI: 10.1177/104973201129119442

2001; 11; 850Qual Health ResMax Van Manen

Transdisciplinarity and the New Production of Knowledge

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EndNotes

Transdisciplinarity and theNew Production of Knowledge

Max van Manen

It appears that university- and discipline-based forms of inquiry are giving way

to newmodes of knowledge generation. In The New Production of Knowledge: TheDynamics of Science and Research in Contemporary Societies, Michael Gibbons and hisinternational group of colleagues (1999) argued thattransdisciplinarityis a term ofthe discourse that describes changes in the way that research is increasingly prac-ticed in contemporary societies. Whereas traditionally knowledge is developed inthescholarly context of academicdisciplines,the newknowledge production is car-riedoutwithin a context of application.The authorsGibbons, Limoges, Nowotny,Schwartzman, Scott, and Trowshowed at the hand of many examples that thenewscientists are less oftenoccupied with basic or first principleresearch andmoreoften with direct applications of knowledge to problems arising in technological,commercial, industrial, economic, communicational, and governmental sectors.

The argument about the new mode of knowledge production is provocativebecause this new mode is not the result of simple borrowings, importations, and

accumulations of existent disciplinary perspectives, concepts, and methodolo-gies. Rather, the new mode of knowledge production transcends the disciplinarytheories and paradigms from which it is in part derived. Gibbons et al. (1999) callthis mode 2 knowledge production. What distinguishes this new epistemologyof transdisciplinary and application is that it is more context sensitive, eclectic,transient, and inventive than traditional (or mode 1) interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary research practices and methodologies. Gibbons et al. (1999) suggestedthat their examples and models are problem-solution oriented and often driven byconsiderations of marketability, social policy, and practical use. Yet they also seesimilar trends of transdisciplinarity and context-sensitive inquiry occurring in thehumanities andthearts. Forexample,they cite thenew uses of information technol-ogies and computer science in qualitative research (see Table 1).

Gibbons and colleagues described and advocated a way of thinking aboutknowledge and knowledge production that is quite reductionist and problematicfrom the perspective of the ethical value of human understanding. But it is impor-tant to be aware of the global trends to conceptualize knowledge in managementandmarketplaceterms. Ina sequelstudyRethinking Science: Knowledgeand thePublicin an Age of Uncertainty, Nowotny, Scott, and Gibbons (2001) explored how the re-

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phenomenological philosophers rarely conduct research interviews; they seldomconduct on-site observations; they rarely employallusive logics; and they typically

distrust artistic, fictional, noncognitive, and nonrational epistemologies. But toinquire into topics that are of concern to professional practitioners, contemporaryphenomenological researchers mayneedto stepoutside theacceptedlimits of disci-plinary methodologies. They may turn to literature and art, to ordinary languagesources and voices from the street, and yes, also to the relevant social science andphilosophical disciplines to explore sources of meaning that evoke newand practi-cal understandings and that resonate with the emergent legitimating priorities oflocal and global contexts of contemporary societies.

REFERENCES

Gibbons, M.,Limoges,C., Nowotny, H.,Schwartzman, S.,Scott,P., & Trow, M. (1999). The new production

of knowledge: The dynamics of science and research in contemporary societies. London: Sage.Nowotny, H.,Scott,P., & Gibbons, M. (2001). Rethinking science: Knowledgeand thepublic in an ageof uncer-

tainty. London: Sage.

Max van Manen is a professor in the Department of Secondary Education at the University of Alberta,Edmonton, Canada.

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