OVERVIEW OF TRANSDISCIPLINARITY: E4D SEMINAR, MARCH 2012Sue L. T. McGregor PhD ProfessorDocent University of Helsinki Mount Saint Vincent University Halifax NS Canadahttp://www.consultmcgregor.com Sue.mcgregor@msvu.ca

DISCIPLINARYOnly one discipline is brought to bear to solve a

societal problem. Worse yet, it may be that just one branch (deep, fragmented specialization) within this one discipline is drawn upon. People working in one discipline (e.g., law, economics, sociology, science) study the same research objects, share the same paradigm (world view and set of assumptions about what is real), use common methodologies and methods, and speak the “same” language and lingo.

Although single disciplinary work has its place, it is limiting when trying to solve complex societal problems because only one lens is brought to bear on the dynamics inherent in complexity.

MULTIDISCIPLINARITY When people simply

mingle single disciplines to problem solve, while each discipline maintains its distinctiveness

the work between disciplines does not involve integrating new knowledge into new patterns – it is just a sharing of information to be used later by one discipline within the university system

INTERDISCIPLINARY When solving problems from the interdisciplinary

approach, the people involved offer parallel analyses of parts of a problem. A new synergy emerges from the transfer of knowledge between disciplines and the creation of new patterns

This type of coordinated work often yields (a) new applications of knowledge (methods, strategies, processes, techniques), (b) new analyses, or (c) the generation of entire new disciplines (e.g., bioethics).

Although interdisciplinary work is very powerful, those involved do not intend to change the boundaries around their respective disciplines or to change the relations between the disciplines. And, they tend not to engage with entities outside of the university setting. It IS called inter (between) disciplines…

MONO, MULTI- AND - INTERDISCIPLINARITY ARE NEEDED, BUT ARE NOT ENOUGH These approaches are confined within the

university setting, the academy, and privilege only disciplinary knowledge.

They do not provide a space for minds prepared through other ways of knowing, the minds of those living with the complex problems and/or the minds that could contribute unique insights if only given a voice

There needs to be a meeting of the minds of those working within and across academic disciplines and those living life in civil society (citizens, NGOs, governments and businesses); this requires a new way to create knowledge – a new methodology.

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Civil Society

IT WARRANTS SAYING AGAIN....ALL FOUR ARE NEEDED, AS IS THE VOICE OF THOSE WORKING AND LIVING OUTSIDE OF THE UNIVERSITY SETTING: there must be a

place for disciplinary, multi and interdisciplinary scholarship in concert with transdisciplinarity linkages between the academy and civil society, else we cannot hope to solve the complex, wicked problems facing humanity.

EXAMPLES OF TD WICKED PROBLEMS FACED BY HUMANITY THAT REQUIRE NEW APPROACHES TO GENERATE A DIFFERENT KIND OF KNOWLEDGE, TD KNOWLEDGE:

Unfulfilled human potential Hindered freedom and injustices Insecurity and lack of peace Uneven distribution of resources Uneven development Human aggression and greed Abuse of personal and political power Disempowered citizens and communities Unbalanced energy flows Unsustainability

TRANSDISCIPLINARY KNOWLEDGE

‘Trans’ means zigzagging back and forth, moving across, going beyond, blurring boundaries, even pushing past boundaries. This is called INTELLECTUAL BORDER-WORK…. At the academy-civil society interface.

TRANSDISCIPLINARY TD intellectual work involves creating a

space for shared perspectives and dialogue, leading to a joint analysis using new approaches that could not have existed without the crisscrossing of ideas to weave together a new web of knowledge.

Those involved in this process include members of university departments and research centres and members of civil society (including all manner of citizens as well as NGOs, NPOs, governments and private enterprise). Local, indigenous knowledge is central to TD problem solving.

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NOT QUITE TRANSDISCIPLINARITY

Interface with civil society is

missing

FOUR BASIC AXIOMS OF ANY METHODOLOGY (USED TO CREATE NEW KNOWLEDGE) (INCLUDING THE CONVENTIONAL: EMPIRICAL, INTERPRETIVE AND CRITICAL)

TD AXIOMS

ONTOLOGY – WHAT COUNTS AS REALITY

ONTOLOGY – WHAT COUNTS AS REALITY Because the intent is to integrate

many levels of truth while generating new knowledge, it is essential to seek multiple perspectives on any human problem (or set of human problems) (rather than one level of reality, the empirically generated reality and one truth)

TD ontology respects the complex and dynamic relationships among at least 10 different realities organized along three Levels of Reality:

TD ONTOLOGY OF MULTIPLE LEVELS OF REALITY

(a) the internal world of humans, where consciousness flows – the TD-Subject (comprising political, social, historical, and individual realities);

(b) the external world of humans where information flows – the TD-Object (comprising environmental, economic, and cosmic/planetary realities); and

(c) the Hidden Third. Peoples’ experiences, interpretations, descriptions, representations, images, and formulas meet on this third level. Three realities exist in this intuitive zone of non-resistance, this mediated interface: culture and art, religions, and spiritualities.

THE HIDDEN THIRD (CONTAINS 3 LEVELS OF REALITY) IN THIS SPACE, PEOPLE SHED THEIR RESISTANCE TO TRUTH INFORMED BY OTHER REALITIES AND JOIN THESE REALITIES TO GENERATE COMPLEX TD KNOWLEDGE

AXIOM 1- ONTOLOGY MULTIPLE LAYERS OF REALITY AND THE HIDDEN THIRD(IMAGE USED WITH PERMISSION OF BASARAB NICOLESCU)

Axiom 1- OntologyMultiple Levels of Reality

THE HIDDEN T (THIRD) Hidden Third mediates the flow of information

with the simultaneous flow of consciousness such that divergent minds can connect and share information and perspectives so as to solve complex, emergent problems.

The emergence of a temporary new T state (where A and non-A can exist at the same time, the logic of the included middle) represents the emergence of new insights and perceptions, made possible because of the temporary reconciliation of any contradictions or antagonism between A and non-A (different realities).

The arrow pointing upward in this Figure denotes temporary unification of contradictions and antagonism amongst various points of view (Levels of Reality, NRs) thereby increasing the generation of TD information about a complex problem

WHERE THE HIDDEN THIRD OPERATES – IN THE QUANTUM VACUUM, WHICH IS NOT EMPTY; RATHER, IT IS FULL OF POTENTIALITIES, READY TO EMERGE

“MEETING OF THE MINDS” – INFORMATION AND CONSCIOUSNESS

LOGIC – HABITS OF THE MIND USED TO REASON AND MAKE ARGUMENTS

AXIOM 2- LOGICLOGIC OF THE INCLUDED MIDDLE (RIGHT IMAGE)

This axiom is concerned with the habits of the mind that are acceptable to use to reason and make inferences (draw conclusions) when developing arguments, taking a position, interpreting data et cetera.

Left image – Logic of the Excluded Middle (dead empty space) Right image – Logic of Included Middle – alive, dynamic space in flux

NEWTONIAN PHYSICS OF THE EXCLUDED MIDDLE (DEAD, EMPTY, STATIC SPACE, PREDICTABLE, MEASURABLE, CONTROLLABLE)

AXIOM 2 LOGIC OF THE INCLUDED MIDDLE CON’TI use the metaphor of the lava lamp. The

space among academic disciplines and between the academy and civil society is alive, dynamic, in flux, always moving – called the Fertile Middle Space. There IS a middle ground!

INCLUSIVE LOGICComplex, emergent problem solving of wicked

problems happens in the lava lamp.

Everything is in-formation (including information), in flux, always changing, always emerging

PEOPLE FROM MANY LEVELS OF REALITY ENTERING (OR NOT) THE FERTILE GROUND OF THE INCLUDED MIDDLE, CROSSING THE ZONE OF RESISTANCE TO THE FERTILE MIDDLE SPACE FOR THE CREATION OF TD KNOWLEDGE USED TO SOLVE WICKED PROBLEMS WITH THE LOGIC OF THE INCLUDED MIDDLE AND THE MEDIATION OF THE HIDDEN THIRD INTERFACE (VACUUM)

EPISTEMOLOGY – WHAT COUNTS AS KNOWLEDGE AND HOW IT IS CREATEDIntent is create new knowledge that can be used to solve the wicked problems being faced by humanity

Axiom 3 – TD Knowledge is emergent and complex

This is a different epistemology than that used in conventional science, which assumes that only knowledge that is generated using the scientific method is valid (positivism).

TD knowledge is created by integration and cross-fertilization of insights from the many levels of reality, shared in the fertile middle space, integrated using inclusive logic.

I call this form of TD knowledge generation the dance. When people bounce off each other, energy is created – INTELLECTUAL FUSION!

AXIOM 3 KNOWLEDGE CON’TRemember those problems of

humanity?They cannot be solved by one

discipline or one sector of society alone. They are too complex. TD deals with complex problems not complicated problems. Here’s an example.

Poverty (resulting from uneven distribution of resources) is complicated because it is a knotted, tangled, detailed intricate issue comprising security, rights, responsibilities, justice, gender and freedom.

AXIOM 3 KNOWLEDGE CON’TWhen the TD axiom of knowledge is applied, the

assumption is that poverty ALSO is a complex problem, meaning it has the additional property of emergence. It is one thing to untangle a complicated problem and quite another to weave the strings that emerge into a new whole, to gain a better understanding of the world.

Emerge means to arise out of. What emerges? Novel qualities, properties, patterns, structures, relationships, in-formation and synergy… from the intellectual fusion. People were able to cross the hidden zone of resistance (the Hidden Third) between the multiple levels of realities and be open to other people’s world views and perspectives. There was a meeting of the minds, a flow of consciousness and of in-formation.

AXIOM 3 KNOWLEDGE CON’TEngaging in TD knowledge generation by solving

complex, wicked problems also assumes the issue is constantly changing as are the different people and their ideas (old and new) as they interact while untangling the knots and bringing new perspectives. Original perceptions about the problem (e.g., poverty) are left behind as a new fabric or weave takes place. EVERYTHING is in flux in the fertile middle space as people use inclusive logic to weave together insights from multiple levels of reality and differing perspectives and value premises. Have to respect new notions of order and chaos (see next)

AXIOM 3 KNOWLEDGE CON’TThe TD methodology of creating knowledge assumes that

chaos is a necessary place for people to live because order comes from chaos (understood to mean unpredictable not disordered). Order is there, it just has not emerged yet… New insights appear in this chaotic state – in this vacuum.

Also, people are self-organizing and adapting; they are capable of (re)creating an inner core from which they gain stability as a world citizen.

People no longer feel compelled to maintain the status quo. New respect for emergent tensions instead of trying to keep things in balance.

Order is Emerging from Within Chaos, just not in a predictable manner…

AXIOM 3 KNOWLEDGE (FINI)The TD knowledge necessary to solve the

complex, emergent, wicked problems of humanity is ALIVE because the problems that the knowledge addresses are alive, emerging from our life world. The knowledge created together (in the lava lamp) becomes part of everyone involved because once it is created, it falls back down on everyone in the TD dance and becomes part of them:

Embodied knowledge!!

AXIOLOGY – THE ROLE OF VALUES AND OF THE RESEARCHER/PROBLEM SOLVER

EXAMPLES OF UNIVERSITIES TRYING TO BRING TRANSDISCIPLINARITY TO THEIR WORKI have examples of what this TD work looks like in action, if there is any interest, for later in the seminar... http://integralpublishers.com/ip_books/transversity/