Situated Learning
Interdisciplinary Practices of Pandemic Research
Keywords:
interdisciplinary, integration, communities of practice, rolesAbstract
The COVID-19 pandemic urgently challenged the ways in which scientific knowledge could address the multiple and complex problems it presented. Interdisciplinary research thus appeared to be the path forward in developing effective solutions. The University of the Republic (Udelar) in Uruguay was no exception to this situation and reacted swiftly, aiming to contribute to solving the challenges within its context. This article has a dual objective. On the one hand, it seeks to analyze how various interdisciplinary processes were implemented, the forms of organization adopted, and how they managed to integrate different types of knowledge. On the other hand, it aims to identify the roles assumed by researchers in these processes and the skills they developed to create solutions for the problems addressed. To conduct this analysis, three experiences were selected, each of which involved designing specific devices -swabs, a mask disinfectant, and a high-flow oxygenator- intended to address health-related issues arising during the pandemic.
Downloads
References
Bammer, G. (2005). Integration and Implementation Sciences: building a new specialization. Ecology and Society, 10(2), 6.
Boix Mansilla, V. (2006). Interdisciplinary work at the frontier: An empirical examination of expertinter disciplinary epistemologies. Issues in Integrative Studies, 24, 1-31.
Bruun, H., Hukkienen, J., Huutoniemi, K. & Klein, J. T. (2005). Promoting Interdisciplinary research: the case of the Academy of Finland. Helsinki: Academy of Finland.
Collins, H. & Evans, R. (2007). Rethinking Expertise. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Defila, R. & Di Giulio, A. (2015). Integrating knowledge: challenges raised by the Inventory of Synthesis. Futures, 65, 123-135.
Goñi Mazzitelli, M, Vienni Baptista, B., Ferrigno, F. & Guedes, P. (2018). Modalidades de trabajo en equipos interdisciplinarios: formatos, conceptos y dificultades, una mirada desde Uruguay. ClimaCom – Interdisciplinaridade, 5(13).
Hidalgo, C., Vienni Baptista, B. & Simón, C. (2018). Encrucijadas interdisciplinarias. Buenos Aires: Fundación CICCUS & CLACSO.
Hoffmann, S., Deutsch, L., Klein, J. T. & O’Rourke, M. (2022). Integrate the integrators!
A call for establishing academic careers for integration experts. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 9(147).
Hoffmann, S., Deutsch, L. & O’Rourke, M. (2024). Integration experts and expertise. En F. Darbellay (Ed.), Elgar Ecyclopedia of Interdisciplinarity and Transdisciplinarity (273-276). Ginebra: Universidad de Ginebra.
Hoffmann, S., Pohl, C. & Hering, J. (2017). Exploring Transdisciplinary Integration within a Large Research Program: Empirical Lessons from Four Thematic Synthesis Processes. Research Policy, 46, 678-692.
Invernizzi, N. (2024). Ciencia de excelencia y problemas sociales persistentes Efectos de la evaluación y algunos caminos posibles. En K. Batthyány et al. (Ed.), Evaluación académica situada y relevante: aportes y desafíos en América Latina y el Caribe. CLACSO.
Klein, J. T. (2011). Chapter 2: A taxonomy of interdisciplinarity. En Frodeman, R., J. Thompson Klein y C. Mitcham (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Interdisciplinarity, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 15-30.
Klein, J. T. (2012). Research integration: a comparative knowledge Base. En A. F. Repko, W. H. Newell & R. Szostak (Eds.), Case Studies in Interdisciplinary Research (283-298). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Klein, J. T. (2014). Prospects for transdisciplinarity. Futures, 36(4), 515–526. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2003.10.007.
Klein, J. T. (2021). Beyond Interdisciplinarity: Boundary Work, Communication, and Collaboration. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Leigh Star, S. & Griesemer, J. (1989). Institutional Ecology, ‘Translation’ and Boundary Objects: Amateurs and Professional in Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. Social Studies of Science, 19(3), 387-420.
Lyall, C. (2019). Beingan Interdisciplinary Academic: How Institutions Shape University Careers. Palgrave.
Lyall, C., Bruce, A., Tait, J. & Meagher, L. (2011). Interdisciplinary Research Journeys: Practical Strategies for Capturing Creativity. California: Bloomsbury.
O’Brien, L., Marzano, M. & White, R. (2013). Participatory interdisciplinarity: towards the integration of disciplinary diversity with stakeholder engagement for new models of knowledge production. Science and Public Policy, 40(1), 51-61.
Pohl, C., Thompson Klein, J. & Hoffmann, S. et al. (2021). Conceptualising Transdisciplinary Integration as a Multidimensional Interactive Process. Environmental Science & Policy, 118, 18-26.
Sutz, J (2024). Consensos, disensos y desafíos en la evaluación de la investigación orientada hacia una Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación inclusiva y problemas de desarrollo. En K. Batthyány et al. (Ed.), Evaluación académica situada y relevante: aportes y desafíos en América Latina y el Caribe. CLACSO.
Sutz, J. (2022). Ciencia y urgencia: mirando al futuro desde lo aprendido en la pandemia. Revista Iberoamericana de Ciencia, Tecnología y Sociedad —CTS, 17(50), 225-230. Recuperado de: https://ojs.revistacts.net/index.php/CTS/article/view/307.
Wenger, E (1998). Communities of practice: learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wenger, E., Snyder, W. & McDermott, R. (2002). Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge–Seven Principles for Cultivating Communities of Practice. Harvard: Harvard Business School Press.
Wittmayer, J. M., Avelino, F., van Steenbergen, F. & Loorbach, D. (2017). Actor roles in transition: Insights from sociological perspectives. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 24, 45-56.
Valles, M. (2003) Técnicas cualitativas de investigación social. Madrid: Síntesis.
Vienni Baptista, B., Goñi Mazzitelli, M., García Bravo, H., Rivas Fauré, I, Marín-Vanegas, D. & Hidalgo, C. (2022a). Situated expertise in integration and implementation processes in Latin America. Humanities and social sciences communications, 9, 184.
Vienni Baptista, B., Fletcher, I., Lyall, C., &Pohl, C. (2022a). Embracing heterogeneity: Why plural understandings strengthen interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity. Science and Public Policy, 49(6), 865-877.
Vienni Baptista, B. (2024). Investigating Interdisciplinarity and Transdisciplinarity: How Meta-Ethnography Contributes to the Study of Collaborative Research. Practices International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 23, 1-17.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 CC Attribution 4.0
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
All CTS's issues and academic articles are under a CC-BY license.
Since 2007, CTS has provided open and free access to all its contents, including the complete archive of its quarterly edition and the different products presented in its electronic platform. This decision is based on the belief that offering free access to published materials helps to build a greater and better exchange of knowledge.
In turn, for the quarterly edition, CTS allows institutional and thematic repositories, as well as personal web pages, to self-archive articles in their post-print or editorial version, immediately after the publication of the final version of each issue and under the condition that a link to the original source will be incorporated into the self-archive.
