This book examines the epistemological, social and political dimensions of practising interdisciplinary approaches to enhance knowledge, pedagogy, and methodological aspects of research in the South Asian context. The volume sets the context by bringing together a range of ideas, questions and reflections on the concept of interdisciplinarity, the numerous waves of interdisciplinarity in contemporary history of knowledge, which were radically different from each other in their epistemological and political orientations. The book revisits the concept of interdisciplinarity and takes into cognizance the importance of the mutual shaping of knowledge and politics in our search for inclusive and sustainable future(s). The book offers a blend of both conceptual and institutional discourses on interdisciplinarity and the personal experiences of leading practitioners, bringing together critical engagements from different vantage points on practising it. It will be of interest to researchers, scholars and practitioners of social sciences and humanities disciplines as well as interdisciplinary fields such as educational studies, development studies, women’s studies, media studies, cultural studies, urban studies, labour studies, legal studies, public health, disability studies, global/international studies and performing arts. It will also be useful for policy planners, development practitioners, activists and social organizers working in related fields.

In this volume, Julie Klein provides the first comprehensive study of the modern concept of interdisciplinarity, supplementing her discussion with the most complete bibliography yet compiled on the subject. In this volume, Julie Klein provides the first comprehensive study of the modern concept of interdisciplinarity, supplementing her discussion with the most complete bibliography yet compiled on the subject. Spanning the social sciences, natural sciences, humanities, and professions, her study is a synthesis of existing scholarship on interdisciplinary research, education and health care. Klein argues that any interdisciplinary activity embodies a complex network of historical, social, psychological, political, economic, philosophical, and intellectual factors. Whether the context is a short-ranged instrumentality or a long-range reconceptualization of the way we know and learn, the concept of interdisciplinarity is an important means of solving problems and answering questions that cannot be satisfactorily addressed using singular methods or approaches.

In interdisciplinary projects and research collaborations, participants face multiple demands. However, these expectations encounter a reality that is characterized by time pressure, high demands in one's own discipline, and often increasingly administrative tasks. What can meaningful interdisciplinary work look like in an academic environment? What tasks and constraints do researchers face? And, considering the range of disciplines involved, how can interdisciplinary research projects be designed in a successful way? How does one meaningfully bring different disciplines, their methods, and theories into conversation with each other across the spatial and temporal distance of their subjects? And all that in a way in which the yield is effective and visible in all subprojects? This publication sheds light on this issue by way of example. It reflects on and formulates the experiences and outcomes of interdisciplinary work of a humanities and social science research training group with disciplinary breadth as well as historical depth. The disciplines involved are ancient history, archaeology, art history, music didactics, North American history, patristics, philology (Latin/Greek studies), religious studies, sociology, and theology with the subjects Old and New Testament. In pairs of advanced and young scholars, individual experiences and identifiable results of interdisciplinary work in the respective contributions or research projects are recorded; on a next level, discipline-specific outcomes, but also problems are pinpointed; on a third level, collective experiences with interdisciplinary research displayed. The contributions take a variety of forms: reflections, dialogues, experience reports as well as perspective observations. Rafael Barroso Romero, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain, Elisabeth Begemann, Max-Weber-Kolleg Erfurt, Germany, Enno Friedrich, University of Rostock, Germany, Elena Malagoli, Max-Weber-Kolleg Erfurt, Germany, Anna-Katharina Rieger, University of Graz, Austria, Jörg Rüpke, Max-Weber-Kolleg Erfurt, Germany, Ramón Soneira Martínez, Austrian Archaeological Institute Vienna, Austria, Markus Vinzent, Max-Weber-Kolleg Erfurt, Germany.

First-hand insights into the operations and successes of some of the world's foremost interdisciplinary research centres and the ways in which interdisciplinarity is researched, organized, and taught around the world.

Phenomenology was one of the twentieth century’s major philosophical movements and continues to be a vibrant and widely studied subject today. The Routledge Companion to Phenomenology is an outstanding guide and reference source to the key philosophers, topics and themes in this exciting subject, and essential reading for any student or scholar of phenomenology. Comprising over fifty chapters by a team of international contributors, the Companion is divided into five clear parts: main figures in the phenomenological movement, from Brentano to Derrida main topics in phenomenology phenomenological contributions to philosophy phenomenological intersections historical postscript. Close attention is paid to the core topics in phenomenology such as intentionality, perception, subjectivity, the self, the body, being and phenomenological method. An important feature of the Companion is its examination of how phenomenology has contributed to central disciplines in philosophy such as metaphysics, philosophy of mind, moral philosophy, aesthetics and philosophy of religion as well as disciplines beyond philosophy such as race, cognitive science, psychiatry, literary criticism and psychoanalysis.