Overcoming disciplinary divides in higher education: the case of agricultural...

杨利霞

Overcoming disciplinary divides in higher
education: the case of agricultural economics


As global problems have become ever more complex, the production and
organization of knowledge in society is increasingly based on the sharing, inte
gration and collaboration of diverse experiences. For instance, global ‘grand
challenges’, such as world hunger, poverty, climate change, and sustainability
often require an interdisciplinary (ID) approach, in which integrating the insights
of different disciplines provides a more comprehensive solution than can be
offered by any given discipline. Universities or higher educational institutions
face increasing pressures to engage in such interdisciplinary collaboration. This
interdisciplinarity, however, raises particular organizational challenges to
departments in higher educational institutions. In particular, while departments
have been traditionally organized around a disciplinary core, interdisciplinarity
has placed increasing pressures on departments, such as agricultural economics,
to integrate insights from disciplines that do not advance a department’s dis
ciplinary core. Few ID researchers have addressed the issue of how this internal
conflflict can be resolved in a departmental setting. Resolving this internal conflflict
is important to developing a greater interdisciplinarity among the disciplines of
departmental units where a greater variety of disciplinary insights can be drawn
upon to solve complex social problems. Here, we call for a unique organizational
structure that can resolve this internal conflflict. In using agricultural economics
departments as a case study, we appeal to a concept of a “gatekeeper” whose
role is to institute “loosely coupled” connections that can reconcile a depart
ment’s internal conflflicts. This “gatekeeper” can advance the “normal science” of
a department’s core and peripheral disciplines, while at the same time support a
‘common ground’ that appeals to these disciplines’ common interests. A key
conclusion is that “gatekeepers” can sustain the integration of disciplinary
insights necessary for the advancement of interdisciplinarity in higher educa
tional institutions.