The 21st-Century Academic Landscape

This chapter details the confluence of changes in the academic and social landscapes that have culminated in the move toward transdisciplinarity. The author distinguishes between disciplinary, multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary approaches to knowledge building, explaining the premise of each approach. The author suggests each approach is useful and then reviews the particular strengths of transdisciplinarity for addressing contemporary problems and meeting our moral mandate to do work that is of use in the world. There is ample discussion of the changes that have led to transdisciplinarity, including the emergence of critical areas studies, mixed-methods research and pragmatism, globalization, technological shifts, public engagement in issues of import, and the complex and diffuse nature of contemporary problems. Specific tools, such as citizens’ juries, are noted.