Academic discipline

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An academic discipline or academic field is a subdivision of knowledge that

is taught and researched at the college or university level. Disciplines are defined (in
part) and recognized by the academic journals in which research is published, and
the learned societies and academic departments or faculties within colleges and
 universities to which their practitioners belong. Academic disciplines are conventionally
divided into the humanities, including language, art and cultural studies, and
the scientific disciplines, such as physics, chemistry, and biology; the social
sciences are sometimes considered a third category.
Individuals associated with academic disciplines are commonly referred to
as experts or specialists. Others, who may have studied liberal arts or systems
theory rather than concentrating in a specific academic discipline, are classified
as generalists.
While academic disciplines in and of themselves are more or less focused practices,
scholarly approaches such as multidisciplinarity/interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity,
and cross-disciplinarity integrate aspects from multiple academic disciplines, therefore
addressing any problems that may arise from narrow concentration within specialized
fields of study. For example, professionals may encounter trouble communicating
across academic disciplines because of differences in language, specified concepts or
methodology.
Some researchers believe that academic disciplines may, in the future, be replaced by
what is known as Mode 2[1] or "post-academic science",[2] which involves the acquisition
of cross-disciplinary knowledge through collaboration of specialists from various
academic disciplines.

Contents

 1Terminology
 2History of the concept
 3Functions and criticism
 4Communities of academic disciplines
 5Interactions
o 5.1Multidisciplinary
o 5.2Transdisciplinary
o 5.3Cross-disciplinary
 6Bibliometric studies of disciplines
 7See also
 8References
 9Further reading
 10External links

Terminology[edit]
Also known as a field of study, field of inquiry, research field and branch of knowledge.
The different terms are used in different countries and fields.

History of the concept[edit]

The University of Paris in 1231 consisted of four faculties: Theology, Medicine, Canon
Law and Arts.[3] Educational institutions originally used the term "discipline" to catalog
and archive the new and expanding body of information produced by the scholarly
community. Disciplinary designations originated in German universities during the
beginning of the nineteenth century.
Most academic disciplines have their roots in the mid-to-late-nineteenth
century secularization of universities, when the traditional curricula were supplemented
with non-classical languages and literatures, social sciences such as political
science, economics, sociology and public administration, and natural
science and technology disciplines such as physics, chemistry, biology,
and engineering.
In the early twentieth century, new academic disciplines such
as education and psychology were added. In the 1970s and 1980s, there was an
explosion of new academic disciplines focusing on specific themes, such as media
studies, women's studies, and Africana studies. Many academic disciplines designed as
preparation for careers and professions, such as nursing, hospitality management,
and corrections, also emerged in the universities. Finally, interdisciplinary scientific
fields of study such as biochemistry and geophysics gained prominence as their
contribution to knowledge became widely recognized. Some new disciplines, such
as public administration, can be found in more than one disciplinary setting; some public
administration programs are associated with business schools (thus emphasizing the
public management aspect), while others are linked to the political science field
(emphasizing the policy analysis aspect).
As the twentieth century approached, these designations were gradually adopted by
other countries and became the accepted conventional subjects. However, these
designations differed between various countries. [4] In the twentieth century, the natural
science disciplines included: physics, chemistry, biology, geology, and astronomy. The
social science disciplines included: economics, politics, sociology, and psychology.
Prior to the twentieth century, categories were broad and general, which was expected
due to the lack of interest in science at the time. With rare exceptions, practitioners of
science tended to be amateurs and were referred to as "natural historians" and "natural
philosophers"—labels that date back to Aristotle—instead of "scientists". [5] Natural
history referred to what we now call life sciences and natural philosophy referred to the
current physical sciences.
Prior to the twentieth century, few opportunities existed for science as an occupation
outside the educational system. Higher education provided the institutional structure for
scientific investigation, as well as economic support for research and teaching. Soon,
the volume of scientific information rapidly increased and researchers realized the
importance of concentrating on smaller, narrower fields of scientific activity. Because of
this narrowing, scientific specializations emerged. As these specializations developed,
modern scientific disciplines in universities also improved their sophistication.
Eventually, academia's identified disciplines became the foundations for scholars of
specific specialized interests and expertise. [6]
Functions and criticism[edit]
An influential critique of the concept of academic disciplines came from Michel
Foucault in his 1975 book, Discipline and Punish. Foucault asserts that academic
disciplines originate from the same social movements and mechanisms of control that
established the modern prison and penal system in eighteenth-century France, and that
this fact reveals essential aspects they continue to have in common: "The disciplines
characterize, classify, specialize; they distribute along a scale, around a norm,
hierarchize individuals in relation to one another and, if necessary, disqualify and
invalidate." (Foucault, 1975/1979, p. 223) [7]

Communities of academic disciplines[edit]

Communities of academic disciplines can be found outside academia within
corporations, government agencies, and independent organizations, where they take
the form of associations of professionals with common interests and specific knowledge.
Such communities include corporate think tanks, NASA, and IUPAC. Communities such
as these exist to benefit the organizations affiliated with them by providing specialized
new ideas, research, and findings.
Nations at various developmental stages will find need for different academic disciplines
during different times of growth. A newly developing nation will likely prioritize
government, political matters and engineering over those of the humanities, arts and
social sciences. On the other hand, a well-developed nation may be capable of
investing more in the arts and social sciences. Communities of academic disciplines
would contribute at varying levels of importance during different stages of development.

Interactions[edit]
These categories explain how the different academic disciplines interact with one
another.
Multidisciplinary[edit]
Main article: Multidisciplinary approach
Multidisciplinary knowledge is associated with more than one existing academic
discipline or profession.
A multidisciplinary community or project is made up of people from different academic
disciplines and professions. These people are engaged in working together as equal
stakeholders in addressing a common challenge. A multidisciplinary person is one with
degrees from two or more academic disciplines. This one person can take the place of
two or more people in a multidisciplinary community. Over time, multidisciplinary work
does not typically lead to an increase or a decrease in the number of academic
disciplines. One key question is how well the challenge can be decomposed into
subparts, and then addressed via the distributed knowledge in the community. The lack
of shared vocabulary between people and communication overhead can sometimes be
an issue in these communities and projects. If challenges of a particular type need to be
repeatedly addressed so that each one can be properly decomposed, a multidisciplinary
community can be exceptionally efficient and effective. [citation needed]
There are many examples of a particular idea appearing in different academic
disciplines, all of which came about around the same time. One example of this
scenario is the shift from the approach of focusing on sensory awareness of the whole,
"an attention to the 'total field'", a "sense of the whole pattern, of form and function as a
unity", an "integral idea of structure and configuration". This has happened in art (in the
form of cubism), physics, poetry, communication and educational theory. According
to Marshall McLuhan, this paradigm shift was due to the passage from the era of
mechanization, which brought sequentiality, to the era of the instant speed of electricity,
which brought simultaneity.[8]
Multidisciplinary approaches also encourage people to help shape the innovation of the
future. The political dimensions of forming new multidisciplinary partnerships to solve
the so-called societal Grand Challenges were presented in the Innovation Union and in
the European Framework Programme, the Horizon 2020 operational overlay. Innovation
across academic disciplines is considered the pivotal foresight of the creation of new
products, systems, and processes for the benefit of all societies' growth and wellbeing.
Regional examples such as Biopeople and industry-academia initiatives in translational
medicine such as SHARE.ku.dk in Denmark provides the evidence of the successful
endeavour of multidisciplinary innovation and facilitation of the paradigm shift. [citation needed]
Transdisciplinary[edit]
Main article: Transdisciplinarity
In practice, transdisciplinary can be thought of as the union of all interdisciplinary efforts.
While interdisciplinary teams may be creating new knowledge that lies between several
existing disciplines, a transdisciplinary team is more holistic and seeks to relate all
disciplines into a coherent whole.
Cross-disciplinary[edit]
Cross-disciplinary knowledge is that which explains aspects of one discipline in terms
of another. Common examples of cross-disciplinary approaches are studies of
the physics of music or the politics of literature.

Bibliometric studies of disciplines[edit]

Bibliometrics can be used to map several issues in relation to disciplines, for example
the flow of ideas within and among disciplines (Lindholm-Romantschuk, 1998) [9] or the
existence of specific national traditions within disciplines. [10] Scholarly impact and
influence of one discipline on another may be understood by analyzing the flow of
citations.[11]
The Bibliometrics approach is described as straightforward because it is based on
simple counting. The method is also objective but the quantitative method may not be
compatible with a qualitative assessment and therefore manipulated. The number of
citations is dependent on the number of persons working in the same domain instead of
inherent quality or published result's originality. [12]
See also[edit]
 Outline of academic disciplines
 List of academic fields

References[edit]
1. ^ Gibbons, Michael; Camille Limoges, Helga Nowotny, Simon Schwartzman, Peter Scott, &
Martin Trow (1994). The New Production of Knowledge: The Dynamics of Science and Research in
Contemporary Societies. London: Sage.
2. ^ Ziman, John (2000). Real Science: What It Is, and What It Means. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
3. ^ History of Education, Encyclopædia Britannica (1977, 15th edition), Macropaedia Volume 6,
p. 337
4. ^ Jacques Revel (2003). "History and the Social Sciences". In Porter, Theodore; Ross,
Dorothy (eds.). Cambridge History of Science: The Modern Social Sciences, Vol. 5. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press. pp. 391–404. ISBN 0521594421.
5. ^ "How The Word 'Scientist' Came To Be".  npr.org. National Public Radio.
Retrieved November 3,  2014.
6. ^ Cohen, E; Lloyd, S. "Disciplinary Evolution and the Rise of Transdiscipline"  (PDF).
Informing Science: the International Journal of an Emerging Transdiscipline.
7. ^ Foucault, Michel (1977). Discipline and Punish: The birth of the prison. Trans. Alan
Sheridan. New York: Vintage. (Translation of: Surveiller et punir; naissance de la prison. [Paris] :
Gallimard, 1975).
8. ^ "McLuhan: Understanding Media".  Understanding Media. 1964. p.  13. Archived from  the
original on December 8, 2008.
9. ^ Lindholm-Romantschuk, Y. (1998). Scholarly book reviewing in the social sciences and
humanities. The flow of ideas within and among disciplines. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.
10. ^ Ohlsson, H. (1999). Is there a Scandinavian psychology? A bibliometric note on the
publication profiles of Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology,
40, 235–39.
11. ^ Serenko, A. & Bontis, N. (2013). The intellectual core and impact of the knowledge
management academic discipline. Journal of Knowledge Management, 17(1), 137–55.
12. ^ "Bibliometrics | The Guidelines project". www.guidelines.kaowarsom.be. Retrieved July
5, 2018.