Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Transdisciplinarity as Epistemology, Ontology or Principles of Practical Judgement

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Transdisciplinary Professional Learning and Practice

Abstract

Workplaces are social systems and confound simple analysis. They are places where things change and things turn messy. There are many disciplinary approaches (e.g. anthropological, psychological and sociological) that can be applied in professional conduits (e.g. human resource management, marketing and operational management), but attempts to understand what, and why, things happen within organizations prove difficult to determine from such disciplined, epistemological perspectives. It is suggested in this chapter that a transdisciplinary approach, perhaps indeed implicit in successful professional practices that actually deal with emergent problems, could be helpful particularly in the form of the case study and needs more clarification in the professional studies literature. This is attempted by investigating how abductive reasoning might contribute to solving the ambiguity of transdisciplinarity open system problems.

(N)ow, that the matter of no new truth can come from induction or from deduction, we have seen. It can only come from abduction; and abduction is, after all, nothing but guessing. We are therefore bound to hope that, although the possible explanations of our facts may be strictly innumerable, yet our mind will be able, in some finite number of guesses, to guess the sole true explanation of them.

(Peirce, The Essential Peirce, p. 107, 1901/1998a)

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Although, as a research strategy, case studies are not uncontested (see Verschuren 2003; or Diefenbach 2009).

  2. 2.

    Knowledge is taken as a social interpretation of the reality external to the observer. Thus there is an external reality, but how we construct the meaning of that reality is social influenced. This is discussed further in the next section, but is critical in determining our ontological and epistemological positions.

References

  • Archer, M. (2000). Being human: The problem of agency. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Aristotle. (1995). In J. Barnes (Ed.), The complete works of Aristotle. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bellamy, J. L., Mullen, E. J., Satterfield, J. M., Newhouse, R. P., Ferguson, M., Brownson R. C., Spring, B. (2013). Implementing evidence-based practice education in social work: A transdisciplinary approach. Research on social work practice, 23(4), 246–256.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bhaskar, R. (1978). A realist theory of science. Hassocks: Harvester.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bhaskar, R. (1989). Reclaiming reality: A critical introduction to contemporary philosophy. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boud, D., & Solomon, N. (2001). Future directions for work-based learning: Reconfiguring higher education. In D. Boud & N. Solomon (Eds.), Work-based learning: A new higher education? Buckingham: SRHE and Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, V. A., Harris, J. A., & Russell, J. Y. (Eds.). (2010). Tackling wicked problems through the transdisciplinary imagination. Washington: Earthscan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bybee, M. D. (Ed.). (1991). Abduction and rhetorical theory. Philosophy and Rhetoric, 24(4), 281–300.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, C. S. (2013). Resistance to change in the nursing profession: Creative transdisciplinary solutions. Creative Nursing, 19(2), 70–76.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Costley, C., & Armsby, P. (2007). Methodologies for undergraduates doing practitioner investigations at work. Journal of Workplace Learning, 19(3), 131–145.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Danermark, B., Ekstrom, M., Jakobsen, L., & Karlsson, J. (2002). Explaining society: Critical realism in the social sciences. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diefenbach, T. (2009). Are case studies more than sophisticated storytelling? Methodological problems of qualitative empirical research mainly based on semi-structured interview. Quality and Quantity, 43, 875–894.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Easton, G. (2010). Critical realism in case study research. Industrial Marketing Management, 39(1), 118–128.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fleetwood, S. (2006). Re-thinking labour markets: A critical realist-socioeconomic perspective. Capital & Class, 89, 59–89.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Flyvbjerg, B. (1998). Rationality and power democracy in practice. Chicago: University of Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Flyvbjerg, B., Landman, T., & Schram, S. (Eds.). (2012). Real social science: Applied phronesis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gibbs, P. (2013). Multidisciplinary practice. Hong Kong: BMA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gorski, P. S. (2013). What is critical realism? And why should you care? Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews, 42, 658.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hammersley, M. (2005). Assessing quality in qualitative research. http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/Documents/college-social-sciences/education/projects/esrc-2005-seminarseries4.pdf. Accessed 29 Sept 2014.

  • Heidegger, M. (1993). What calls for thinking. In D. F. Krell (Ed.), Basic writings (pp. 365–392). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • King, G., Strachan, D., Tucker, M., Duwyn, B., Desserud, S., & Shillington, M. (2009). The application of a transdisciplinary model for early intervention services. Infants and Young Children, 22, 211–223.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klein, J. T. (2010). A taxonomy of interdisciplinary knowledge. In R. Frodeman, J. T. Klein, & C. Mitcham (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of interdisciplinary knowledge (pp. 15–30). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krohn, W. (2008). Learning from case studies. In G. H. Hadorn, H. HoffmanRiem, S. Biber-Klemm, W. Grossenbacher-Mansury, D. Joye, C. Pohl, U. Wiesmann, & E. Zemp (Eds.), Handbook of transdisciplinary research (pp. 369–354). Dordrecht: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Lawrence, R. J. (2010). Beyond disciplinary confinement to imaginative transdisciplinarity. In V. A. Brown, J. A. Harris, & J. Y. Russell (Eds.), Tackling wicked problems (pp. 16–30). Washington: Earthscan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Max-Neef, M. A. (2005). Foundations of transdisciplinarity. Ecological Economics, 53(1), 5–16.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meyer, S. B., & Lunnay, B. (2013). The application of abductive and retroductive inference for the design and analysis of theory-driven sociological research. Sociological Research Online, 18(1), 12. http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/contents.html. Accessed 8 March 2013.

  • Mitrany, M., & Stokols, D. (2005). Gauging the transdisciplinary qualities and outcomes of doctoral training programs. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 24, 437–440.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Modell, S. (2009). In defence of triangulation: A critical realist approach to mixed methods research in management accounting. Management Accounting Research, 20, 208–221.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nicolescu, B. (2010). Methodology of transdisciplinarity—Levels of reality, logic of the included middle and complexity. Transdisciplinary Journal of Engineering & Science, 1(1), 19–38.

    Google Scholar 

  • Olsen, W. (2010). Realist methods, Volume II. London: Sage.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Peirce, C. S. (1901/1998a). On the logic of drawing history from ancient documents, especially from testimonies. In The essential Peirce (pp. 75–114). Indiana: Indiana University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peirce, C. S. (1903/1998b). What makes a reasoning sound. In The essential Peirce (pp. 242–257). Indiana: Indiana University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peirce, C. S. (1903/1998c). Pragmatism as the logic of abduction. In The essential Peirce (pp. 226–241). Indiana: Indiana University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pohl, C., & Hadorn, G. H. (2007). Principles for designing transdisciplinary research (trans: A. B. Zimmerman). Munich: OEKOM.

    Google Scholar 

  • Richardson R. R., & Kramer, E. H. (2006). Abduction as the type of inference that characterizes the development of a grounded theory. Qualitative Research, 6, 497–513.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosenberg, T. (2000). ‘The reservoir’: Towards a poetic model of research in design. Working papers in art and design, 1. http://sitem.herts.ac.uk/artdes_research/papers/wpades/vol1/rosenberg2.html. Accessed 12 March 2013.

  • Schram, S. (2012). Phronetic social science: An idea whose time has come. In B. Flyvbjerg, T. Landman, & S. Schram (Eds.), Real social science: Applied phronesis (pp. 15–26). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Scholz, R. W., & Tietje, O. (2002). Embedded case study methods: Integrating quantitative and qualitative knowledge. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott, D. (2005). Critical realism and empirical research methods in education. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 39(4), 633–646.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scott, D. (2010). Education, epistemology and critical realism. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stauffacher, M., Walter, A. I., Lang, D. J., Wiek, A., & Scholz, R. W. (2006). Learning to research environmental problems from a functional socio-cultural constructivism perspective: The transdisciplinary case study approach. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 7(3), 252–275.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, G. (2010). Doing case study: Abduction not induction, phronesis not theory. Qualitative Inquiry, 16, 575–582.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Verschuren, P. (2003). Case study as a research strategy: Some ambiguities and opportunities. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 6(2), 121–139.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wiesmann, U., Biber-Klemm, S., Grossenbacher-Mansuy, W., Hadorn, G., HoffmanRiem, H., Joye, D., Pohl, C., & Zemp, E. (2008). Enhancing transdisciplinary research: A synthesis in 15 propositions. In G. Hirsch Hadorn, H. HoffmannRiem, S. Biber-Klemm, W. Grossenbacher-Mansuy, D. Joye, C. Pohl, U. Wiesmann, & E. Zemp (Eds.), Handbook of transdisciplinary research, Chap. 29 (pp. 433–432). Dordrecht: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Workman, B. (2007). ‘Casing the joint’: Explorations by the insider-researcher preparing for work-based projects. Journal of Workplace Learning, 19(3), 146–160.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yin, R. K. (2003). Case study research. Design and method (3rd edn.). Thousand Oaks: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Middlesex University, London, UK

    Paul Gibbs

Authors
  1. Paul Gibbs
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Paul Gibbs .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Middlesex University, London, United Kingdom

    Paul Gibbs

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Gibbs, P. (2015). Transdisciplinarity as Epistemology, Ontology or Principles of Practical Judgement. In: Gibbs, P. (eds) Transdisciplinary Professional Learning and Practice. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11590-0_11

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation