Complexity

There is no consensus in the literature around what makes a question suitably complex – beyond the fact that it is engaged by multiple disciplines. Bill Newell (2001) speculated that interdisciplinary analysis was called for when there were non-linear links between the phenomena under investigation. I have recently (2017) suggested that interdisciplinary investigations often (but not always) explore linkages between phenomena studied in different disciplines that serve to destabilize systems of stability posited within most disciplines. That is, most disciplines investigate systems of phenomena that exhibit considerable stability through time but are shocked out of stability by interactions with phenomena studied in other disciplines.

Newell, W.H. (2001). “A theory of interdisciplinary studies.” Issues in Integrative Studies 19, 1-25.

Szostak, Rick. (2017).“Stability, Instability, and Interdisciplinarity” Issues in Interdisciplinary Studies.35, 65-87.]