Definitions

Definitions are provided under the following headings:

Defining "Multidisciplinary" and "Cross-disciplinary"

Defining "Interdisciplinary" [See also Instrumental versus Conceptual Interdisciplinarity]

There is a link to a discussion of the purpose of interdisciplinarity as well.

Defining "Disciplinary Perspective"

Defining "Worldview"

Defining "Integration"

Defining "Common Ground"

Defining "More Comprehensive Understanding"

Defining "Transdisciplinary"

We invite suggestions on how to clarify these definitions as well as on other terms worthy of definition here.

Allen Repko provides a glossary with very brief definitions of many terms in his Interdisciplinary Research: Process and Theory (2011). Christian Pohl and Gertrude Hirsch Hadorn in chapter 28 “Core Terms in Transdisciplinary Research” in the Handbook of Transdisciplinary Research also provide definitions of many terms.

Julie Thompson Klein discusses many of the above terms and more (including methodological versus theoretical interdisciplinarity, and bridge building) in "A Taxonomy of Interdisciplinarity," The Oxford Handbook of Interdisciplinarity (2010), 15-30.