The Patterning of Collaborative Behavior and Knowledge Culminations in Interdisciplinary Research Centers
The Patterning of Collaborative Behavior and Knowledge Culminations in Interdisciplinary Research Centers
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DOI：
10.1007/s11024-019-09381-6
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发表时间：
2019-07
期刊：
影响因子：
2.3
通讯作者：
Elina I. Mäkinen;Elizabeth Evans;Daniel A. McFarland
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Elina I. Mäkinen;Elizabeth Evans;Daniel A. McFarland
由于对跨学科研究工作的投资，跨学科研究中心的数量和种类在过去几十年里呈指数级增长。虽然跨学科研究中心依赖于不同的组织安排，但我们对协调协作安排和跨学科研究成果的条件和过程知之甚少。本研究探讨在大学研究中心的背景下，不同的合作安排如何塑造学者的跨学科研究体验和对跨学科知识高峰的理解。我们在不同的中心进行了三个深入的定性案例研究，这些中心招募了来自自然科学、医学和社会科学的研究人员。我们把它们称为生物技术中心、环境中心和早产中心。我们对这三个中心的53名跨学科学者的访谈分析表明，学者们认为这些中心的协作安排的特定特征对跨学科协作具有重要意义。具体地说，中心的使命、物理架构、领导力和任务结构被认为影响了学者们的动机、互动和对中心的包容，从而形成了跨学科知识的顶峰。在生物技术中心，知识被转化为具体的产品；在环境中心，来自不同领域的知识被汇集在一起，形成新的问题框架；在早产中心，通过自上而下的知识经纪，进行跨学科合作。
Due to investments in interdisciplinary research endeavors, the number and variety of interdisciplinary research centers have grown exponentially during the past decades. While interdisciplinary research centers rely on varied organizational arrangements, we know little about the conditions and processes that mediate collaborative arrangements and interdisciplinary research outcomes. This study examines how different collaborative arrangements shape scholars’ experiences of interdisciplinary research and understandings of interdisciplinary knowledge culminations in the context of university-based research centers. We conducted three in-depth qualitative case studies on different centers, which recruited researchers from natural sciences, medicine, and social sciences. We refer to them as the Biotech Center, the Environmental Center, and the Premature Birth Center. Our analysis of 53 interviews with interdisciplinary scholars across the three centers demonstrates that the scholars perceive particular features of the centers’ collaborative arrangements as meaningful for interdisciplinary collaboration. Specifically, the center’s mission, physical architecture, and leadership and task structure were seen as affecting scholars’ motivation, interaction, and inclusion in the centers, which then shaped the interdisciplinary knowledge culminations. At the Biotech Center, knowledge was translated towards concreteproducts, at the Environmental Center knowledge was pooled together from varied fields to create new problemframings, and at the Premature Birth Center, interdisciplinary collaboration was crafted through top-down knowledgebrokerage.