Knowledge in Dialogue: Interdisciplinarity as the Epistemological Horizon of Contemporary Academia
Keywords:
interdisciplinarity, epistemic horizon, fragmentation of knowledge, interdisciplinary research process, hyper-specializationAbstract
This editorial text presents interdisciplinarity as the epistemic horizon of contemporary academia, in explicit contrast to the fragmentation of knowledge. The argument unfolds in three movements. First, it offers a diagnosis of hyper-specialization as a “pathology of knowledge,” tracing the critique from the OECD seminar systematized in Apostel et al. (1972) through the epistemological radicalization of Japiassu (1976), the pedagogical-existential turn of Fazenda (1994), and the paradigm of complexity proposed by Morin (2003). Second, it reconstructs the conceptual genealogy of the interdisciplinary turn, distinguishing multidisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity, and transdisciplinarity as progressively integrative modes of organizing scientific work, and situating this vocabulary within broader institutional transformations – from the Mode 1/Mode 2 shift in knowledge production to the contextualization of science in the public “agora” and the critique of hegemonic epistemologies advanced by the Gulbenkian Commission. Third, it moves toward operationalization, examining the interdisciplinary research process as a structured and recursive methodology, integrative evaluation criteria that balance disciplinary grounding, advancement of integration, and adequacy to purpose, and the metacognitive competencies required of the interdisciplinary researcher. The text closes by outlining the editorial procedures that the Global Review of Social Sciences, Education and Humanities (GRSSEH) will adopt to receive and evaluate interdisciplinary submissions in a qualified and equitable manner, including explicit guidelines for authors, peer review that brings together evaluators from distinct fields, and the periodic revision of its own evaluation procedures.
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