The Interdisciplinary Studies Section (IDSS) of the International Studies Association is an international community of scholars working across disciplines to address pressing global issues and problems.

The idea of “interdisciplinary” studies has a long history, and over-specialization in universities and research has had its critics in Western universities since at least the late 19th century. Arguably, prior to the twentieth century, boundaries between specialized disciplines were not firmly established.

Transdisciplinarity and interdisciplinarity emerged in the 1970’s among scholars and practitioners who were convinced that global conditions and the complexity of interconnections in the late modern world demanded new methods and approaches to knowledge production. They sought to connect professional knowledge to practical problems and engage multiple constituencies, including but not limited to academics, in addressing real world problems in the relationship between science and society. Since then, interdisciplinarity has broadened to include social sciences, the humanities, and the sciences in interdisciplinary, multi-disciplinary, and transdisciplinary studies. 

Arguably, the major movement to current interdisciplinarity began with the 1972 publication by the Organization for Co-operation and Development (OECD) — Interdisciplinarity: Problems of Teaching and Research in Universities (Paris: OECD, 1972) based on a seminar held at the University of Nice, France in 1970.  It involved scholars and practitioners from numerous disciplines convinced that global conditions and the complexity of interconnections in the modern world demanded new methods and approaches to knowledge production. They sought to connect professional knowledge to practical problems and to engage multiple constituencies, including practitioners as well as academics across humanities, social sciences, and physical sciences in addressing real world problems. As the report puts it in the Preface (p. 9):

The term “interdisciplinary” is now often used to include a broad range of approaches. Some bring to bear insights and methods from multiple disciplines; others are more integrative, often creating new syntheses or established disciplines that organize teaching and research in novel ways, such as in global studies, environmental studies, women’s and gender studies. Others take more critical approaches that consider the modes and systems of knowledge production as themselves subjects of critical inquiry. IDSS seeks to include these forms of interdisciplinary work and to promote creative dialogues among them. Our work both investigates current developments in interdisciplinary work, as well as fostering innovative approaches to understanding contemporary global issues and developments. 

Multidisciplinary approaches involve the simple act of juxtaposing parts of several conventional disciplines in an effort to get a broader understanding of some common theme or problem. 

Cross-disciplinary approaches involve real interaction across the conventional disciplines, though the extent of communication (combination, synthesis or integration of concepts and/or methods) varies considerably. 

Transdisciplinary approaches involve articulated conceptual frameworks that seek to transcend the more limited world views of the specialized conventional disciplines (p. 1). 

Interdisciplinarity, in contrast to interdisciplinary studies, is an analytically reflective study of the methodological, theoretical, and institutional implications of implementing interdisciplinary approaches to teaching and research (p. 10). Understanding the different types of interdisciplinary approaches and their differentiation from disciplinary approaches gives one deeper insight into the knowledge production and transmission process (p. 21). 

Miller, Ray C. Interdisciplinarity: Its Meaning and Consequences,

Oxford: Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies, 2020