Conflict, Co-existence and Collaboration

Why do we have academic disciplines and what happens when they disagree? How do people co-exist with other animals? Can interdisciplinarity work?  These are the kinds of challenge I engage with in my research, which is all about science, borders, boundaries and the spaces in-between. The talk will start with the theme of ‘Conflict’, exploring public knowledge controversies and drawing out how and why some scientific disagreements are played out in the wider public sphere, using evolutionary psychology and bovine TB as examples. The case of badger/TB (alongside a small bestiary of other examples) will in turn be used to think through the historical dynamics of controversies; how human-animal relationships have changed over the past century; and how food may be key in shifting relations from conflict to co-existence. Finally, I will reflect upon my ongoing work investigating interdisciplinarity – research that reaches beyond disciplinary boundaries. Drawing upon oral histories of collaborative experiences, combined with our team’s ‘embedded’ study of interdisciplinarity in the RENEW(ing) Biodiversity project, I will outline practices that help people work together across multiple fields of expertise, and key factors that can block their paths.

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