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The Interdisciplinary Study of Generosity: The Sum Is Greater Than Its Parts

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The Science of Generosity

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Abstract

This chapter explains how different disciplines illuminate various aspects of the same phenomenon. The Science of Generosity Initiative projects employ multiple methods to explore generous activities and their correlates through a myriad of lenses. This chapter integrates their findings toward describing how to pursue interdisciplinarity, beginning first with a description of the content and modes of interdisciplinarity. The projects in this initiative provide a means of visualizing and analyzing how distinct disciplines come together to study a shared set of topics. This chapter also names ten challenges of interdisciplinarity and proposes ten opportunities for relatively simple interventions designed to limit the challenges and promote the strengths.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For example, Klein 1991; Stehr and Weingart 2000; Porter et al. 2007; Sargeant and Woodliffe 2007; Barry et al. 2008; Mitcham 2010; Moran 2010; Barry and Born 2013; Aldrich et al. 2014; Jacobs 2014; Collins and Bilge 2016; Repko and Szostak 2016; Frodeman et al. 2017.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Indianapolis, IN, USA

    Patricia Snell Herzog

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  1. Patricia Snell Herzog
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Herzog, P.S. (2020). The Interdisciplinary Study of Generosity: The Sum Is Greater Than Its Parts. In: The Science of Generosity. Palgrave Studies in Altruism, Morality, and Social Solidarity. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26500-7_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26500-7_5

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-26499-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-26500-7

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