Introduction

Abstract

Welcome to this book. For a long time it has been difficult to defend disciplinary-based knowledge and education for progressive purposes. The default setting in the field is that disciplinarity is the reactionary position and transdisciplinarity the progressive position. We propose that disciplinarity and transdisciplinarity are complementary aspects of a single, more complex whole: routine scholarly work. On this basis, the relationship between the two is not problematic. This is evident in the scope of interest in this form of inquiry. Topics in ecology, care, finance and gender studies have all embraced the multidisciplinary approach, not in some hegemonic way but as a process that, alongside disciplinary expertise, can render problems solvable. In this way transdisciplinarity is evolving where there are several approaches to understanding, and these are reflected in the chapters of this book.