May 2003
Rebecca Zarger, Section Editor
Anthropology and Environment Section
Interdisciplinary Approaches to Environmental Problems
David G. Casagrande
A few years ago I was hired to coordinate a team of scientists who wanted to restore an urban wetland in New Haven, Connecticut. The scientists involved were primarily interested in pollution remediation, as was the state agency financing the project. But the mayor, who was required by law to approve the project, was opposed for political reasons. This situation, combined with my curiosity about the effects of the restoration on low-income communities neighboring the wetland, led me to approach the situation as both a social and biophysical problem. So, I invited social scientists to join the team of researchers.
While graduate students were interviewing residents for the project, it became clear that the deteriorating condition of a neighborhood middle school was a primary concern for local leaders. After some brainstorming, community leaders and the research team decided to designate the school as an environmental magnet institution using the wetland restoration as a “living classroom” in order to create funding opportunities for the school. Meanwhile, door-to-door surveys of people’s perceptions of the wetland generated public interest in the wetland, which had been an ignored resource. Armed with the school proposal and economic, social, and water quality data, community leaders convinced the mayor to approve the project. Subsequently, the aquatic chemist on the project was inspired to propose a study of how education and community-based restoration might further decrease non-point source pollution by changing behavior. The neighborhood obtained the magnet school status they desired, the state agency fulfilled its mandate, and the researchers learned new ways to contextualize their research.
This short vignette illustrates just a few benefits of an interdisciplinary approach. These include a greater likelihood of discovering “win-win” situations among stakeholders through the broader contextualization of problems, the possibility for alternative solutions to emerge, empowerment of marginalized people, and innovation in research.
However, most attempts at interdisciplinary collaboration are less successful. Primary impediments to interdisciplinary collaboration include disparate models of how the world works and a lack of respect for alternative intellectual traditions and the views of the public. The use of jargon in professional discourse serves as a means of establishing legitimacy within disciplines, but also forms a communication barrier. Problems are often defined in ways that are of little relevance outside of disciplines and the tools necessary for solving complex problems are not widely shared.
These trends are reinforced through academic compartmentalization and the need to publish within disciplinary boundaries to acquire tenure. Many higher education administrators recognize this problem, providing the incentive to create new interdisciplinary departments. Some funding agencies have also created new programs to promote interdisciplinary research.
Successfully addressing complex problems requires more than creating new departments and financial incentives. It also requires that we learn from other ways of seeing the world. My experience indicates this can be enhanced through several techniques.
It is important to remove barriers of communication and establish common interests by showing researchers the benefits and value of engaging other ways of thinking. One approach is to define problems so that they have greater relevance outside of the disciplines involved. It helps to find participants who are frustrated by the failure of their work to have impacts outside of their discipline, or to point out how a frustrating situation may benefit from alternative viewpoints, as in the case above.
There are also important theoretical implications. The history of intellectual innovation is replete with metaphorical applications of concepts between disciplines. Making this process explicit can help engage people from very diverse disciplines in the process of establishing communication within working groups.
Some personal skills are also helpful. As “team players” we have to choose research tools for broadly-defined problems, rather than conceptualizing the problem to conform to our favorite tools. We must not be intimidated by jargon and politely ask others to express themselves differently.
These skills are challenging because we have been taught that we will be rewarded for achievements within traditional disciplines, regardless of our impact in a broader context. But enhancing the relevance of our research, empowering local people, gaining theoretical insights, and creating alternative solutions to environmental problems are all worth the effort of an interdisciplinary approach.
Please send items of interest, essays, commentaries, and news to Rebecca Zarger; zarger@fiu.edu; Dept. of Environmental Studies & Sociology/Anthropology, Florida International University, 11200 SW Eighth St., ECS 332, Miami, FL 33199 ; 305-348-1209.