Volume 2, Number 2


 

Value of interdisciplinary research: A model of interdisciplinarity between legal research and research in organisations
Golzio, L.E. and Troisi, R.

Interdisciplinarity continues to be a goal, an aim of many scientific reviews and the subject of a significant number of scientific papers, however, its boundaries and modalities remain unclear, as do the advantages of incorporating contributions from different fields of knowledge. At present, guidelines on interdisciplinarity take the form of single forums based on opinions, logical conclusions, and normative perspectives rather than empirical, longitudinal or large-scale studies. The aim of this paper is to deepen the notion of interdisciplinarity in research by addressing the following questions: i) What is the proper meaning of "interdisciplinarity"? ii) Who are the role players involved in this research, and how do their different objectives and approaches differ? The paper then analyses a more specific topic that deals with the features of academic interdisciplinary research. Four criteria are proposed to explain the research: the objective of the research, the methodologies used, the topic analysed, and the output of the research. Furthermore, a model of interdisciplinarity between legal science and organisational science is proposed, based on an epistemological comparison between the two research fields, which is structured on the four criteria described above. 

Keywords: interdisciplinary, interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity, normative perspectives, knowledge, epistemology, phenomenon, discipline, science, system, research hypothesis, theory