Disciplining the sustainable city: Moving beyond science, technology or society?

Evans, Robert and Marvin, Simon 2004. Disciplining the sustainable city: Moving beyond science, technology or society? [Working Paper]. School of Social Sciences Working Papers Series, vol. 65. Cardiff: Cardiff University.

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Abstract

Is interdisciplinary research possible? Over the past decade three UK research councils, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), have collectively put over £30 million into a key interdisciplinary research site – the ‘sustainable city’. This paper examines how the Research Councils framed the problem of the sustainable city and, in so doing, put interdisciplinarity into practice. In each case, the Councils recognised that the problems of the sustainable city transcended conventional disciplinary boundaries but the collective outcome of their research has remained resolutely disciplinary in focus, something that has been particularly frustrating for policymakers and other potential users. The tension between recognising the complexity of the research problem and formulating realistic research questions is most apparent in the research programmes through which Research Council mapped the original interdisciplinary problem on to the more narrow set of disciplinary paradigms they represent. Thus EPSRC sees the ‘sustainable city’ mainly in terms of technological systems and fixes; NERC sees it in terms of the flows and stocks of natural resources; ESRC sees it a distinctive form of social organisation. Unfortunately, in setting the problem up in this way, what was originally a complex combination of science AND technology AND society has been reduced to science OR technology OR society. In other words, to the extent that interdisciplinary research occurred, then it was within research councils not between research councils. The critical question is whether this outcome could or should have been avoided. As Science and Technology Studies (STS) shows, moving between scientific disciplines, particularly non-cognate ones, raises problems of incommensurability in both language and purpose. Yet interdisciplinarity requires this and more. The perspectives are supposed to add up the single, integrated view that policy-makers and other users can use to inform decisions and take action. Given what we now know about the risk and uncertainty within even the narrow boundaries of disciplinary science, this paper argues that seeking certainty in interdisciplinarity is to search for the Holy Grail. Policy-makers and others will need to find other ways to act.

Item Type:	Monograph (Working Paper)
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Social Sciences (Includes Criminology and Education)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Publisher:	Cardiff University
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 March 2016
Last Modified:	08 Oct 2015 15:29
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/78108

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