0. INTRODUCTION
Despite the original
promise of various initiatives, it is reasonable to assert that enthusiasm for
"interdisciplinarity" has waned. There is continuing recognition that some degree of cross-
disciplinary "fertilization" is fruitful, but the possibility of any interdisciplinary methodology
is
largely considered a contradiction in terms. Attention has instead focused on the manner in
which some useful form of cross- fertilization can emerge in the application of different
disciplinary methodologies in response to a single, concrete problem in practice. At its most
cynical, this leads to programmes in which interdisciplinarity is only evident in the binding
together of the individual disciplinary contributions in a single report of the initiative -- aptly
described by the German term "Buchbindersynthese". Any integration is left to the reader.
Relatively little progress has been made on the long-range reconceptualization of epistemology
in the light of insights from any complementary set of disciplines.
Perhaps most disappointing,
is the lack of investigation of interdisciplinarity in its own right --
other than in the above-mentioned juxtaposition of disciplines in response to a concrete
problem. General systems has perhaps moved furthest towards this, but has failed to live up to
its promise.
Despite this relatively
negative picture, there is a desperate need for new ways of integrating
insights from a wide range of disciplines which have little respect for one another (if they even
recognize each others existence). How do the representatives of the different disciplines see
their collective responsibility, if any, in facilitating the integration of insights which would make
a
success of such events as the purportedly crucial United Nations Conference on Environment
and Development (Rio de Janeiro, 1992) ?
This paper explores
the use of metaphor, especially in the light of its cognitive function, in
facilitating the formulation and communication of insights, whether between disciplines or
beyond them, to those who depend upon them. It raises the question of the extent to which the
necessary constraint of discipline should be complemented by a necessary freedom that is
foreign to the nature of intra-disciplinary cognition. It is argued that it is in the understanding
of
this complementarity that the nature and potential of transdisciplinarity emerge.
1. CONSTRAINTS
1.1 Range of disciplines
It is convenient
in the academic world to limit the range of "disciplines" to those which are
represented by university faculties or the various branches of research and specialization within
them. One exercise to identify the number of such disciplines resulted in a count of 1,800 (see
Intellectual disciplines and sciences. In: Union of International Associations, 1976). These are
the disciplines currently legitimated in some way by a Western (and often Eurocentric) concept
of a valid approach to knowledge.
The scope of "discipline"
may be also be usefully extended in terms of its relationship to the
varieties of forms of intelligence. In this sense, discipline is understood as the disciplined
application of intelligence. A recent study by Howard Gardner (1983) identified seven forms of
intelligence.
The notion of a
"discipline" has been vital to many religions and spiritual traditions which
encourage their practitioners to develop a spiritual discipline. This may range from the
disciplined practice of prayer characteristic of the major religions, through practices such as
hatha yoga, to the progressive development of a range of cognitive skills as in raja yoga.
Buddhist literature, for example, is extremely precise in its rich articulation of the nature of such
disciplines (Union of International Associations, 1991)
Aside from the
disciplines noted above, it is important to acknowledge the kinds of discipline
acquired through long apprenticeship in traditional cultures. Typically this includes the
knowledge of traditional healers as well as the therapeutic skills of shamans and the like.
In these critical
times, when it is unclear what knowledge is vital to survival on this planet, or
how it can be rendered accessible, there is merit in accepting a broader rather than a narrower
understanding of "discipline". The question of Japanese management education and its link
to
military discipline and techniques of political re-education merit exploration.
1.2 Pettiness in the politics of knowledge
It would be naive
in discussing the prospects of transdisciplinarity to omit any reference to the
constraining effects of inter-disciplinary politics. Many have remarked on the arrogance,
narrowness and egotism of the eminent in any discipline, whether academic, charismatic or
spiritual. Together with a primitive approach to territoriality, these factors have been of major
importance in hindering or obstructing any progress towards a more fruitful form of
interdisciplinarity. They have reinforced the development of disciplinary priesthoods and
bureaucracies of the least helpful kind.
In a period of
scarce resources, there is a worrying natural tendency on the part of academics
towards self-censorship and the pursuit of fashionable topics which have some chance of
attracting funds. Careerist concerns naturally erode the development of disciplines and any
tendency towards unrewarded explorations of interdisciplinarity. Respect for disciplinary
"pecking-orders" is then to be expected.
It may be asked
whether all the historical problems of geopolitical territory (imperialism,
colonialism, etc) are not to be recapitulated with respect to the functional territories claimed by
the emerging disciplines.
1.3 Inaccessibility of knowledge and insights
The problems of
information overload are widely acknowledged. Less clearly recognized are
those of information underuse. It has been estimated that the average academic article is read
by one person (other than those involved in its publication). Much new knowledge is only
available in a form which is beyond the current budgets of individuals or institutions, especially
those in developing countries.
The conventional
response of any discipline is to imply that any information from outside that
discipline is to a high degree irrelevant and may therefore be neglected. The implication within
the disciplines is that of all the information generated, only that emerging from acknowledged
centres of excellence need be accorded serious attention. Sophisticated information retrieval
systems reinforce the problem by restricting their coverage in terms of such priorities and
favouring the use of narrow search profiles. It is not difficult to argue that this situation is leading
to a progressive erosion of collective memory.
This situation
with regard to contemporary knowledge is paralleled by the regretful erosion of
insights from traditional cultures as they are progressively "civilized". Their insights and
languages are progressively lost as informed elders die out. Whether or not some of these
insights are "preserved" in anthropological studies, it is not too far fetched to compare
the
process to the loss of "cultural rainforests", through savage "cultural deforestation".
There is a
distinction to be made between a living insight and one preserved in a research paper, as with
the contrast between a living insect and a specimen of an extinct species preserved in
formaldehyde.
In this context
is there not a faster mode of access to the key insights of particular disciplines?
Is there not something suspect about the length of the period imposed through educational
systems for acquisition of such insights? To what extent do practitioners and incumbents require
such lengthy periods through respect for the spirit of traditional apprenticeships -- in which long
periods of drudge work were considered important to inculcate the lore and social relationships
of the discipline or priesthood? The attitude of professors to the use of "post-graduate"
manpower certainly reinforces this suspicion, as do the arguments against fast-track medical
education in a world where even modest medical knowledge is at a premium.
In a world in which
individual and planetary survival is an issue, how are the key insights of
disciplines to be communicated? What are the 5, 10, 50 or 100 insights of each discipline? In
what form should they be held to facilitate their comprehension and communication? Is it
appropriate to ask what is the minimal set of insights from each discipline which are necessary
to the survival of civilization in its broadest sense -- namely the nature of a "survival set"
of
disciplinary insights? What do people need to know and understand to surmount the problems
of the immediate future? And in terms of what do the vital decisions on the future of the planet
need to be made?
1.4 Application to crises: towards a higher conceptual order
The issue is now
how to determine what insights are vital to survival (in its broadest sense) and
how they can be appropriately configured to guide decision-making. Given the way that
knowledge is currently communicated, notably by "consultants", to policy- makers, there is
every possibility that simplistic policies will continue to be formulated in response to emerging
crises. The best insights from the disciplines are not being brought to bear on understanding of
the problems. There is a fundamental problem of complexity both in the nature of the
problematique and in the nature of the relationship between the insights relevant to any
response.
Beyond this is
the very basic issue of the comprehensibility of configurations of insights relevant
to any more appropriate approaches. A number of disciplines have identified methodological
problems in interrelating incommensurable insights necessary to fully encompass the
complexities of some phenomenon. The complementarity of the "wave" and "particle"
theories
in physics is the most cited example. In this sense the core issue of transdisciplinarity may lie in
the possibility of providing tools to handle configurations of essentially incommensurable (and
mutually "irrelevant") insights in response to the global problematique. The much discussed
"new world order" may in this sense call for a corresponding, or complementary, "higher
conceptual order".
For any such higher
conceptual order to be of relevance to policy-making, it must be
comprehensible not only to the policy-makers but also to those who mandate them, and
ultimately to the electorate. This itself is increasingly problematic at a time when there is an
alienation from academic knowledge and a rise in functional illiteracy, notably in the most
developed countries. Academic knowledge is increasingly perceived as having failed to address
issues and dimensions vital to everyday life, or as having exacerbated such problems by
irresponsible initiatives (notably in relation to weapons research).
1.5 Personal survival and development
There is a well-documented
search, on the part of many in industrialized societies, for
disciplines which will ensure their own sustainable personal development. There is an expressed
need for appropriate knowledge for personal psychic survival. A major dimension of this
search is oriented to those forms of knowledge appropriate to personal integration. This is part
of the traditional spiritual quest acknowledged in many cultures.
There is increasing
recognition that there is some sort of "mirroring" relationship of
complementarity between the degree of personal integration or maturity achieved by an
individual (if only on occasion) and the degree of integration that then becomes perceivable in
"external" reality (if only occasionally). It may be supposed that the reverse also holds
true to
some degree. The issue of transdisciplinarity may therefore also be considered vital to individual
psychic survival. The present fragmentation of the disciplines and specializations does little to
facilitate personal psychic integration or any quest for transcendence. But presumably a useful
transdisciplinary perspective is itself dependent on the achievement of some form of sustainable
personal integration, through whatever disciplines this is achieved.
1.6 Reconfiguring conceptual resources
The constraints
above all point to the need to reconfigure the elements of knowledge and insight
-- if only for some "extra- disciplinary" purposes. Somehow the pattern of conceptual
resources needs to be reconfigured to increase the fluidity with which insights emerge, are
cross-fertilized and are integrated into larger patterns (Judge, 1971, 1977). At the same time
there is the fundamental question of how to render such patterns comprehensible beyond the
territories of self-elected elites -- to those who have a desperate need for such insights in
response to the crises which we collectively face.
There is much to
be criticized in the current politics of knowledge. But however much the
arguments for the status quo are misused to protect vested interests, there is nevertheless
considerable validity to efforts to protect the identity of individual disciplines and their
methodologies. Transdisciplinarity cannot be usefully achieved through a loss of disciplinary
precision (painfully acquired) or through a general blurring of categories. Ways must be found
to protect the "purity" of disciplines from the "abominations" they perceive in
alternative
perspectives.
2. METAPHOR: AN UNEXPLORED RESOURCE FOR TRANSDISCIPLINARITY
In Julie Klein's
review of interdisciplinarity (1990) she devotes a chapter to the phenomenon of
borrowing of conceptual tools, models and theories between disciplines. She notes:
"Inevitably
borrowing invites speculation about the metaphorical nature of
interdisciplinarity. Metaphors may be didactic or illustrative devices, models, paradigms,
or root images that generate new models. Some metaphors are heuristic, whereas others
constitute new meaning...Borrowing is metaphoric in several ways. Theories and models
from other disciplines may sensitize scholars to questions not usually asked in their own
fields, or they may help interpret and explain, whether that means a framework for
integrating diverse elements or hypothetical answers that cannot be obtained from
existing disciplinary resources. When a research area is incomplete, borrowing may
facilitate an inductive open-endedness. It may function as a probe, facilitating
understanding and enlightenment. Or, it may provide insight into another system of
observational categories and meanings, juxtaposing the familiar with the unfamiliar
while exposing similarities and differences between the literal use of the borrowing and a
new area." (p. 93).
Klein then points
that borrowers have been called translators, clarifiers, who interpret one
discipline to those in another.
2.1 Metaphor and comprehension
Metaphor has often
been viewed with disdain by academics, administrators of programs, and
documentalists, even when they find themselves obliged to use it. It is seen as implying
intellectual sloppiness, an inability to be rigorous, and even basic incompetence. This perception
is increasingly challenged by those exploring the cognitive role of metaphor, namely the
fundamental manner in which metaphor enables and conditions most thought processes (Lakoff,
1987). Of immediate relevance, this is seen in the root metaphors governing different styles of
organization (Morgan, 1986) and management (Belbin, 1981; Handy, 1979).
From this perspective
metaphor provides the patterning by which categories emerge and are
organized. This has always been relatively clear to those engaged in any form of creative
activity, whether artists, advertisement designers, educators or fundamental physicists. As Anne
Buttimer (1982) notes: "Metaphor, it has been claimed, touches a deeper level of
understanding than 'paradigm', for it points to the process of learning and discovery -- to
those analogical leaps from the familiar to the unfamiliar which rally imagination and
emotion as well as intellect."
2.2 Metaphor and categorization
The authors most
closely associated with the exploration of the cognitive role of metaphor are
George Lakoff and Mark Johnson (1980), notably in their collective work on Metaphors We
Live By and in subsequent studies (Lakoff, 1987). The processes of categorization are now
being shown to involve metaphor at the most fundamental level, implying an organization of
knowledge by cognitive models. Thus the "conduit" metaphor, implicit in much discussion about
communication, maps knowledge about conveying objects in containers onto an understanding
of communications as conveying ideas in words.
As with other memorable
metaphors, the "container" metaphor, implying a boundary
distinguishing an interior from an exterior, defines the most basic distinction between "in"
and
"out", notably in transactions between organizations, economic sectors or conceptual
frameworks. The container schema is inherently meaningful to people by virtue of their bodily
experience. It is through that bodily experience that the schema has a meaningful configuration.
Whilst this may be relatively obvious in dealing with physical concepts, the mode of
understanding is also carried over to the understanding of abstract concepts. It thus conditions
ability to elaborate and comprehend complex structures and policies. The challenge is to
discover how to overcome the habitual cognitive constraints implied by these insights, especially
as they effect the capacity to formulate more appropriate, and possibly counter- intuitive,
transdisciplinary frameworks.
Points made about
the container metaphor suggest the need for a review of the somewhat
similar metaphors implicit in the discussion of disciplinarity -- especially those associated with
"inter", "cross" and "trans".
2.3 Metaphor and political inquiry
The language of
political inquiry would seem to be inescapably metaphorical. "Metaphor is
essential to political inquiry, because it permits us to extend our knowledge from our familiar
world to a region that is not open to immediate experience....Metaphor is necessary to political
knowledge precisely because the meaning or reality of the political world transcends what is
open to observation" (Miller, 1979). (An international symposium on "Political Metaphors in
Historical Perspective" was organized in Naples in June 1991.)
Especially with
the constraints of media communication, politicians in particular resort
extensively to the use of metaphor as a means of explaining complex policies, whether to their
peers or to their constituencies. Thus, for example, in June 1991 those involved in the EEC
Commission efforts to articulate the new treaty details for European economic and political
union were clarifying alternatives amongst themselves using code words, including "pillars",
"hats", "temples", "trees" and "ivy". The pillars were separate
chapters of the treaty, the hat was
the prologue creating a European union embracing three pillars. The alternatives were
described in a "temple- versus-trees" debate in which the Commission argued that the treaty
should look more like a "tree trunk with branches" than a "shaky temple supported by
pillars".
Others criticized a revision as "pillars covered in ivy", namely with largely cosmetic change's
(Independent, 17 June 1991). Are these metaphors of the requisite richness to handle the
complexity and opportunities of such challenges?
2.4 Metaphors for survival
It can be argued
that the selection and use of metaphors by individuals and groups to
reconfigure their environment and its challenges offers new degrees of conceptual freedom. In
this sense metaphors are an empowering device which allow people to adjust and modify the
conceptual patterns by which they are surrounded. They provide a means for handling the kinds
of conceptual inconsistency, dynamism and paradox on which disciplines have few
comprehensible insights to offer. They may also be used to handle the many difficulties of
reconciling part-whole and local-global relationships -- reconciling global integration with local
relevance. In this sense a metaphor can be used as a temporary cognitive discipline.
2.5 Visual metaphors and adequate conceptual complexity
A concept structure
of adequate complexity may pose the same problems of comprehension as
a spiral staircase when explained through words alone. By the time the explanation is complete
the audience is bewildered if not alienated. A visual presentation ("worth a thousand words")
instantly clarifies the simple elegance of the concept, subsuming its necessary complexity. The
vital importance of the latter dimensions to those who mould the major policy options through
various processes of governance has been strongly emphasized by Harold Lasswell (1968):
"Why do we put so much emphasis on audio-visual means of portraying goal, trend, condition,
projection, and alternative? Partly because so many valuable participants in decision-making
have dramatizing imaginations. They are not enamoured of numbers or of analytic abstractions.
They are at their best in deliberations that encourage contextuality by a varied repertory of
means and where an immediate sense of time, space and figure is retained".
Some academic disciplines
make extensive use of graphic presentations, especially the natural
sciences and various forms of engineering. However the social sciences, and notably political
science, tend to avoid such presentations. There is even a tendency to disparage such use of
visual displays as an indication of incompetence, if only in verbal skills. The lack of any need for
visual aids to explain sustainable development policies suggests that they may be of a level of
complexity inadequate to the challenge.
The great developments
in computer hardware and software for the generation and
manipulation of graphic images have been principally applied to special media effects (notably
advertising clips and science fiction movies), to computer-aided design (architecture,
engineering, etc), and to representations of systems (process control, chemical molecules,
physical systems). No effort has yet been made to use techniques of this sophistication to
represent social processes in all their complexity as an aid to more appropriate forms of
decision-making. These techniques have become so sophisticated that they can now generate
comprehensible visual representations of dynamic structures which could not exist under the
laws governing physical space. They are also used to enable people to experience, explore and
generate "virtual realities" (Helsel, 1990) -- if only as a leisure experience (currently
recognized
as the major market for which such products are being developed).
It is quite possible
that the more readily accessible metaphors may themselves be of insufficient
richness to encompass the conceptual complexity of processes on which decisions are called
for at this time. Or if they are rich enough, in a period of increasing functional illiteracy, they
may be essentially incomprehensible to the constituencies from which mandates for new
strategies are sought. There is therefore some probability that the metaphors required to sustain
the conceptual frameworks for new strategic options may only be expressible through dynamic
visual forms generated by the computer techniques noted above.
3. IMAGES OF DISCIPLINARY ACTIVITY
Understanding of
the development of a discipline, and the advance of knowledge, can be seen
as based on one or more implicit metaphors. In the case of social organization, this approach to
new understanding has been explored by Gareth Morgan (1986). His insights may be adapted
to the understanding of disciplinary activity.
A number of classical
papers have endeavoured to clarify the different possible relationships
between disciplines using diagrams. These diagrams may be considered as visually metaphors.
The most helpful is that of Erich Jantsch (1972) who identifies different patterns of relationships
between a set of boxes (representing disciplines) laid out in patterns which resemble the
standard hierarchical organization chart.
Whilst Jantsch's
approach succeeds in its aim of distinguishing multi-, cross-, inter-, pluri- and
trans-disciplinarity, the question must be asked whether the visual metaphor used is not a
conceptual trap in its own right. Just as the past decades have witnessed a severe criticism of
organizational structures and the restrictive way in which they are understood (cf Gareth
Morgan), is it not appropriate to ask whether understanding of disciplinary relationships should
not be questioned in a similar manner. The basic issues are:
(a) are the metaphors
used to envisage the relationships between disciplines too simplistic in
comparison with the levels of complexity which transdisciplinarity is required to address?
(b) if the extremes
of the classical "hierarchical organization of knowledge" and recent
experiments with the "network organization of knowledge" are inadequate to the challenge,
what kinds of structural metaphors might prove more appropriate?
The currently favoured
response might be considered the "star" or "basket" approach of those
who see focus on a specific concrete problem as the only meaningful way to ask questions
about the future of disciplinary relations. Disciplines are then focused in a star- formation
around the problem, or treated as a basket of resources which can be called upon in response
to a problem.
Such structurally
crude approaches, which now have a track record of decades, are
considered in this paper to be inadequate to the emerging challenges. The basic criticism to be
made is that these approaches have no way of:
They have no appropriate
way of constraining excess, guaranteeing the creative juxtaposition of
"uncomfortable" levels of variety, and appropriately focusing the insights which it engenders.
4. CONCEPTUAL SCAFFOLDING
4.1 Interlocking insights (in the light of an architectural metaphor)
The above indications
point to quite concrete possibilities which could provide a major new
facility for disciplined debate, whether electronically-based or otherwise. These possibilities are
basically concerned with the whole issue of what might be called "conceptual scaffolding".
In
the process of constructing a building scaffolding is necessary, especially to hold mutually
dependent structures in position until appropriate permanent building elements can be inserted
to lock them into place. Much can be learnt from the history of architecture in considering the
challenges of developing more powerful and appropriate forms of conceptual architecture
(Judge, 1979).
Structurally the
organization of a project involving a number of disciplines, a policy-making
agenda or a conference programme (even a multi-track programme), is rather simple -- even
simplistic -- especially when considered in relation to the complex ecology of problems and
organizations which are supposedly to be interrelated effectively through it. Is it any wonder
that "interdisciplinary" projects and conferences are relatively ineffective in coming to
grips with
complex issues ? What is being attempted with current practices is in defiance of Ashby's Law
of Requisite Variety, namely that, to be effective, any governing or controlling system must be
at least as complex as the system it seeks to govern. Simplifying reality to simplify the decision
process is a dangerously unsustainable way forward.
The issue is therefore
how to enable those involved to collectively design more complex forms
of conceptual scaffolding to hold in place embryonic concepts (essentially unstable in isolation)
until other concepts can be fitted into the pattern to lock them into place. Ideally, of course, it
is
the conferencing "software" which should provide such scaffolding. And, like the scaffolding
for
buildings, it should be adjustable to different structural configurations as the building grows.
A typical function
of scaffolding in an academic or policy debate is to provide a framework
within which complementary perspectives can be articulated, especially when there is a major
tension between them. When Concept A is formulated, the scaffolding can usefully "hold" a
space for Concept B to counter-balance it. Such scaffolding is even more essential when more
than two concepts have to be held in balance in order for the dimensions of a viable "grand
policy" or "unified theory" to emerge -- or even a "theory of everything".
As with buildings, the
scaffolding provides a protection against disruptive forces in the discussion process. A typical
disruptive force in a contemporary conference might focus narrowly on "countering exploitative
industry" when the larger issue is to provide a sustainable framework in which to balance the
exploitative characteristics of industry against the socio-economic benefits that it provides in the
light of environmental constraints. The more complex the pattern of "checks and balances",
the
more vulnerable is the conference debate to disruptive forces.
4.2 Symmetrical structures and tensegrity structures
Geometry supplies
a vast repertoire of geometrical patterns which could be used to interrelate
concepts. Of special interest are the symmetrical polygons in 2-dimensions and polyhedra in 3-
dimensions. Symmetry has the merit of being in some way associated with "global" or
integrative comprehensibility. As such it may offer routes to the higher conceptual orders
characteristic of transdisciplinarity. To the extent that opposing perspectives can be mapped
onto such structures, there is greater possibility of collective recognition of the distinct functions
they perform in relation to one another. It is also possible that the more complex the structure,
the greater its stability.
Eastern religions
have made extensive use of such conceptual patterns in the form of mandalas.
These hold the complex relationship between a multiplicity of complementary insights, whilst
maintaining an integrative focus on the whole. The software issue here is how to massage an
associative network of concepts into the pattern (or a range of alternative patterns) which can
give the most appropriate overall order to it. Maybe there is a place for marrying approaches
to mind-maps and concept networks to those of sacred geometry.
A feature missing
from such geometrical structures is any explicit recognition of the dynamics
between the elements and of how they contribute to the dynamic integrity of the whole. The
"tension" between opposing factions or options is a fundamental issue in policy- making. It
could be argued that such tension is also present in the co-existence of complementary
theoretical perspectives in cases where none of the individual theories (although necessary) is
sufficient to encompass the nature of the phenomenon to which they apply. Although music may
offer richer insights, again architecture points to the importance of appropriately interrelating
tension and compression elements.
In the policy-making
process the art is to creatively interrelate perspectives that are in sympathy
and in opposition to each other. Buckminster Fuller (1975, 1982) pointed to the existence of a
whole family of tensegrity structures which make possible his well- known geodesic domes (cf
radar domes, exhibition halls). Tensegrity (or tensional integrity) has many suggestive
implications for more effective configurations of concepts and policies (Judge, 1979):
It is clear that
only with the use of appropriate software could tensegrity-based conceptual
frameworks or policies be explored with the benefit of insights from those such as Ron Atkin
(1977, 1981). The scaffolding problem is an ideal computer challenge. It opens the door to a
totally new way of representing agendas non-hierarchically and of enabling the fruitful
coexistence of mutually constraining conceptual elements and policies.
5. "RE-READING" PATTERNS OF CONCEPTS
5.1 Isomorphism and similarity between concept patterns
General systems
theory has over several decades explored the extent to which the different
systematic organizations of phenomena articulated by distinct disciplines contained features
which were isomorphic with one another. For general systems the interest lay in the stronger
forms of isomorphism, especially those which could be effectively described by mathematical
equations. In this respect it overlapped preoccupations of cybernetics and operations research
and, like them, has proved of limited value in response to the interdisciplinary crisis of the times.
Rather than searching
for "strong" isomorphism between disciplines and seeking an expression
for it in equations, it is possible to explore "weaker" forms of isomorphism between disciplines.
This might be more appropriately defined in terms of the "similarity" between patterns of
concepts. This approach leads to two questions:
5.2 Evaluating similarity
In approaching
such questions, a distinction needs to be made between different perspectives:
5.3 "Re-reading" as a metaphorical art
The concern here
is primarily with the "utility" perspective, although the process of "re-reading"
is also relevant to the second. The radical suggestion is that all conceptual patterns, from
any discipline, can be profitably "re-read" as metaphors -- through which insights can
be
gained of relevance to other domains of knowledge. The body of knowledge, generated by the
disciplines over the years, may therefore be systematically (re-)explored as a resource for
implicit insights. In a sense the geological layers of knowledge laid down over the centuries,
including "fossilized knowledge", may be mined. Much will be irrelevant, but there are seams
of
insight of great value. The challenge is to separate the two.
6. TRANSDISCIPLINARITY AND ITS ARTICULATION
6.1 Unarticulated "holism" as a conceptual trap
In the desperate
search for meaningful forms of conceptual integration, some simplistic forms of
holism have exerted a hypnotic effect. The "holographic paradigm" and the concept of "Gaia"
have performed a useful function in focusing attention on the possibility of forms of integration
beyond the fragmentation of the disciplines. This tends to be achieved at the expense of any
means of articulating variety and detail within such perspectives.
Setting up integrative
perspectives in opposition to fragmented frameworks is not sufficient. It
does not provide a basis for organized action -- or rather it opens the way to abusive forms of
action in the name of "integration". Furthermore it merely establishes a new form of (part-
whole) polarization when what is required is a more insightful way of dealing with polarization --
and benefitting from its advantages when appropriate.
From understanding
of evolution, it is recognized how different species can coexist, whether
they compete for resources or not. Ecosystems provide for, and depend upon, the coexistence
of members of a species at different stages of growth within a life-cycle. Within such
ecosystems are also to be found species which may be of different ages in evolutionary terms --
including species that may be labelled "prehistoric".
6.2 Transdisciplinary conceptual transformation
The need for conceptual
scaffolding is clear given the kinds of complexity with which society
has to work. The challenge of making the more complex structures comprehensible is also clear
-- those most appropriate to the challenge of sustainable development may be beyond the
ability of any single human mind to grasp (Judge, 1986a). But any form of development implies
structural transformation. Whilst transforming simplistic structures, like conference agendas and
organization charts, may pose little challenge, the transformation of the complex structures
described earlier is quite another matter.
The process of
conceptual or social transformation appears to call for a form of dynamic
scaffolding which provides some form of continuity -- from stage to stage -- through the
transformation process. The metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly provides a sobering
metaphor of the possible complexity of the challenge.
Two examples of
this kind of structure may be noted:
-
Image transformation:
The skills of image-transformation on computer suggest many
possibilities. The challenge is to find ways of relating conceptual structures and real-
world challenges to such images so as to benefit from this facility. Of special interest is
the way in which development is to be understood or encoded in such image
transformation. For example, if the many details of the global problematique could be
encoded onto one (or more) archetypal animals, suitably animated, this would be of
major conceptual and symbolic significance -- especially when the animation can be
used to represent a transformation process. The media advantages are obvious.
- Vector equilibrium: Buckminster
Fuller (1975, 1982) drew attention to a very
unusual symmetrical polyhedron, the vector equilibrium (normally known as the
cuboctahedron) as the common denominator of the tetrahedron, octahedron and cube.
It is unusual in that it lies on a transformational pathway to a variety of other structures.
An appropriately jointed model can be transformed into an icosahedron and from there
to an octahedron and on to a tetrahedron. The merit of this model, aside from the many
claims made by Fuller himself, is that it provides a way of understanding the structural
transformation process. The challenge in a policy-making environment is not to focus
on this particular structure, but rather to use it as an example to persuade topologists to
locate other transformational systems of this kind so as to build up a library of
possibilities on which to draw.
6.3 Metaphors of transformation: breaking through the "imagination barrier"
In this context,
and with or without computer assistance, metaphor is a most intriguing
unexplored resource as a guide to the elaboration of more complex conceptual frameworks
and organizational structures. In effect the arguments already made rely to a large extent on the
power of metaphor, especially visual metaphor. Metaphor is renowned as a key to creative
thinking and innovation. Information systems have traditionally been ruthless in eliminating the
ambiguity of metaphor from the communications they support. But the classical triangle of text,
data and graphics processing is only 2-dimensional. Imaginative insight can be usefully placed at
the apex of the (tetrahedral) pyramid based on that triangle. Metaphor is the prime vehicle for
such insight.
Consider the fashionable
focus for the international community at this time, namely sustainable
development. How is this complex notion to be carried and addressed in the imagination, and
especially in the media. Metaphor can be used to highlight the collective difficulty in developing
strategies to bring it about. Metaphors such as "global village" or "Gaia" do not
give focus to the
strategic dilemma and the operational opportunities. Due to imaginal deficiency, sustainable
development is best understood at this time through the metaphor "having our cake and eating it
too". This corresponds to its corporate (re)interpretation as "sustainable competitive
advantage". Both are tragic examples of poverty of imagination in a complex environment.
7. TRANSDISCIPLINARITY: A SUSTAINABLE ECOLOGY OF DEVELOPING CONCEPTUAL
FRAMEWORKS
7.1 Selection (or design) of appropriate metaphors
The most practical
implication of this paper is the need to select (or design) metaphors which
can bridge the schizophrenic separation of inputs from policy-making sciences and media-led
policy-making. What metaphors underlie the major strategies of the different Specialized
Agencies of the United Nations and of the unquestioned administrative jargon in which they are
discussed? Is it possible to select or design better metaphors:
One set of interesting
candidates are the metaphors drawn from ecological and environmental
insights. Institutional factions and coalitions may then be usefully perceived as distinct animal
species, as a development of an existing tendency to label opponents as "sharks", "sheep",
"snakes", "dogs", and the like. The aim would be to endeavour to map out the ecology
of
factions and actors, identifying the web of interactions between them. Such an ecosystem can
be as complex as is required and provides a comprehensible language in which to explore the
ways in which niches are defined and protected -- and the extent to which particular species
are imbalancing the system and evoking the need for counter-active measures. And the crisis of
the times may perhaps best be illustrated in considering the application of this ecological
approach to the green movement. The challenge for the tragically factionalized green movement
is to reinterpret its simplistic perceptions of its internal factional relationships into the organic,
ecological metaphor which is supposedly most meaningful to them (Judge, 1990a).
Another rich and
accessible set of metaphors can be obtained from traffic, especially from the
manner in which streams of traffic with different, related, and conflicting "agendas" (speeds,
directions, capacities) can be interwoven (using underpasses, stoplights, systems of priority,
etc) so as to maintain the flow of vehicles. At this physical level conflicts are not "resolved".
Consensus on a single agenda is not sought. Rather the distinct agendas are appropriately
channelled and interwoven. Much can be built on such traffic insights at the level of social
policy-making.
Another frequently
used response to metaphoric attack is to reframe the situation by switching
to another metaphor. The protagonists then effectively view each other's policies through
incommensurable languages. There is normally no creative response to this situation. However,
by recognizing such competing frameworks as embodying valuable insights -- however
incompatible -- the way is opened to using both alternately, without reducing the exercise to a
ridiculous effort to "marry a hedgehog to a snake".
7.2 Alternation between conceptual frameworks: key to development of insight
Conceptual frameworks
of adequate complexity may not be stable in isolation. For them to
emerge, with any degree of viability, from complex configurations of professional (and political)
forces, they may have to alternate with one or more, more or less, incompatible policies of
equal instability. It is then the pattern of alternation or resonance between the essentially
incompatible frameworks which constitutes a form of dynamic transdisciplinary "framework".
It
is this "trans" or "meta" perspective which is the appropriate and stable response
to the
complexity of the problematique -- not the essentially unstable frameworks by which it is
engendered (Judge, 1984a). The time dimension is thus used to design more complex
frameworks and policies.
In principle this
is how the democratic process works through alternation of governance
between political factions, although no such faction would accept the necessity for such
alternation (except when it was out of power). The challenge is then to discover ways of
designing, and rendering comprehensible, cyclic patterns of alternation. In this light it is
probable that reconciling the incompatibilities of the "sciences" and the "humanities",
of
"centralized planning" and "market economy" policies, or of "environmental
conservation" and
"industrial growth" policies, can only be achieved through some form of alternation using
phasing through the time dimension.
7.3 Conceptual and policy cycles
It has long been
recognized that the practitioners of any discipline tend to view the further
application of their particular perspective as the most appropriate response to a challenge, of
whatever nature. But is it not also correct that the selection of relevant disciplines,
methodologies or policies needs to be alternated through cycles in order to correct for each
others defects as a guarantee of sustainability? Again this is the implicit message of democracy,
although no political party would recognize the need to "sacrifice" a cherished policy as
part of
such a process -- unless it had the assurance of its reinstatement in a subsequent phase. At
present the distinct policies of opposing parties do succeed each other in a kind of chaotic
cycle, as each endeavours to respond to (and profit from) the defects of its predecessors. But it
is doubtful whether such chaotic cycles provide the sustainability required through the crises to
come.
From this perspective
the challenge is whether there are ways to design such cycles. Of great
interest, in the light of the work of Buckminster Fuller (1975, 1982), is that significant new
forms only emerge when a minimum number of such cycles can be made to interlock or
interweave. This level of structural complexity is very elegantly modelled by the tensional
integrity ("tensegrity") structures that he so successfully explored. It is also implicit
in the
traditional policy tool of the Emperor of China, namely The Book of Changes, which offers a
useful, richly articulated, non-western perception of sustainable development, replete with
metaphor (Wilhelm, 1950 tr). An adaptation in terms of sustainable policy cycles is given in the
Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential (1991, Section TZ).
7.4 Comprehensibility of transdisciplinarity: the quest for sets of complementary
metaphors The
degree of complexity, with which it is now necessary to deal, strongly implies that no single
conceptual framework (or policy based thereon) is adequate to encompass it. Despite the
potentially greater richness of metaphors, the same should also be assumed. The "answer" does
not lie in the choice of a single magical new metaphor. The challenge may prove to be one of
selecting (or designing) a set of complementary metaphors which together encompass that
complexity.
Classic examples
from physics are the "wave" and "particle" metaphors through which electrons
are understood in different ways, and the "flowing waters" and "teeming crowds"
metaphors
through which electricity must be understood (Gentner, 1982). In each case, both metaphors
offer necessary but insufficient insights when used independently. The question may then be to
discover the art of shifting between the perceptions offered through appropriate metaphors in a
set that articulates a complex pattern of insights (and their policy implications). The nature of
such shifting (honoured in children's games in the respect for "taking turns" and in the rotation
of
presidencies), is richly articulated in the resonance hybrid metaphor and in cycles of phases.
Other examples of such metaphors have been given in the Encyclopedia of World Problems
and Human Potential (1991).
Ironically it may
be from the arts that much insight can be derived from the complementarity of
metaphors relevant to policy-making (Judge, 1991b). Poetry, like music, is skilled in combining
both complementarity and rhythm. Gregory Bateson (1972) recognized the importance of
poetry in dealing with complexity as follows: "One reason why poetry is important for finding
out about the world is because in poetry a set of relationships get mapped onto a level of
diversity in us that we don't ordinarily have access to. We bring it out in poetry. We can give to
each other in poetry the access to a set of relationships in the other person and in the world that
we're not usually conscious of in ourselves. So we need poetry as knowledge about the world
and about ourselves, because of this mapping of complexity to complexity." This could well
prove of significance for the governance of social processes characterized by patterns of
relationships normally too complex for the human mind to grasp.
7.5 Travelling patterns on metaphoric pathways
The challenge of
information overload for an individual exposed to a plethora of geographical
information is alleviated by ordering this information in relation to a pattern of physical locations,
disposed around the globe, and linked by roads and other features. It might be argued that a
form of spatial ordering for information from the disciplines is the preoccupation of the
classification sciences -- with implications for the physical layout of libraries and bookshops.
Thus the most recent information system user interface is based on a metaphor of "rooms" (with
"walls") which can be "walked through" to the points where the information is located.
Ironically
it has also been noted that idiot savants, and those with exceptional memorising power, use
spatial mnemonics to handle information.
It may be asked
whether we can hope to clarify the complexity of disciplinary relationships
within a spatial ordering based on a grid system, whether a matrix of categories, the stacks of a
library, or the "rooms" of a user interface. This is undoubtedly perfectly adequate within
a
specialized domain, where a grid system does not introduce significant distortion. It is an
appropriate assumption in any detailed map projection. But it is not appropriate to handle the
relationships between disciplines which are only "distantly" related. The attempt to do so
results
in severe conceptual discontinuities. Even more unfortunate for any thinker is the pernicious
influence of such implicit metaphors in reflecting about the sum total of human knowledge.
Such difficulties
have been resolved in the case of geographical information by spreading cities
over a surface. No effort is then made to reconcile the street plans of different cities. It was
only when dealing with the challenge of relating distant cities that it became necessary to
recognize the "curvature" of the surface on which they were located -- and ultimately the
spherical nature of that surface. It remains appropriate for those in any city to treat the world
they know as flat, for all immediate purposes. However, information from distant locations,
such as whether it is currently night or day, requires recognition of a spherical surface to
reconcile apparently incompatible perceptions.
It is the difficult-to-justify sphericity that is called for in the transdisciplinary
organization of
knowledge
-- reconciling
local disciplinary knowledge with the "global" organization of such knowledge.
Recognition of
the sphericity of the physical world has since been surpassed by the vital
recognition of the complementarity of different bioclimatic zones -- whether the contribution of
the tropical forests or of the polar regions. It is such features which ensure the viability of the
biosphere. It is perhaps in this sense that the necessary complementarity between a set of
metaphors (see 8.4 above) should be understood. It is then this complementarity which
guarantees the viability of the noosphere.
The challenge to
comprehension lies in enriching our understanding of such complementarity.
Some insights come from properties of symmetry for which geometrical metaphors are helpful.
These extend into patterns of dynamic stability for which tensegrity structures are helpful. Both
point to the existence of "pathways" around spherical structures -- corresponding to "great
circles" around the globe. Several may interweave and interlock to define zones in a spherical
grid. Such pathways may perhaps be understood as conceptual "ley lines". (For a computer
user, by contrast, travelling pathways through a hypertext stack without any sense of overview,
may be likened to a rat exploring a maze)
This paper suggests
that metaphors constitute our best understanding of the nature of the
vehicles to travel along these pathways and around the noosphere. Metaphors may be used to
articulate our understanding of the processes of balancing, building and holding conceptual
relationships to permit higher conceptual orders to emerge in a conceptually turbulent
environment. They can be used to point to the "environmental" problems of the noosphere,
including such challenges as "cultural deforestation" and "acid rain" resulting
from the unchecked
excesses of irresponsible disciplines.
1. Art | Fitting Together
