TRANSDISCIPLINARITY: CONCEPT, APPLICATION AND EXAMPLES - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The transdisciplinarity is an integrative research strategy that seeks understanding of new knowledge from the dialogue between two or more disciplines. It is an approach that understands reality as a whole and analyzes it from that complete perspective, instead of dealing separately with each of the different parts that compose it.

In this way, its vision is transversal and goes beyond that of the specialties that form it, seeking to achieve a unity of knowledge. Transdisciplinarity is distinguished from the term “multidisciplinary”, used in cases in which one discipline enriches the knowledge of another, in which the contribution of each one of them is made from a common space.

In transdisciplinary research, knowledge from disparate fields is integrated into an overall vision. Source: pixabay.com

In addition, it also differs from the “interdisciplinary” concept, understood as the study that is carried out with the cooperation of several disciplines, in that these are taken from the epistemic and methodological point of view in their entirety, and not in a specific aspect.

In general, transdisciplinary research is oriented to concrete real-life issues, leaving aside those that only have relevance in the field of science.

Concept of transdisciplinarity

The concept of transdisciplinarity is relatively new and has been developed in recent decades with the aim of understanding in a more concrete way the complex world of our days.

The Doctor in Pedagogy Miguel Martínez Miguélez defines it “as an emerging superior knowledge, the result of a dialectical movement of retro and pro feeding of thought, which allows us to cross the boundaries of different areas of disciplinary knowledge and create more complete images of reality, more integrated and, consequently, also more true ”.

Its objective is to overcome the division and fragmentation of each of the different specialties, which are incapable of understanding the multiplicity of links and connections that distinguish the modern world.

In transdisciplinary research, knowledge from disparate fields is integrated into an overall vision, which allows obtaining a global unit of knowledge to respond to new problems.

Etymology

The term transdisciplinarity was introduced by the epistemologist and psychologist Jean Piaget in 1970.

From the etymological point of view, it is made up of the Latin origin prefix "trans-", which means "on the other side of" or "through" and the word "disciplinarity", which comes from the Latin "discipline", understood as "teaching" or "instruction".

In this way, transdisciplinarity speaks of what is at the same time between, through, and beyond the different specialties.

Transdisciplinarity in education

In the field of education, the traditional learning model is based on the transmission of the knowledge of each subject separately. In it, the disciplines never or almost never complement each other and each one of them offers a particular vision of reality that never becomes complete.

On the other hand, at the higher level it is aimed at a hyper specialization, in which the individual knows a lot about a single topic, without caring too much about the rest of the knowledge and their environment.

Faced with this panorama, the transdisciplinary approach seeks to articulate and unite the different knowledge, allowing a global and integrating vision of reality.

Its objective is to achieve an overview, which makes it possible to study the connections and relationships between the different subjects seen as a whole, to improve the understanding of the world.

In this way, transdisciplinarity opens the doors to new scenarios of didactic innovation, in which the many potentialities of students are stimulated.

In this way they will be more fully prepared for life and for the reality that they will discover, value, and transform in the future.

Transdisciplinarity in the social sciences

Transdisciplinarity seeks to place man at the center of reflection and develop an integrative conception of knowledge. Source: pixabay.com

In the social sciences, the individual and collective behavior of a society cannot be analyzed and studied without its context and its different circumstances.

For this reason, an approach from a broader perspective is essential, including history, geography, politics, economics, linguistics, philosophy, demography, semiology, pedagogy, psychology, anthropology and sociology, among other disciplines.

The investigation of all these specialties as a whole appears as the only way to glimpse the multiplicity of links and relationships that distinguish the modern world.

Human beings are a dynamic and constantly changing object of study, so no single specialty is broad enough to achieve an absolute gaze.

In this way, the transdisciplinary approach is necessary to obtain a complete assessment of human behaviors and the communities in which they develop, since they cannot be examined in isolation.

Other examples of transdisciplinarity

Another concrete example of the application of a transdisciplinary approach occurs in ecology, which went from being a simple matter derived from biology, to becoming a complete science in which different specialties converge.

At present, in his research different methodological approaches are used to solve problems and multiple approaches are integrated to elaborate theories from various disciplines.

Among them we can mention chemistry, biochemistry, microbiology, climatology, soil sciences, mathematics, zoology, botany and physical geography.

Transdisciplinarity is also being used in new research on Big History, an emerging academic field that seeks to understand in a unified way the events of the universe from the Big Bang to the present day.

This approach allows us to analyze the interconnections of the human race with the cosmos, both from scientific knowledge and the ancestral wisdom of native peoples, including their mystical and spiritual experiences.

Finally, transdisciplinarity is also present in technoscience, where integrated knowledge enables the development of technological instruments with immediate application in solving specific problems.

References

1. Burnett, R. (2000), Disciplines in crisis: Transdisciplinary approaches in the arts, humanities and sciencies. Internet: Transdisciplinary-Unesco.
2. CIRET (1994), Proceedings of World Congress of Transdisciplinarity: Center International de Recherches et Etudes Transdisciplinaires (CIRET). Proceedings from 1994 meeting in Lisbon (Portugal).
3. Gedeón Zerpa, Iraida and García Yamín, Nubia (2009). Transdisciplinarity in higher education in the XXI century. Unique Magazine of Arts and Humanities. Volume 10 No. 3. Universidad Católica Cecilio Acosta.
4. Martínez Miguélez, Miguel (2007). Conceptualization of transdisciplinarity. Polis. Latin American Magazine 16.
5. Nicolescu, Basarab (2002). Manifesto of Transdisciplinarity. New York, State University of New York (SUNY) Press. Translation in English by Karen-Claire Voss.
6. Transdisciplinarity, Wikipedia. Available at: es.wikipedia.org
7. Etymological dictionary. Available at: etimologias.dechile.net