An academic discipline or academic field is
a branch of knowledge.
It incorporates expertise, people, projects,
communities, challenges, studies, inquiry,
and research areas that are strongly associated
with a given scholastic subject area or college
department.
For example, the branches of science are commonly
referred to as the scientific disciplines,
e.g. physics, mathematics, and biology.
Individuals associated with academic disciplines
are commonly referred to as experts or specialists.
Others, who may have studied liberal arts
or systems theory rather than concentrating
in a specific academic discipline, are classified
as generalists.
While academic disciplines in and of themselves
are more or less focused practices, scholarly
approaches such as multidisciplinarity/interdisciplinarity,
transdisciplinarity, and cross-disciplinarity
integrate aspects from multiple academic disciplines,
therefore addressing any problems that may
arise from narrow concentration within specialized
fields of study.
For example, professionals may encounter trouble
communicating across academic disciplines
because of differences in language or specified
concepts.
Some researchers believe that academic disciplines
may be replaced by what is known as Mode 2
or "post-academic science", which involves
the acquisition of cross-disciplinary knowledge
through collaboration of specialists from
various academic disciplines.
== History of the concept ==
The University of Paris in 1231 consisted
of four faculties: Theology, Medicine, Canon
Law and Arts.Educational institutions originally
used the term "discipline" to catalog and
archive the new and expanding body of information
produced by the scholarly community.
Disciplinary designations originated in German
Universities during the beginning of the nineteenth
century.
Most academic disciplines have their roots
in the mid-to-late-nineteenth century secularization
of universities, when the traditional curricula
were supplemented with non-classical languages
and literatures, social sciences such as political
science, economics, sociology and public administration,
and natural science and technology disciplines
such as physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering.
In the early twentieth century, new academic
disciplines such as education and psychology
were added.
In the 1970s and 1980s, there was an explosion
of new academic disciplines focusing on specific
themes, such as media studies, women's studies,
and Africana studies.
Many academic disciplines designed as preparation
for careers and professions, such as nursing,
hospitality management, and corrections, also
emerged in the universities.
Finally, interdisciplinary scientific fields
of study such as biochemistry and geophysics
gained prominence as their contribution to
knowledge became widely recognized.
As the twentieth century approached, these
designations were gradually adopted by other
countries and became the accepted conventional
subjects.
However, these designations differed between
various countries.
In the twentieth century, the natural science
disciplines included: physics, chemistry,
biology, geology, and astronomy.
The social science disciplines included: economics,
politics, sociology, and psychology.
Prior to the twentieth century, categories
were broad and general, which was expected
due to the lack of interest in science at
the time.
With rare exceptions, practitioners of science
tended to be amateurs and were referred to
as "natural historians" and "natural philosophers"—labels
that date back to Aristotle—instead of "scientists".
Natural history referred to what we now call
life sciences and natural philosophy referred
to the current physical sciences.
Few opportunities existed for science as an
occupation outside the educational system.
Higher education provided the institutional
structure for scientific investigation, as
well as economic support.
Soon, the volume of scientific information
rapidly increased and people realized the
importance of concentrating on smaller fields
of scientific activity.
Because of this, scientific specializations
emerged.
As these specializations developed, modern
scientific disciplines in universities also
improved.
Eventually, academia's identified disciplines
became the foundations for people of specific
specialized interests and expertise.
== Functions and criticism ==
A very influential critique of the concept
of academic disciplines came from Michel Foucault
in his 1975 book, Discipline and Punish.
Foucault asserts that academic disciplines
originate from the same social movements and
mechanisms of control that established the
modern prison and penal system in eighteenth-century
France, and that this fact reveals essential
aspects they continue to have in common: "The
disciplines characterize, classify, specialize;
they distribute along a scale, around a norm,
hierarchize individuals in relation to one
another and, if necessary, disqualify and
invalidate."
(Foucault, 1975/1979, p. 223)
== Communities of academic disciplines ==
Communities of academic disciplines can be
found outside academia within corporations,
government agencies, and independent organizations,
where they take the form of associations of
professionals with common interests and specific
knowledge.
Such communities include corporate think tanks,
NASA, and IUPAC.
Communities such as these exist to benefit
the organizations affiliated with them by
providing specialized new ideas, research,
and findings.
Nations at various developmental stages will
find need for different academic disciplines
during different times of growth.
A newly developing nation will likely prioritize
government and political matters over those
of the arts and sciences.
On the other hand, a well-developed nation
may be capable of investing more into the
arts and sciences.
Communities of academic disciplines would
contribute at varying levels of importance
during different stages of development.
== Interactions ==
These categories explain how the different
academic disciplines interact with one another.
=== Multidisciplinary ===
Multidisciplinary knowledge is associated
with more than one existing academic discipline
or profession.
A multidisciplinary community or project is
made up of people from different academic
disciplines and professions.
These people are engaged in working together
as equal stakeholders in addressing a common
challenge.
A multidisciplinary person is one with degrees
from two or more academic disciplines.
This one person can take the place of two
or more people in a multidisciplinary community.
Over time, multidisciplinary work does not
typically lead to an increase or a decrease
in the number of academic disciplines.
One key question is how well the challenge
can be decomposed into subparts, and then
addressed via the distributed knowledge in
the community.
The lack of shared vocabulary between people
and communication overhead can sometimes be
an issue in these communities and projects.
If challenges of a particular type need to
be repeatedly addressed so that each one can
be properly decomposed, a multidisciplinary
community can be exceptionally efficient and
effective.There are many examples of a particular
idea appearing in different academic disciplines,
all of which came about around the same time.
One example of this scenario is the shift
from the approach of focusing on sensory awareness
of the whole, "an attention to the 'total
field'", a "sense of the whole pattern, of
form and function as a unity", an "integral
idea of structure and configuration".
This has happened in art (in the form of cubism),
physics, poetry, communication and educational
theory.
According to Marshall McLuhan, this paradigm
shift was due to the passage from the era
of mechanization, which brought sequentiality,
to the era of the instant speed of electricity,
which brought simultaneity.Multidisciplinary
approaches also encourage people to help shape
the innovation of the future.
The political dimensions of forming new multidisciplinary
partnerships to solve the so-called societal
Grand Challenges were presented in the Innovation
Union and in the European Framework Programme,
the Horizon 2020 operational overlay.
Innovation across academic disciplines is
considered the pivotal foresight of the creation
of new products, systems, and processes for
the benefit of all societies' growth and wellbeing.
Regional examples such as Biopeople and industry-academia
initiatives in translational medicine such
as SHARE.ku.dk in Denmark provides the evidence
of the successful endeavour of multidisciplinary
innovation and facilitation of the paradigm
shift.
=== Transdisciplinary ===
In practice, transdisciplinary can be thought
of as the union of all interdisciplinary efforts.
While interdisciplinary teams may be creating
new knowledge that lies between several existing
disciplines, a transdisciplinary team is more
holistic and seeks to relate all disciplines
into a coherent whole.
=== Cross-disciplinary ===
Cross-disciplinary knowledge is that which
explains aspects of one discipline in terms
of another.
Common examples of cross-disciplinary approaches
are studies of the physics of music or the
politics of literature.
== Bibliometric studies of disciplines ==
Bibliometrics can be used to map several issues
in relation to disciplines, for example the
flow of ideas within and among disciplines
(Lindholm-Romantschuk, 1998) or the existence
of specific national traditions within disciplines.
Scholarly impact and influence of one discipline
on another may be understood by analyzing
the flow of citations.The Bibliometrics approach
is described as straightforward because it
is based on simple counting.
The method is also objective but the quantitative
method may not be compatible with a qualitative
assessment and therefore manipulated.
The number of citations is dependent on the
number of persons working in the same domain
instead of inherent quality or published result’s
originality
