Interdisciplinarity is a common goal within specialized interdisciplinary organizations as well as within the academic world as a whole. Interdisciplinary research is connected with values such as a more market oriented approach, new ways of using theories and methods and a more cost efficient use of expensive research equipment. But few studies actually measure the development of organized interdisciplinary research over time. The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential effects of organizational changes in research institu- tions whose purpose is to promote interdisciplinary research collaborations.. Using a longitudinal case study this essay measures the attempts of a Norwegian music therapy research organisation to actively induce interdisciplinary research over a period of eight years. An important part of the study is also to try common quantitative operationalizations of different types of interdisciplinarity with in a small case study. Bibliometric methods are used to visualize relations between researchers. Important results include findings of increased interdisciplinary activity within the new organisation thus proving the possibility to create interdisciplinary conditions thru active organisational changes. The essay also show that operationalizations used in quantitative studies may need to be adapted to specific conditions in order to effectively measure interdisciplinary relations between researchers. As with all case studies the results of this essay needs to be tested and verified in further studies.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-266024 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Fahlén, Daniel |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för ABM |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | Uppsatser inom biblioteks- & informationsvetenskap, 1650-4267 ; 676 |
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