Reimagining Interdisciplinarity: Sensitization, Reflexivity, and Mobilization Across Landscapes of Practice
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Interdisciplinary research (IDR) is widely promoted as essential for addressing complex societal challenges, yet its enactment remains fraught. We argue that dominant typological and structural approaches miscast IDR and underplay the practical work through which it unfolds. Drawing on practice theory, we reconceptualize IDR as bundles of practices enacted across landscapes of practice. We theorize three guiding constructs: sensitization, reflexivity, and mobilization that support the coordination of IDR without collapsing its ontological multiplicity through misplaced attempts at epistemological integration. A practice lens clarifies why structural and typological interventions supply conditions that support IDR but do not guarantee outcomes; foregrounds the fragility, temporality, and politics of doing IDR; and reframes evaluation around practices rather than proxy measures such as bibliometrics. We outline implications for organizing and leading IDR and a research agenda linking IDR to wider debates in management and organization studies. Our contribution shifts attention from what IDR is to how it is enacted, sustained, and sometimes unravelled in practice.
Source: Journal of Management Studies
DOI: 10.1111/joms.70158
Authors: Ryan Nolan, Frank Siedlok, Paul Hibbert
Institutions: University of Salford, University of St Andrews
Language: English
Subfield: Information Systems and Management
Field: Decision Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $4,150
OpenAlex ID: W7212265662