Concepts

 

When we Commoners speak of community we mean a collection of individuals who identify themselves as part of a group, with neither the existence of the group nor the membership within it determined by outsiders.

And when we Commoners speak of transdisciplinary we mean a particular way of operating on the range of study or inquiry, which is a range of differences but with no connotation of good or bad, better or worse, preferred or not.  That range may be summarized as:

• Disciplinary — wholly within a particular field of study or inquiry; reductionist and exclusive in nature
• Crossdisciplinary — viewing one discipline from the perspective of another
• Multidisciplinary — drawing from different disciplines while working together on a process but staying within individual boundaries; additive in nature
• Interdisciplinary — the integration of different disciplines into a coordinated and coherent whole; interactive in nature
• Transdisciplinary — a unity of different disciplines that transcends traditional boundaries; holistic and inclusive in nature