Douglas J. Cremer, PhD
Dean, Institute of Transdisciplinary Studies
Woodbury University, California

Readings in Transdisciplinarity

The following is an initial list of about sixty sources on transdisciplinarity: books, articles, and on-line sources. They are all in English, although there is also an extensive literature in French and German, which I will also be compiling for those of us who read those languages. Cultural, educational, and science studies predominate, as do questions of epistemology and methodology. Writers also touch on anthropology, economics, management, sustainability, women’s studies, and writing. I have left off an extensive literature where transdisciplinary perspectives are applied to health care, early childhood studies, and sustainability, as these fields would require bibliographies in themselves.

In terms of chronology, the sources range from the early precursors of transdisciplinary thinking (Jantsch, Kuhn) through first efforts (Fried, Pettman) to theoretical developments in the 1980s (Gregoire and Prigogine, Meyer, Rowland). Three key publications in 1994 (De Freitas, Hooks, Gibbons) mark the beginning of sustained growth in the field. Half of the sources are from 2000 and later where the richness and diversity of the discussion really takes off. The most significant here would be the work of Klein, Nicolescu, and Nowotny. Anyone should be able to find some entry-point into the literature that would interest them and can work out from there; the fourteen on-line resources are obviously the easiest to obtain.

Arden, John Boghosian. Consciousness, Dreams, and Self: A Transdisciplinary Approach. 1st paperback printing ed. Madison, Conn: Psychosocial Press, 1999.

Ball, Howard, and Stephen D. Mzamane Berkowitz Mbulelo. Multicultural Education in Colleges and Universities: A Transdisciplinary Approach. Mahwah, N.J: L. Erlbaum Associates, 1998.

Beck, Rose Marie, and Frank Wittmann. African Media Cultures: Transdisciplinary Perspectives. Köln: Köppe, 2004.

Boyd, Rosalind, et al. Workshop on Social Sciences and Transdisciplinarity: Latin American and Canadian Experiences : Collected Papers. Montréal: Centre for Developing-Area Studies, McGill University, 1999.

Brenner, Joseph E. "Logic, Art and Transdisciplinarity: A New Logic for the New Reality." Technoetic Arts: a Journal of Speculative Research 1.3 (2003): 169.

Coppock, Patrick, et al. The Semiotics of Writing: Transdisciplinary Perspectives on the Technology of Writing. Turnhout: Brepols, 2001.

Costanza, Robert. Frontiers in Ecological Economics: Transdisciplinary Essays by Robert Costanza. Cheltenham, UK ; Lyme, NH: E. Elgar, 1997.

D’Ambrosio, Ubiratan. “Universities and Transdisciplinarity.” Rencontres Transdisciplinaires. 9-10 (1997). CIRET. 26 October 2006.<http://nicol.club.fr/ciret/locarno/loca5c10.htm>

De Freitas, Lima de, et al, eds. “The Charter of Transdisciplinarity.” CIRET: International Center for transdisciplinary Research. 6 November 1994. CIRET. 26 October 2006. <http://nicol.club.fr/ciret/english/charten.htm>

De Mello, Maria. “Transdisciplinarity: An Experiment in Implementation.” Rencontres Transdisciplinaires. 16 (2002). CIRET. 26 October 2006. <http://nicol.club.fr/ciret/bulletin/b16/b16c12.htm>

Dolling, Irene, and Sabine Hark. "She Who Speaks Shadow Speaks Truth: Transdisciplinarity in Women's and Gender Studies." Signs 25.4 (2000): 1195.

Educational Resources Information Center (U.S.). International Studies: a Transdisciplinary Agent for Curricular Reform : Project Dates: August 15, 1989 - November 14, 1992. Washington, DC: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, Educational Resources Information Center, 1992.

Emmeche, Claus. "Review Articles - Transdisciplinarity, Theory-Zapping, and the Growth of Knowledge." Semiotica 131.3 (2000): 217.

Fried, Jacob, and Paul Molnar. Technological and Social Change: A Transdisciplinary Model. New York: PBI, 1978.

Gibbons, Michael. The New Production of Knowledge: The Dynamics of Science and Research in Contemporary Societies. London; Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 1994.

Gregoire, Nicolis, and Ilya Prigogine. Exploring Complexity. New York: Freeman, 1989.

Hamberger, Erich. "Transdisciplinarity: A Scientific Essential." Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 1028 (2004): 487.

Henagulph, Seb. “Three Pillars of Transdisciplinarity.” Goodshare.org. 22 April 2000. Goodshare.org. 26 October 2006. < http://www.goodshare.org/pillars.htm>

Hooks, Bell. Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. New York: Routledge, 1994.

Horlick-Jones, Tom, and Jonathan Sime. "Living on the Border: Knowledge, Risk and Transdisciplinarity." Futures 36.4 (2004): 441.

Jantsch, Erich. “Towards Interdisciplinarity and Transdisciplinarity in Education and Innovation.” Interdisciplinarity: Problems of Teaching and Research in Universities. Paris: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 1972: 97-121.

Janz, Bruce B. “Transdisciplinarity as a Model of Post-Disciplinarity.” Home Page for the Pegasus WWW Server. 1999. University of Central Florida. 26 October 2006. <http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~janzb/papers/transdisciplinarity.pdf>

Johnson, Richard. "Historical Returns: Transdisciplinarity, Cultural Studies and History." European Journal of Cultural Studies 4.3 (2001): 261-88.

Judge, A. J. N. "Transdisciplinarity through Structured Dialogue." Knowledge Organization : KO 22.2 (1995): 82. Laetus in Praesens. 26 October 2006. <http://www.laetusinpraesens.org/docs/trandis.php>

Kaufman, Douglas, and Moss, David M. Osborn,Terry A. Beyond the Boundaries: A Transdisciplinary Approach to Learning and Teaching. Westport, Conn: Praeger, 2003.

Klein, Julie Thompson. Crossing Boundaries: Knowledge, Disciplinarities, and Interdisciplinarities. Charlottesville, Va: University Press of Virginia, 1996.

---. Humanities, Culture, and Interdisciplinarity: The Changing American Academy. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2005.

---. “Interdisciplinarity and the Prospect of Complexity: The Tests of Theory Issues in Integrative Studies.” Issues in Integrative Studies. 19 (2001): 43-57. Association for Integrative Studies. 26 October 2006. <http://www.units.muohio.edu/aisorg/pubs/issues1/restricted/044/paper.pdf>

---. “Notes Toward a Social Epistemology of Transdisciplinarity.” Rencontres Transdisciplinaires. 12 (1998). CIRET. 26 October 2006.. <http://nicol.club.fr/ciret/bulletin/b12/b12c2.htm>

---. "Prospects for Transdisciplinarity." Futures 36.4 (2004): 515.

---. Transdisciplinarity : Joint Problem Solving among Science, Technology, and Society: An Effective Way for Managing Complexity. Basel ; Boston: Birkhäuser, 2001.

Kuhn, Thomas S. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 3^rd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago press, 1996 [1962].

Lange, Paul A. M. Van. Bridging Social Psychology: Benefits of Transdisciplinary Approaches. Mahwah, N.J: L. Erlbaum Associates, 2006.

Laszlo, Ervin. The Interconnected Universe: Conceptual Foundations of Transdisciplinary Unified Theory. Singapore ; River Edge, N.J: World Scientific, 1995.

Lattanzi, Massimiliano. Transdisciplinarity: Stimulating Synergies, Integrating Knowledge. Geneva: UNESCO, Division of Philosophy and Ethics, 1998. UNESCO Documents and Publications. 26 October 2006. <http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0011/001146/114694eo.pdf>

Lawrence, Roderick J., and Carole Despres. "Futures of Transdisciplinarity." Futures 36.4 (2004): 397.

Maasen, S., and O. Lieven. "Transdisciplinarity: A New Mode of Governing Science?" Science & Public Policy 33.6 (2006): 399-410.

Max-Neef, Manfred A. "Foundations of Transdisciplinarity." Ecological Economics: the Journal of the International Society for Ecological Economics 53.1 (2005): 5.

Meyer, Walter. Beyond the Mask: Toward a Transdisciplinary Approach of Selected Social Problems Related to the Evolution and Context of International Tourism in Thailand. Saarbrücken ; Fort Lauderdale: Breitenbach, 1988.

Mittelstrass, Jürgen. “On Transdisciplinarity.” Science and the Future of Mankind. Vatican City: Pontifical Academy of Sciences, 2001: 495-500. The Holy See. 26 October 2006 <http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_academies/acdscien/documents/sv%2099(5of5).pdf>

---. "Unity and Transdisciplinarity." Interdisciplinary Science Reviews: ISR 18.2 (1993): 153-7.

Montuori, Alfonso. "Gregory Bateson and the Promise of Transdisciplinarity." Cybernetics & Human Knowing 12.1/2 (2005): 147-58.

Nicolescu, Basarab. Manifesto of Transdisciplinarity. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002.

---. “Transdisciplinarity and Complexity: Levels of Reality as Source of Indeterminancy.” Rencontres Transdisciplinaires. 15 (2000). CIRET. 26 October 2006. <http://nicol.club.fr/ciret/bulletin/b15/b15c4.htm:

---. “The Transdisciplinary Evolution of the University.” Rencontres Transdisciplinaires. 12 (1998). CIRET. 26 October 2006. < http://nicol.club.fr/ciret/bulletin/b12/b12c8.htm>

Nowotny, Helga. “The Potential of Transdisciplinarity.” Rethinking Interdisciplinarity. 1 May 2003 Interdisciplines. 26 October 2006. < http://www.interdisciplines.org/interdisciplinarity/papers/5>

Nowotny, Helga, Peter Scott, and Michael Gibbons. Re-Thinking Science: Knowledge and the Public in an Age of Uncertainty. Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2001.

O’Reilly, Meg. “Educational Design as Transdisciplinary Partnership: Supporting Assessment Design for Online.” ASCILITE 2004 Proceedings. 1 December 2004. ASCILITE. 26 October 2006 <http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/perth04/procs/oreilly.html>

Pettman, Ralph. Human Behaviour and World Politics: A Transdisciplinary Introduction. London: Macmillan, 1975.

Ramadier, Thierry. "Transdisciplinarity and its Challenges: The Case of Urban Studies." Futures 36.4 (2004): 423.

Robertson, Roland. "Globality, Globalization and Transdisciplinarity." Theory, Culture & Society 13.4 (1996): 127.

Roughley, Neil. Being Humans : Anthropological Universality and Particularity in Transdisciplinary Perspectives. Berlin ; New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2000.

Rowland, Robyn. Woman Herself: A Transdisciplinary Perspective on Women's Identity. Melbourne: New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.

Schwaninger, Markus. "System Theory and Cybernetics: A Solid Basis for Transdisciplinarity in Management Education and Research." Kybernetes: The International Journal of Systems & Cybernetics 30.9/10 (2001): 1209-22.

Somerville, Margaret A. and David J. Rapport, eds. Transdisciplinarity: Recreating Integrated Knowledge. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2003.

Streefland, Pieter H. Problems and Potential in International Health: Transdisciplinary Perspectives. Amsterdam: KIT Press, 1998.

Synott, John P. Global and International Studies: Transdisciplinary Perspectives. Southbank, Vic: Social Science Press, 2004.

Visser, Jean. “Nurturing the Scientific Mind in School: Transdisciplinary Experiences Avant la date.” Rencontres Transdisciplinaires. 18 (2005). CIRET. 26 October 2006. <http://nicol.club.fr/ciret/bulletin/b18/b18c10.htm>

Visser, Leontine E. Challenging Coasts: Transdisciplinary Excursions into Integrated Coastal Zone Development. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press: Centre for Maritime Research, 2004.

Wodak, Ruth, and Paul A. Chilton. A New Agenda in (Critical) Discourse Analysis: Theory, Methodology, and Interdisciplinary. Amsterdam: Philadelphia: J. Benjamins, 2005.

Ziman, John. Real Science: What It Is, and What It Means. Cambridge: New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Last Updated 10/26/06
douglas.cremer@woodbury.edu