Citation

Apter DE. Int. Soc. Sci. J. 2009; 60(196): 183-193.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, UNESCO, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1468-2451.2010.01714.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article presents the case for interdisciplinarity as a useful methodological framework for the social sciences. Interdisciplinarity is examined as a process of both disciplinary incorporation and paradigmatic evolution, which can deepen understandings of political and social questions. As social and political institutions, events and movements become increasingly more complex, hyphenated disciplines can lend critical new perspectives to the analysis of power, politics and social action and importantly, help to develop political solutions. Drawing on the evolution of the author's own interdisciplinarity trajectory (which includes fieldwork on political movements in Ghana, Uganda, Latin America and Japan), the article demonstrates how an emergent paradigm, discourse theory, can, in particular, bring new light to the connection between the relationship between thought and action. Indeed, a key advantage of discourse theory is that the categories of analysis, as discussed by theorists such as Levi-Strauss and Eco, allows for an in-depth analysis of how thoughts on an individual level can develop and be transformed into action on a collective level. This is critical to understanding the underlying motivations of members of political movements, who seek to overcome difficult individual circumstances by transcending negative social and political circumstances, not least by violence.