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Experiments in interdisciplinarity†

  1. Marilyn Strathern

Article first published online: 19 JAN 2007

DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8676.2005.tb00121.x

Issue

Social Anthropology

Social Anthropology

Volume 13, Issue 1, pages 75–90, February 2005

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How to Cite

Strathern, M. (2005), Experiments in interdisciplinarity. Social Anthropology, 13: 75–90. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-8676.2005.tb00121.x

Author Information

  1. Department of Social Anthropology University of Cambridge Free School Lane Cambridge CB2 3RF (UK) ms10026@cam.ac.uk

  • †

    The paper published here is the spoken and thus truncated version of Marilyn Strathern, ‘Social property. An interdisciplinary experiment’, in POLAR. Political and Legal Anthropology Review, 27 (2004): 23-56 c by the American Anthropological Association. All rights reserved. This is a component of a Goldsmiths/Cambridge collaborative project with Andrew Barry and Georgina Born, called ‘Interdisciplinarity and society. A critical comparative study’, conducted under the wider auspices of the ESRC's ‘Science in society’ programme. Among those who I must thank are Monica Konrad for her perceptive comments on the text and for on-going conversations, David Leitner for the materials he kindly provided, Alison Stewart from the CGKP who keeps me grounded, Benedicta Rousseau, Ann Kelly and Samuelle Carlson for their observations and commentary, and Maryon McDonald, Cori Hayden, Monica Bonaccorso and members of the CBA [Comparative Studies of Biotechnology and Accountability] research group in the Department of Social Anthropology in Cambridge. Duncan Simpson should be thanked again. The Cambridge 2004 Social Property Seminar is a joint venture with my colleague James Leach. Inspiration for the topic of ‘ownership’ came from Bronac Ferran, director of Interdisciplinary Arts, Arts Council England. Ron Zimmern (director of Cambridge University's Institute of Public Health, and founder-director of the CGKP) provided an impetus with his interest in the combinations of funding, employment and secondment that make up each research node. The models for the IDW come from experimental associations between creative artists and scientists supported by an unusual collaboration between the British Arts and Humanities Research Board and the Arts Council England, and from industrial design. Here the genius belongs to Alan Blackwell, from the Cambridge Computer Laboratory, co-founder of Crucible. The work of Helga Nowotny (2001) (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich) and her colleagues has laid out some of the conditions of modern knowledge production that is the starting point for the exercise. Final thanks to colleagues at Cornell and Princeton Universities who read earlier versions.

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 19 JAN 2007
  2. Article first published online: 19 JAN 2007

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