Multi-disciplinary or Trans-disciplinary? The Relationship of S-CAR to Traditional Academic Disciplines

The field of conflict analysis and resolution (CAR) occupies an intriguing place in regards to the more ‘traditional’ disciplines in the humanities and the social sciences. On one hand, it seeks to define itself as a field, with its own approach to theory, research, and practice. On the other hand, it both borrows from and contributes to fields of anthropology, law, political science, psychology, religious studies, and sociology, among others.

By one understanding, CAR brings together people of different disciplines to study similar problems related to conflict, broadly understood. This is the multi-disciplinary, “salad bar” understanding – the ingredients stay separate. By a different understanding, CAR combines disciplines by encouraging scholars to think across disciplinary boundaries. This is the trans-disciplinary, “soup” understanding – the ingredients melt into each other to create something wholly new. Tensions in these understanding are natural and possibly productive, but directly affect scholars – in the classroom, in the dreaded comprehensive exams, in tenure cases, and beyond. In this Contentious Conversation, we debate both the conceptual and the practical implications of this tension.