A PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH

World Knowledge Dialogue (WKD) was created in 2005 by André Hurst and Francis Waldvogel in Geneva, with the initial concept of bringing together internationally recognized personalities from the human/social sciences and from the natural/technical sciences : the objective was to create a common platform of exchange and dialogue, in order to develop multiple, transdisciplinary approaches of the major problems of our society and our world. Two symposia, organized in Crans-Montana (Switzerland) in 2006 and 2008 resulted from this concept : they were exciting moments of intellectual exchange and remarkable successes of an interdisciplinary dialogue ; both symposia showed however how difficult such an approach is, in terms of defining common goals, developing exchangeable methodologies, understanding diverse epistemological and cultural approaches.

As a follow-up to the 2008 symposium, the founders and organizers led in-depth discussions with the presidents of several Swiss universities, in order to define how this initial proof of concept could materialize in a more practice-oriented, research-based interdisciplinary movement. We are extremely pleased to announce that these discussions have been fruitful, resulting in the implementation of the next step of the World Knowledge Dialogue.

Symposium
Villars sur Ollon, Switzerland
October 10-14, 2010

« Interdisciplinarity in Action : A practical experience of Interdisciplinary Research »

The symposium will be an opportunity for the 4 research teams presently involved to discuss their progress, questions and perspectives, with experts in interdisciplinarity. The full program can e seen on our website www.wkdialogue.com.

Although this year’s symposium will be held as an internal event between the participating institutions (Universities of Geneva, Lausanne, Neuchâtel ; Ecole Polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) ; Institut universitaire Kurt Boesch, Sion), the results will be consolidated in a series of manuscripts and position papers, available on our website. It is believed that with this novel approach, the WKD team will give a new impulse and set new standards for the next WKD symposium. Please remain tuned to our website !

COMMON KNOWLEDGE : THE CHALLENGE OF TRANSDISCIPLINARITY

This book is intended for all who seek to participate in the knowledge revolution and carry it forward to new horizons. The compilation explores how the collective capital of knowledge gleaned from both traditional and innovative thinking in the physical, natural, economic and human science disciplines can be most productively reinvested for the benefit of humankind.

The book’s contributors are all former WKD speakers and are united in the drive to develop a more holistic approach to the acquisition and sharing of knowledge and its benefits. Collectively, the authors have a publication record of several thousand research articles, monographs and books to their credit. Contributors of particular renown include:

E.O. Wilson (Preface) - Naturalist and sociobiologist, emeritus professor of Harvard University biology department and twice winner of the Pulitzer prize for general non-fiction.

Karen Cook - Director of the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences, Stanford University, member of the US National Academy of Sciences, a pioneer of research on power-dependence relations and issues of trust in social relations and networks

Sir John Sulston - Currently chairman of the Institute for Science, Ethics and Innovation, University of Manchester, advocat of the need for change in the field of intellectual property rights, initiator of the human genome sequencing project and Nobel Laureate for Medicine (2002),

Raghavendra Gadagkar - Professor of ecological sciences at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and chairman of the research council for the history of science of the Indian National Science Academy

Noreen Golfman – Professor of English and dean of graduate studies, Memorial University Newfoundland, president of the Canadian federation for the humanities and social sciences

Henry Markram - Project director of the Blue Brain Project, co-director of the Center for Neuroscience & Technology, co-Director of EPFL's Brain Mind Institute and cofounder of the Frontiers Research Foundation

Pierre Lévy - Renowned philosopher and holder of the Canada Research Chair in Collective Intelligence at the University of Ottawa, inventor of IEML (Information Economy Meta Language), a universal system for semantic addressing of digital documents

Dame Wendy Hall - Professor and head of the school of electronics and computer science at the University of Southampton, a cofounder of the Web Science Research Initiative, vice president of the British Royal Academy of Engineering and a founding member of the Scientific Council of the European Research Council

Expected date of publication : October, 2010

Editors : Moira Cockell, Jérôme Billotte, Frédéric Darbellay, Francis Waldvogel

Publisher : EPFL Press

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