Why Scientists Need Artists

I have been reflecting on academia’s relatively recent realization that all research from all disciplines increases in relevance and efficacy if it is written for and disseminated to the people. The people are anyone who is not an academic.

The apprehension of humanities driven qualitative knowledge like emotions, experiences, and social behaviour is more accessible to the people than quantitative knowledge such as household debt, carbon dioxide emissions, and economic recession and recovery indicators provided by the sciences.

So why is it that the results of the sciences are more highly prized, and encouraged to the point of driving job markets? The answer is: policy making. Western societies function through policies; policy makers need quantities in order to substantiate the value of proposed policies and assess their effectiveness once implemented.

Life, for the people, is affected by many imperfect policies: unemployment, affordable housing, climate change, and urban sprawl to mention a few. Policy makers get the when and the why right most of the time, but in my opinion, have difficulties with the how and who of policy implementation.

Policy makers approach scientists with these how and who questions because their results are at hand when the questions arise; their involvement is a matter of circumstances. We often mistake these circumstances as endorsement that the sciences are the disciplines best qualified to provide how and who answers.

It is my opinion that less-than-optimal policies are a result of inadequate compromises on competing social, economic, and ecological priorities. While getting the right mix is by no means easy, the creative abilities of humanities built on connecting to the multidimensional needs of the people, offer untapped problem solving potential.

This is not to say that humanities scholars don’t engage with policy making, but simply to encourage these disciplines towards trans-disciplinarian problem solving. Why do I suggest a trans-disciplinary approach? I see an unexploited link between humanities skills and sciences skills.

Humanities specialize in observing the world and making logical sense of it through frameworks. Scientists use investigation methods which at their basis, require well-defined frameworks; the frameworks that humanities construct.

What does trans-disciplinary collaboration mean for the humanities? By my observation, science scholars are very enlightened people. They are well travelled, culturally aware, multi-lingual, engaged in philosophical thought, and avid readers of the classics. Bottom line for humanities: don’t sell yourself short, you too are capable of thinking like a scientist.

What are the key elements for humanities to communicate with the sciences? I would say: active listening, patient teaching, open-mindedness, and courage.  What are the key elements for sciences to communicate to the humanities? Exactly the same things!

Approach each-other as equal members of the people with slightly different backgrounds. When teaching start with general knowledge as understood by the people, then build in small orderly chunks. When listening, don’t interpret too much, actually listen and learn a new approach to a problem at hand. Seek the merit not the fault of the other’s methods, then be vulnerable as an artist in the re-interpretation of your specialty tempered by what you have learned from your opposite discipline.

A continuing dialogue based on listening, teaching, open-mindedness, and courage is the basis of trans-disciplinary problem solving. It is a place where the problems of the people are understood in a multi-faceted manner, where the implications of various approaches are blended into a fortified common approach, where disciplines evolve through innovative thinking, where the qualities of a problem are translated into the quantities required to formulate robust policies with well framed implementation strategies for resilient results.

Want to read more on trans-disciplinary collaborations? I recommend the following articles:

Bruce, A., C. Lyall, J. Tait and R. Williams (2004). “Interdisciplinary integration in Europe: the case of the Fifth Framework programme.” Futures 36(4): 457-470.

Harriss, J. (2002). “The Case for Cross-Disciplinary Approaches in International Development.” World Development 30(3): 487-496.

Jeffrey, P. (2003). “Smoothing the Waters: Observations on the Process of Cross-Disciplinary Research Collaboration.” Social Studies of Science 33(4): 539-562.

Dewulf, A., G. François, C. Pahl-Wostl and T. Taillieu (2007). “A framing approach to cross-disciplinary research collaboration: experiences from a large-scale research project on adaptive water management.” Ecology and Society 12(2): 1-24.