OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH

Some years ago, Thomas Kuhn (1962)pointed out that science advances in one oftwo main ways. First, by focusing on the problems and puzzles defined by existing paradigms, and by training students in the some-what rigid methods and models of our disci-plines, science inevitably makes progress by filling in gaps in knowledge and refuting existing hypotheses. Kuhn referred to this as “normal science, ” and it constitutes the major mechanism by which scientists produce knowledge that sup-ports contemporary models of the phenomena of interest. Second, in addition to this mode of activity, science progresses by developing fresh approaches, by shifting the paradigms, or by repudiating the past through more dramatic sci-entific revolutions. Kuhn’s work suggests that many of the most important developments in sci-entific theories and models over past centuries originated through the kind of paradigm shifts implied by this second mechanism. Innovative advances in science promote the development of new communities that foster change and define progress in new ways. As long as the consensual processes of science accept the validity of given models and dominant theoreti-cal perspectives, the paradigms on which they rest will more or less persist. However, as models begin to fail in their ability to describe empirical reality, they will eventually fall into disrepute, even when there is strong institutional pressure in support of such models.1 Moreover, old mod-els are often vulnerable to more careful examina-tion when they are subjected to the scrutiny that is possible with new and more refined methods of measurement and analysis