Research on Scientific Research: A Transdisciplinary Study - Softcover

This book sets out to explain how scientific research is conducted. Editors Mauro Maldonato and Ricardo Pietrobon and contributors focus on the emerging inter/transdisciplinary dimensions of research. They use an approach grounded in the sciences of complexity to counteract the disciplinary fragmentation and decontextualisation created by a reductionist approach. The underlying theme throughout all the chapters is a practical focus on improving the way practitioners conduct and educate for scientific research. By rejecting the reductionistic approach to science, the authors propose research platforms that offer a broader perspective on the nature and practice of research, and the implications thereof for more complex and productive research environments. This volume combines leading-edge essays that focus on the inter/transdisciplinary study of research systems, from a group of international researchers from Italy, the UK and the United States. While the book is essential reading for all those involved in planning scientific research projects, the arguments put forward for the conduct of research have broader implications and applications for the social sciences and education.

Mauro Maldonato is an italian psychiatrist, professor at Universita degli Studi della Basilicata of Matera. His academic formation includes studies at the La Sapienza University (Rome), Federico II (Naples), London School of Economics, and the Ecole des hautes etudes (Paris). He has been a recurrent visiting professor at the Universidade de Sao Paulo (USP), Pontificia Universidade Catolica (PUC) di Sao Paulo and at Duke University. He is an author and curator of volumes and scientific articles published in numerous languages. He is also the scientific director of the International Research Week. Ricardo Pietrobon is an epidemiologist and Associate Professor at Duke University, USA. His research focuses on the study of process in biomedical research from a systems perspective. He currently directs a research network with ramifications in the US, South America and Europe.