Among Institutions, Spaces and Networks: Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Realms in the American Continent

Abstract

Why think in terms of institutions?
Institutional factors are usually blamed for hindering interdisciplinary
initiatives. This issue of INTERdisciplina presents a different perspective in
which institutions are reconceptualized as social constructs (Ostrom 1990,
1995) that have contributed —and continue to contribute— towards the
development of interdisciplinarity. Within this framework, universities become
privileged realms as they create spaces in which there is freedom to generate
conceptual and organizational innovations that pave the way to new forms of
knowledge production (Weingart, 2014).