Reflection through Diffraction: Interdisciplinarity in Energy Science

Abstract

To address the complexities associated with transitioning towards sustainable energy solutions, there are increasing demands to employ interdisciplinary approaches. However, these still represent a minority of research projects. This is due to the well-known understanding that researchers’ skills and methods are largely anchored within their nested disciplines, and to be working in an interdisciplinary manner would require reading and understanding each other’s disciplinary ‘language’ in order to consider how different fields can work together towards joint solutions. This article presents a structured approach by early career researchers to learn about different disciplines’ epistemological and ontological assumptions through the material engagement of each other disciplines. It includes a joint production of an annotated bibliography, followed by a cogenerative dialogue to unpack each other’s knowledge acquired in practice through agency and not merely observation. Theoretically, the approach is underpinned by theories proposed, amongst others, by Karen Barad, who advocates diffractive readings of each other’s fields to explore the relations between the social and the scientific.