Talk About it!

Or the benefits of multidisciplinary research teams

Multi-disciplinarity sounds like an academic buzzword! I, at least, always used to think of it that way; as something that only has a place in sentences that talk about "engaging in multi-disciplinary dialogues to arrive at synergistic outcomes", or some similar gibberish.

That is despite the fact that I arguably come from a multi-disciplinary background, having studied engineering, international relations and economics, and am now working on my PhD on rural electrification in Kenya at a department that has always taken pride in its multi-disciplinarity[1].

Yet, it wasn't until I attended the Solar Nano-Grids (SONG) workshop in Nairobi in May of this year that I really witnessed how the interaction of academics and professionals from more than one background can deepen analysis and broaden perspectives (which sounds exactly like the jargon I was mocking earlier).

The best way to illustrate what I mean is by sharing two particular observations I made during the SONG workshop. As part of the workshop a core group of participants, consisting of engineers and social scientists, went on two field trips to existing mini-grids in rural Kenya. During both of those visits the extent to which academic background shapes the perception of the world and the information gathered from it, became very clear. The engineers would notice the rusty, broken off piece of the weather vane from the wind turbine, the broken and disused inverters or dust collecting on the solar panels and see them as a sign of lacking technical capacity within the community. On the other hand, the social scientists, would find out that the needs of the community, as perceived by its members, were no longer met properly by the mini grid; that the arrival had brought social changes to the communities, stopping villagers from moving away or even attracting new members to the communities; or/and that there was a clear sense of pride of their mini-grids within the communities.

Combine these two viewpoints and a rich picture emerges of not only the technical system or only the social and cultural context, but the interaction between the two, the socio-technical system as it would commonly be called.

Without a multi-disciplinary team that is given plenty of opportunity to talk about their observations and interpretation of them, as we were during and after the field trips, these complex relationships could easily be overlooked. Yet, they are fundamental to the long-term sustainability of the mini-grids. Multi-disciplinarity deepens analysis

It does, however, also bring with it the challenge of communication, as each academic discipline comes with its very specific language. Just like the expression "socio-technical imaginary", for example, might mean nothing to an engineer, similarly, a social scientist might struggle to immediately see the benefits and drawbacks of direct current (DC) versus alternating current (AC) power. However, if these two groups are given a chance to talk to each other and explain the meaning of these terms, the engineer will discover that socio-technical imaginaries "call attention to the fact that visions of future developments in science and technology almost inevitably bring with them wider visions of social futures, of risk and benefit, and of the collective good"[2]. The social scientist, on the other hand will find out that DC transmission lines have, for example, lower technical losses and hence can distribute electricity further, but require special, and potentially costly appliances or inverters at the household level. As a result it becomes clear, that the technical system design needs to be compatible with the socio-technical imaginary prevalent in the community. The interaction of these two concepts can, again, lead to improved chances of long-term sustainability. Multi-disciplinarity broadens perspectives.

All of this really is a roundabout way of saying: "Talk about it!" Any study of a complex system, such as a solar mini grid, will only benefit from a variety of angles of analysis. No one academic field can claim to cover all of them. Bring a number of them together, exchange observations and interpretations however, and the chances of overlooking a critical factor diminish drastically.

Lorenz Gollwitzer
Doctoral Research Student
SPRU (Science & Technology Policy Research)
School of Business, Management and Economics
University of Sussex

[1] SPRU - Science and Technology Policy Research at the University of Sussex
[2]http://sts.hks.harvard.edu/research/platforms/imaginaries/imaginaries-faqs/