Dwelling in the 'in-between' of disciplines

Transcending the boundaries of siloed disciplinary structures within universities has become more and more important—because in the world outside academia, this is the reality. Graduates inevitably engage in constant interaction with colleagues with diverse knowledge bases. Universities have the potential to initiate developments that may have far-reaching consequences, affecting the ways in which the future professionals who will shape society will work. In this article, I debate contemporary definitions of interdisciplinarity, as the terms multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinarity are often confused and the terminology thus lacks clarity. I also discuss the challenges of interdisciplinary teamwork and how it can be promoted. To facilitate ‘dwelling in the in between of disciplines’, I present some general conditions for creative thinking that can facilitate the exploitation of the human mind’s creative capacities. I argue that engaging in such a process is a way to generate new interpretations and nonlinear combinations between the diversifying types of knowledge within and between complex systems. New instrumentalities for experiencing the world can emerge when the processes of various knowledge bases interact: Connecting such relations to one’s nondisciplinary intuition can allow them to unfold in a meaningful way.