The document explores the concept of academic disciplines, highlighting their defining characteristics including structural, historical, and cultural attributes. It discusses the fragmented nature of disciplines and the emergence of inter-disciplinarity, which leads to the development of vocational subjects and new knowledge domains. The taxonomy presented differentiates between cognitive and social components of disciplines, illustrating variations in focus, community dynamics, and knowledge application.

1. Disciplinary Context
Becher, T., & Trowler, P. R. (2001). Academic Tribes and Territories (2nd Ed.)
Buckingham: Open University Press.
1. Educational Landscapes
Mapping the territory of academic knowledge
Coalescence of knowledge into academic disciplines / cultures
Modes of Knowledge (Gibbons, 2000)
Mode 1
Traditional, pure knowledge
Academic-driven and discipline-centred.
Mode 2
Applied, trans-disciplinary, problem-oriented knowledge
Non-academic-driven and entrepreneurial.

2. 2. Academic Disciplines
What constitutes / defines a discipline?
• Structural / institutional / organisational / departmental
• Historical
• Geographical (national / international)
Disciplines have recognisable identities and cultural attributes apparent in:
• Artefacts
• Language / discourse
• Traditions, customs, practices, rules etc.
Disciplinary Cultures: how academics engage with subject matter, and develop
recurrent practices among a group of people in a given context
Relationship with Learning Theories
NeoVygotskyist and Postmodernist approaches - Socio-Constructivist, Situated
practice (e.g. Wenger, Engestrom), cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1979)
Acquiring membership of disciplinary community.
New members construct rather than adopt ways of being –
identity, values, knowledge and practices etc.

3. 3. Fragmentation and Inter-disciplinarity
• Vocational subjects / professions present new disciplines / knowledge domains
• Academic Professionalism - specialist interests (Clark, 1993)
• Inter-disciplinarity, multi-disciplinarity and cross-disciplinarity
Boundaries
• Tightly knit / convergent / defended
• Loose / divergent / open
Boundary crossing - Boundary objects (Star & Griesemer, 1989)
Specialisms
• Theory-based
• Technique / methods-based
• Subject matter
Fills in disciplinary ‘gaps’
Microscopic level of knowledge

4. 4. Taxonomy: Cognitive Component
Hard < > Soft and Pure < > Applied
Hard / Pure
General areas of human understanding - Clustered around limited small problems
Hard / Applied
Focus on product-orientated techniques
Soft / Pure
Heteregeneous, personal and specific- study the particular rather than general
Soft / Applied
Directed by non-academic interests - focus on ‘useful topics’
Combination Category Example
Hard / Pure Pure Sciences Physics
Soft / Pure Humanities History
Hard / Applied Technologies Mechanical Engineering
Soft / Applied Applied Social Sciences Education, Law etc

5. 5. Taxonomy: Social Component
Urban < > Rural
Urban
Tightly composed, intense, competitive - teamwork and close-knit communities
e.g. Pure Sciences
Rural
Numerous themes of enquiry - little overlap between areas of focus
e.g. Arts and Humanities
Convergent < > Divergent
Convergent
Collective kinship, mutuality of interests and beliefs, fraternity, scholarship, mutual
identity and common discourse
Divergent
Ideologically fragmented, diffused across wide field – clusters of related
disciplines.