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Paper short abstract

Interdisciplinarity is often celebrated as a solution, yet it must be practically achieved. Drawing on an ethnomethodological study of a policy-oriented research network, this paper examines how interdisciplinary collaboration is negotiated, formatted, and made accountable in everyday research work.

Paper long abstract

Interdisciplinary research is frequently presented as a normative ideal capable of addressing complex societal challenges. Rather than evaluating interdisciplinarity in terms of success or failure, this paper approaches it as a practical accomplishment: something that must be continuously produced, negotiated, and rendered credible in situated research activities.

Based on an ethnomethodological study of IPORA, an international and policy-oriented interdisciplinary network working on public policy issues in Africa, the paper examines how interdisciplinarity is enacted in everyday research practice. This analysis is based on participant observation of working meetings, interviews with researchers from different disciplinary backgrounds, and close analysis of project proposals, evaluation templates, and research deliverables.

The paper demonstrates that interdisciplinary collaboration is shaped by recurring moments of misalignment, including divergent disciplinary vocabularies, differing assumptions about evidence, and competing expectations regarding policy relevance. Rather than being resolved once and for all, these tensions are managed through practical methods such as disciplinary categorization, sequential negotiation of research objects and roles, and the anticipatory formatting of knowledge claims for evaluative and policy audiences.

By attending to these everyday yet consequential practices, the paper highlights how interdisciplinarity does not simply open epistemic horizons but also constrains what can be seen, said, and valued as legitimate knowledge. In doing so, it contributes to STS debates on interdisciplinarity by foregrounding the situated practices through which collaborative futures are made thinkable, accountable, and actionable.