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Managing Misunderstandings

The Role of Language in Interdisciplinary Scientific Collaboration

Institute of Technological Research, Brazil, markosy{at}uol.com.br

Elizabeth Keating

University of Texas at Austin

This article explores how scientists communicate with each other in interdisciplinary collaborative work. It is based on ethnographic research conducted with one such group, which is building a predictive computer model of heat transfer in prostate tissues. The analysis identifies strategies scientists use in their communication practices, including managing different understandings of the validity of knowledge, partial understandings among participants, and interpretive discipline crossing in group meetings. The ideas of productive misunderstandings and of registration as correlating distinct knowledge domains are used to interpret how scientists must manage their unshared backgrounds as part of the collaborative scientific work.

Key Words: communication • interdisciplinary research • computer models • ethnography • cyberinfrastructures

This version was published on September 1, 2009

Science Communication, Vol. 31, No. 1, 6-28 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1075547008330922


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