disciplineshermeneutics

Disciplineshermeneutics is a term used to describe an emerging field that studies how different scholarly disciplines interpret their own data, texts, practices, and artifacts, and how those interpretations travel across disciplinary boundaries. It treats interpretation as a cross-cutting activity shaped by disciplinary norms, languages, and epistemic commitments, and it investigates how meanings are produced, contested, and revised within and between fields.

At its core, disciplineshermeneutics asks how disciplinary frameworks shape what counts as evidence, how terms are defined, and how authority is organized in knowledge production. It engages with questions of translation, terminology, disciplinary jargon, and the social and historical contexts that condition interpretation. The field is interdisciplinary in itself, drawing on philosophy of language and interpretation, sociology of knowledge, science studies, and discourse analysis, while remaining attentive to the particularities of each discipline.

The theoretical foundations combine classical hermeneutics, with figures such as Gadamer and Ricoeur, with contemporary concerns from the sociology of science and critical theory. Proponents view disciplineshermeneutics as a meta-discipline that makes interpretive assumptions explicit and that helps facilitate cross-disciplinary communication and collaboration.

Methods commonly used include comparative textual analysis of disciplinary genres (journals, grant proposals, manuals), ethnographic or interview-based studies of practice, and analysis of terminologies and citation practices.

Applications appear in education, research governance, science communication, and policy studies. Critics caution that without clear methodological standards, the field risks relativism or vague conclusions.