multidisciplinär

Multidisciplinär is an adjective used to describe work, study, or research that involves multiple distinct disciplines. In a multidisciplinär approach, experts from different fields contribute their own methods, theories, and data to a common problem, but each discipline maintains its own framework. The emphasis is on collaboration across fields, with integration occurring mainly at the level of results rather than through a unified methodological synthesis.

The term is commonly found in Swedish and related Nordic languages, and is used in policy, education, research, and industry to signal cross-disciplinary engagement. It can describe curricula that bring together several subjects, research projects that combine insights from different domains, or professional teams that address complex problems by drawing on diverse expertise.

In practice, multidisciplinär work differs from interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches. Multidisciplinary efforts involve parallel contributions from multiple disciplines without requiring deep integration of methods. Interdisciplinary work seeks to integrate concepts and methods to create a cohesive framework. Transdisciplinary work aims to transcend disciplinary boundaries to produce new approaches that involve non-academic stakeholders as co-creators.

Common applications include environmental planning, healthcare teams, urban development, and technology projects that require insights from engineering, social sciences, and humanities. The term highlights collaboration and breadth of perspective, while allowing individual disciplines to maintain their distinct methodologies and epistemologies.