Interdisciplinary boundary experiences: Learning through conversations

The complexity of many social systems and organisations together with the challenges the world is facing in terms of climate and health demands imagining new ideas and approaches. Interdisciplinary collaboration offers good examples of strategies and practices better able to cope with this complexity, but they are reliant upon the dynamics within collaborations and good integration of perspectives. This paper considers an example of interdisciplinary collaboration aimed at growing mindsets capable of dialoguing with other disciplines through the boundary learning. Based within the Royal College of Art Master in Research, we stimulated a learning experience that leveraged the cyclical dynamics of multi-disciplinary conversations towards an integrated space for knowledge production. This has been assessed through the students’ response to a collaborative project, in which cross-discipline groups developed activities for public engagement through collective research practices. This paper specifically focuses upon the role of conversation in interdisciplinarity as a learning method that harnesses different kinds of knowledge at the boundaries of their discipline and thus facilitates interdisciplinary integration of different disciplines.