ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the political character of the context and content of interdisciplinarity. It explores how interdisciplinarity is driven by calls for more innovative and socially accountable research that reflects the complex boundary-crossing character of the contemporary world, including the way the environment is multiply entangled with society. The chapter analyses interdisciplinarity from similar terms and critiques the idealized 'integration' model, presenting alternatives. Three levels of entanglement between environment and society have stimulated the turn to interdisciplinary environmental research. The first is the multi-directional physical interactions between humanity and environment. The second level of entanglement between environment and society is a growing appreciation of the highly political, partial, and cultural character of everybody's perspectives on the environment. Third, interdisciplinary research on environmental issues has been driven, unsettled, and succeeded by growing questions about whether environment and society are even meaningful as isolated entities.
