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QUOTE 22 from:

Klein, J. Thompson . (2004) 'Interdisciplinarity and Complexity: An evolving relationship'. Emergence: Complexity and Organization Special Double Issue 6 (1&2) [online]. Available from: http://emergence.org/ECO_site/ECO_Archive/Issue_6_1-2/Klein.pdf; accessed on 23/04/05

Both interdisciplinarity and complexity are modern ideas. However, the underlying concepts of interdisciplinarity - breadth and general knowledge, integration, and synthesis are ancient. Organized programs date to the opening decades of the twentieth century, in social science research and the core curriculum and general education movements. Precedents for the idea of complexity are traced to the early twentieth century, in disciplines such as biology and philosophy. The new science of complexity, though, developed in the latter half of the century. In recent decades, the two ideas have become increasingly entwined....
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The pairings of these two ideas have powerful implications for the most basic notions at stake in this congress - the nature of knowledge, the structure of the university, the characteer of proiblem solving, the dialogue between science and humanities, and the theoretical relationship of complexity and interdsisciplinarity....

......The convergence of interdisciplinarity and complexitry is ultimately part of a larger cultural process. Older epistemoilogical classifications and domains of expertise have become more permeable, and widespread crossing of national, political, and cultural boundaries has occured. Along with informational technologies, international transport of goods and people, new networks, and cultural peculiarities, these developments have been lumped under the umbrella term of "postmodernism". A central feature of postmodernism is reversal of the differentiating, classificatory dynamic of modernity and increasing hybridization of cultural categories, identities, and previous certainties. New forms of interdependence and cooperation call attention to a worldwide reconfiguration. All cultural categories, identities, and certainties heve undergone dedifferentiation, de-insulation, and hybridization

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