Interdisciplinarity on the Move: Reading Kratochwil as Counter-Disciplinarity Proper

Abstract

This contribution to the forum discusses The Status of Law in World Society from the perspective of interdisciplinary research in International Law and International Relations. While problematising  the mediation on interdisciplinarity itself, I suggest that the remainder of the book is an example of reflexive interdisciplinarity, which uses cross-disciplinary encounters to learn about disciplinary blindspots, hidden assumptions or silences, and to destabilise its certain knowledges and common senses. This is interdisciplinarity as counter-disciplinarity proper. Kratochwil shows how interdisciplinary research can be a non-imperialist, enriching and stimulating conversation, precisely because it refrains from dictating this in the form of a set research agenda with a delineated roadmap. The Status of Law instead highlights the scholarly merits of posing questions, being puzzled and having contestations as more important and productive features for our academic endeavour and interdisciplinarity itself.