Ethics of Interdisciplinary Research Across Multiple Ranges of Proximity

Abstract: This article addresses the ethical and epistemological challenges of interdisciplinary efforts through the interactional lens of proximity. How can we ensure interdisciplinarity in unequal institutional, disciplinary, and geopolitical environments? What does it mean to do research when epistemological frameworks clash between fields and sectors? Which echo chambers are perpetuated when we limit interdisciplinary research to groups that share institutional and/or disciplinary grounds? To tackle these questions, we will draw examples from long-term interdisciplinary projects (funded by 12,4 million euros for the period 2013–2027) in relation to privacy, data protection, health, and the home (Centre for Privacy Studies, Privacy Black & White, Latin American Privacy Studies, and Hospitals in the Home). Engaging analytically with Boschma’s notions of proximity (2005) and Tronto’s principles of ethics of care (2013), we address the experienced benefits and challenges of interdisciplinarity across multiple ranges of proximity: from disciplinary closeness to large epistemological diversity, from institutional closeness to geographical distance, and from scholarly requirements to the need for practical implementations. On this basis, we develop a new conceptual and methodological analysis of what it means to be interdisciplinary in the global scientific landscape.