Interdisciplinarity, Specialization and the End of Great Debates. Over the book. Hackney James R. Jr. Legal Intellectuals in Conversation. 2012
Abstract
The following review essay is based on thinking about James R. Hackney's book Legal Intellectuals in Conversation: Reflections on the Construction of Contemporary American Legal Theory, which is composed of interviews with the leading figures of particular schools of thought within contemporary American jurisprudence.
The key issue which is discussed in the interviews is the shift in the understanding of interdisciplinarity. Hackney, as well as the majority of interviewees, sees the alteration of a lively communication between disciplines by the creation of narrowly specialized subdisciplines.
The result is a lack of great debates or even the decline of theory as such. Among the causes of this situation, which are discussed in the following text, are the transition from the era of paradigm shifts to the era of "normal science", or the condition of neoliberal hegemony which does not provide enough space for thinking about alternatives.
Apart from the American context, the text mentions also a certain uniformity of the global academia with the pressures such as the necessity to adapt to the texts written in English or to certain kinds of academic evaluation. However, the essay emphasizes also some examples that could be inspiring in the Czech context and stimulate the public intellectual engagement and debates between disciplines.