Deleuze, Guattari, and the Problem of Transdisciplinarity

Description

Deleuze and Guattari's work has today become ubiquitous in the humanities and social sciences, being regularly drawn on by a vast array of subjects. Throughout their careers, Deleuze and Guattari also engaged with a myriad of disciplines; yet they declared themselves that "Philosophy is not interdisciplinary". This apparent contradiction has rarely been explicitly confronted by scholars. Fortunately, however, Deleuze and Guattari left us a number of clues in their works signaling how to approach this apparent impasse. These clues amount to a complex and penetrating, if un-unified, theory of disciplinarity and cross-disciplinary articulation. Energized by recent developments in critical transdisciplinarity studies, this volume analyzes and evaluates instances of disciplinarity and transdisciplinarity within Deleuze and Guattari's shared and respective bodies of work. The first volume in English specifically devoted to examining Deleuze and Guattari's work using this framework, this book both contributes to the field of critical transdisciplinarity studies and in doing so helps shed light on the heart of Deleuze and Guattari's intellectual project.

Guillaume Collett is Research Fellow in the Centre for Critical Thought, University of Kent, UK.

Like many academics, I once thought that it was obvious what the term 'transdisciplinary' meant, as with its various related terms (e.g. inter-, cross-, multi-). No longer. This book compels its reader to rethink such presumptions, whilst at the same time providing a fresh lens through which to explore Deleuze and Guattari's work - an impressive achievement. * Craig Lundy, Senior Lecturer in Social Theory, Nottingham Trent University, UK * Over the past decades, the work of Deleuze and Guattari has given rise to creative thinking throughout academia. However, while always drawing alliances and creating resonances with other disciplines, they themselves kept insisting on studying the questions of philosophy. This collection gives us a series of much-needed analyses of their highly original ideas on transdisciplinary or transversal thinking. It is a must-read for everyone in theory. * Rick Dolphijn, Associate Professor of Theories of Arts and Culture, Utrecht University, the Netherlands * This volume presents transdisciplinarity as a genuine problem, in contrast to those who pander to it as a fashionable leitmotif of contemporary scholarship. Situated firmly within the philosophical work of Deleuze and Guattari, the contributors explore a variety of overlapping contexts within and beyond their oeuvre, without ever losing sight of the generative power of this problem to counter-actualise the present. To read this collection is to come away with a richer understanding of what Deleuze and Guattari mean by philosophy and a deeper appreciation of what must be done to save philosophy from withering on the vine of neoliberalism. Collett's introduction sets the scene wonderfully and the contributors deliver subtle insights into transdisciplinarity in abundance. It is a vibrant and vital collection for everyone interested in thinking, understood as a process of problematisation * Iain MacKenzie, Director of the Centre for Critical Thought, University of Kent, UK *