Exploring the complexities of international multidisciplinary project management

The first chapter tracks the growing complexities of international multidisciplinary research project management through the postwar period to the present day. By reviewing the development of research programmes that extend across national borders and disciplinary groupings, involving potentially incompatible theoretical, conceptual and methodological approaches, the author explains why coordination of international multidisciplinary teams has become such a complicated and demanding process. The chapter explores the shifting meanings of international and multidisciplinary research and their implications for project management. It raises salient issues that are addressed in subsequent chapters and in the case studies, associated with the contextual backgrounds of researchers; the language and epistemic communities to which they belong; the socio-economic and political environments impinging on the phenomena under analysis; the institutional frameworks and constraints within which researchers are operating; the agendas of national and international funding agencies; and the interface between researchers and their multisectoral stakeholders.