The Formation And Evolution Mechanism Of Emerging Interdisciplines From The Perspective Of Legitimacy

Contemporary knowledge production and discipline development have entered an era of interdisciplinary fusion.In the process,the research paradigm and thinking mode of a single discipline gradually turned out to be inadequate to cope with the complex practical challenges and changeable trends.Consequently,interdisciplinary fusion is increasingly becoming the internal driving force of national science and technology innovation.To break the rigid pattern of the discipline system and promote interdisciplinary fusion,Government has made positive actions in many aspects,including but not limited to optimizing the policy environment and innovating in the organisation forms,which have more or less promoted the development of interdisciplines.However,the lack of legal support still restricts its function.In the reality that the resources are highly constrained,the emerging interdisciplines are in urgent need of obtaining legitimacy that matches their growth phases.Moreover,some studies have summarised the formation and evolution ideas of separate disciplines,while such information of the emerging interdisciplines is still calling for clarification.Therefore,it is necessary to conduct an in-depth study on the formation and evolution of emerging interdisciplines.By doing this,practical inspirations supporting the better and faster promotion of interdisciplinary development is expected to be obtained.This Research reviews the literature on the formation and evolution of emerging inter--disciplines and the legitimacy of discipline.It is found that the legitimacy theory is highly appropriate for supporting the study of the formation and evolution of emerging interdisciplines.Based on this,the Research chooses legitimacy as the theoretical perspective,takes the acquisition process of emerging interdisciplinary legitimacy as the research thread,and discusses the formation and evolution mechanism of the emerging interdisciplines.The Research mainly adopts the longitudinal single case study method,takes synthetic biology as the typical example of emerging interdisciplines,and systematically depicts the story of legitimacy acquisition behind the formation and evolution of emerging interdisciplines.First of all,quantitative analysis of synthetic biology's formation and development is carried out by using the bibliometric method.From the literature perspective,it is proved that the development of synthetic biology is closely related to the gradual establishment of legitimacy.Secondly,to further explore the specific evolution process of the legitimacy construction of synthetic biology,based on the overall analysis framework of "Discipline life cycle-Legitimacy requirements-Legitimacy acquisition strategy",the Research employs the case study method and interview survey method to discuss the legitimacy requirements and legitimacy acquisition strategy in different phases of the formation and evolution of synthetic biology.Afterward,the Research summarises the general law of legitimacy acquisition of emerging interdisciplines and compares this law with traditional disciplines' legalisation.Finally,based on the phased practice of obtaining the legitimacy of synthetic biology,the DSR(Driving force – State – Response,i.e.)analysis framework is introduced to explore the formation and evolution mechanism of emerging interdisciplines.Based on the above analyses and discussions,this Research finds that:(1)There exist many kinds of legitimacy elements in the different phases of the formation and evolution of emerging interdisciplines;(2)The legitimacy acquisition of emerging interdisciplines involves three levels with obvious periodicity--cognitive legitimacy,normative legitimacy,and regulative legitimacy.The dynamic relationship between legitimacy requirements and legitimacy construction strategies is the concrete demonstration.Taken as a whole,the phased evolution of the legitimacy of emerging interdisciplinary subjects presents a gradual evolution trend from zero to emergence,diffusion,and then finally solidification.The comprehensive use of a variety of legitimacy strategies promotes the scope diffusion and degree deepening of discipline legitimacy;(3)There are some differences between the legalisation of emerging interdisciplines and that of the traditional disciplines,which are mainly reflected in the different requirements of legitimacy at different phases and the different strategies of legitimacy acquisition;(4)The formation and evolution of emerging interdisciplinary disciplines follow the continuous feedback mechanism among different indicators under the joint action of driving force system,state system,and response system.The contributions of this Study can be mainly reflected in the following three aspects:(1)This Paper studies the formation and evolution of emerging interdisciplines from the perspective of legitimacy,which expands the research horizon of discipline development and evolution;(2)It discusses the legitimacy acquisition requirements and acquisition strategies of emerging interdisciplines at different development phases and constructs the legitimacy acquisition framework of emerging interdisciplines,which provides theoretical support for the evaluation and trend detection of discipline legitimacy acquisition;(3)It establishes the DSR analysis framework of the discipline field,which provides a reference for investigating the formation and evolution mechanism and operating mechanism of emerging interdisciplines in the future.Apart from the above theoretical contributions,this research also provides beneficial practical inspirations for promoting the development of emerging interdisciplines:(1)The government needs to promote flexible management and provide sufficient development space for emerging interdisciplines;(2)Universities needs to forward-looking layout and innovate interdisciplinary organizational structure and ecological system;(3)Researchers need to be demand-oriented and carry out scientific research oriented to grand innovation needs.