Editorial: Ecology, Economy and Society through an Interdisciplinary Lens

Abstract

The idea of interdisciplinarity is to create new knowledge by drawing from across disciplinary boundaries. Interdisciplinarity has become the buzzword of the day; academic researchers appreciate interdisciplinarity and aim to pursue it in research-related activities. In 2015, Nature devoted a full issue discussing how to approach the ‘grand challenges’ that are facing human societies today, challenges involving energy, water, climate, food and human health. Understanding complex topics such as nature (or climate change) requires us to go beyond discipline-based methods to develop systematic analyses that can bring together the explanations and interpretations of both the social and natural worlds.