Modelling Lobbying Behaviour and Interdisciplinarity Dynamics in Academia

TL;DR

This paper presents a mathematical model of lobbying and interdisciplinarity in academia, revealing complex dynamics and the impact of policies on knowledge advancement and disciplinary diversity.

Contribution

It introduces a novel coupled non-linear ODE model capturing the interplay between academic lobbying, interdisciplinarity, and knowledge progress.

Findings

Model predicts multiple stable states and oscillations.

Policy effects can inhibit lobbying and influence diversity.

Historical events align with model phase transitions.

Abstract

Disciplinary diversity is being recognized today as the key to establish a vibrant academic environment with bigger potential for breakthroughs in research and technology. However, the interaction of several factors including policies, and behavioral attitudes put significant barriers on advancing interdisciplinarity. A "cognitive rigidity" may rise due to reactive academic lobbying favouring inbreeding. Here, we address, analyse and discuss a mathematical model of lobbying and interdisciplinarity dynamics in Academia. The model consists of four coupled non-linear Ordinary Differential Equations simulating the interaction between three types of academic individuals and a state reflecting the rate of knowledge advancement which is related to the level of disciplinary diversity. Our model predicts a rich nonlinear behaviour including multiplicity of states and sustained periodic oscillations resembling the everlasting struggle between the "new" and the "old". The effect of a control policy that inhibits lobbying is also studied. By appropriate adjustment of the model parameters we approximated the jump/phase transitions in breakthroughs in mathematical and molecular biological sciences resulted by the increased flow of Russian scientists in the USA after the dissolution of the Soviet Union starting in 1989, the launch of the Human Genome Project in 1992 and the Internet diffusion starting in 2000.