Introduction to Transcontextuality

You may have run across the terms "transdisciplinary" in academic circles or "integrated" some educational circles. Both of these terms allude to the idea of transcontextuality, but do not quite capture the same meaning. The prefix trans-, according to Dictionary.com, can mean across, beyond, through, or changing thoroughly. "Transdisciplinary" means across disciplines, such as across the disciplines of biology, chemistry, physics, and maybe even, psychology, economics, sociology, etc. However, in common usage, transdisciplinary tends to refer to similar disciplines such as those within science or within the social sciences. However, in whatever combination, the idea of transdisciplinary maintains the integrity or separation of each discipline, while investigating, studying, or discussing particular topics. The idea of "integrated curriculum" refers to teaching in ways that bring various subject matter areas or disciplines together. Such integrated teaching may involve teaching a science topic, while making sure that students read about the topic, do mathematics about the topic, and study the social studies areas related to the topic. Such an approach, like "transdisciplinary" approaches, maintains the separation of each subject matter area. In addition, both transdisciplinary and integrated limit the scope of what is investigated, studied, or discussed to a particular predefined set of ideas, like biology, chemistry, and physics or science, social studies, reading, and math.

"Transcontextual," which was first coined by Gregory Bateson in Steps to an Ecology of Mind (p. 272 in the 2000 edition) and elaborated upon by both Nora Bateson and Mary Catherine Bateson, refers to a much larger scope of contexts. In both "transdisciplinary" and "integration," all aspects of human experience, culture, and emotions are omitted. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, both of these terms also place each discipline or subject matter area into discrete little boxes, which are then forced into some sort of interrelation. Even though our human tendency is to label everything we perceive, which is part a "built-in" process of categorization, where we put all of these "things" into separate cubby holes. However, we also have built-in processes of transcontextuality, which tend to be beaten into submission during our experiences in schools. Transcontextuality is more than likely sets of many processes that span what we call disciplines, as well as all of those things that are parts of our life and mental--emotional experiences. Young children do this seamlessly. They don't stop to identify what subject matter they're delving into or what experiential context they thinking about. They just draw on the whole of their epistemology. "Epistemology," as used here, is not used in the philosophical sense of the study of knowledge, but is used in the way Gregory Bateson [1] used the term as a description of one's personal knowledge or as a group's shared social knowledge. Seamlessly spanning contexts can include all of the contexts we typically encounter in academic disciplines or subject matter areas, as well as all of the contexts in which we live and work, all of the contexts we see and hear or otherwise encounter in our daily lives, and all of our cognitive and emotional contexts. All of these contexts are not as clearly defined and delineated as may be suggested by the endless piles of textbooks and journals. The borders between all of these contexts are fuzzy and porous, while also overlapping and intertwining. In addition to this fuzziness and intertwining, all contexts have varying degrees and dynamics of interdependency with one another. To think transcontextually is to see, feel, and experience, at least to some degree, the dynamics of these interdependencies.

Transcontextual thinking may look at a wildfire situation, as depicted in the photo, with a much wider scope than what is typically done with our default cause-and-effect approach. A transcontextual approach may look at causes, but they don't focus on a singular cause, but on a wider scope of all of the causal factors. -- As a brief side-note, singular cause and effect thinking makes it very convenient to blame someone or something, which seems to be a deeply embedded pattern in our culture. Transcontextual causal complexities rarely, if ever, find a single cause, but rather find a complex knot of interdependencies that have led to a particular problematic situation. -- To return to this example of forest fires, some examples of the types of contexts that may be explored are listed below:

• the effects on people's lives, relationships, emotions, sense of well-being, etc., as well as the effects of these contexts of people's lives on the occurrence of wildfires;
• the nature and dynamics of people's ways of living that might contribute to the occurrence of wildfires;
• the effects on the local and more distant ecosystems and the organisms within these ecosystems, as well as the effects of local and distant ecosystems on wildfires;
• the nature and dynamics of local ecosystems, including the ways in which people interact with these ecosystems, and how certain aspects of these context may affect wildfires;
• the local, national, and global economic effects of wildfires, as well as how these economic patterns affect the likelihood and intensity of wildfires;
• the effects of these wildfires on climatic systems, and how climatic systems are affecting wildfires;
• how political entities and systems affect wildfires, and how wildfires affect political actions and reactions;
• the way in which the arts, literature, and poetry can illuminate the complexity of wildfires and their effects;
• the way in which news media represent and misrepresent the issues of wildfires;
• how wildfires affect societies and cultures, and how societies and cultures affect wildfires;
• the way in which the ecological, social, political, economic, corporate, and other contexts have contributed to the increase in frequency and severity of wildfires;
• and so forth.

If we begin to consider the contexts described in the above list, we also begin to see how difficult it is to separate out any one context. They are all deeply interdependent and interrelated. So, the transcontextual approach allows one to see the complexity involved in all aspects of our world.

Young children are natural transcontextual thinkers. They have no boundaries. They see relationships and patterns adults have difficulty seeing. But, schools do not value such thinking. Teachers shut down the "tangents" and "stories" children tell. But, as adults, our abilities are still present, just deeply buried. With a little practice, we can re-connect with these powerful ways of thinking.

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"Transcontextuality" has to do with how we view and think about pretty much everything in our world. For our purposes, "context" is broadly construed to include all sorts of situated phenomena. The notion of context can include (a) the family context; (b) the context of a particular ecosystem; (c) any cultural context; (d) our personal contexts of meaning that include emotions, values, beliefs, etc.; (e) a political contexts; (f) an economic context; (g) context of biology; (h) the context of molecular biology; (i) emotional contexts; and so forth. Contexts can be embedded within one another. They can overlap and intertwine. And, most of the time, they are inseparable. They are intertwined and embedded as a matter of course. We refer to contexts as separate entities more as a matter of convenience than for any accurate sense of reality. But, this separation has a tendency to work its way into our representations of reality, which is problematic. We separate biology from sociology and separate the arts from the sciences. We separate family from national politics, culture from science, and ecosystems from economics. Such separations prevent us from seeing the interdependencies in our world, which has led us to the precipice of multiple intertwined disasters.

Transcontextual perspectives and thinking, on the other hand, provide us with ways to start seeing and addressing these interdependencies. As we proceed to develop this way of thinking, the borders or boundaries of contexts become increasingly fuzzy and porous. At a certain point, we can no longer completely separate a context without the nagging pressures of seeing interdependencies. This exploration of transcontextuality is the beginning of this process of, to quote Bill Watterson's "Calvin" of Calvin & Hobbes, "transmogrifying" or magically transforming our thinking.

EXPLORATIONS

Exploration #1

Let's begin our exploration of transcontextuality in our immediate situations. You can be at home, in an office, on a train, in a car as a passenger and not a driver, or in a park or backyard.

• In your particular situation at the moment, list and briefly describe the contexts that seem to be evident at some level.
  • What contexts are involved in some way with the physical objects in your setting? What groups of people were involved in making these objects? What companies? What forms of transportation were involved? etc.
  • What social contexts -- family, political, economic, cultural, etc. -- are connected in some way to your physical setting?
  • What personal contexts -- emotions, personal experiences, memories, values, beliefs, etc. -- are involved in some way to your physical setting?
  • What other contexts are involved?
• You can continue this list of contexts, but if you haven't already done so, think about what ecosystems, living organisms, and resources have been used or involved in the making of the objects in your physical setting.
  • Trees?
  • Water?
  • Fossil fuels?
  • Electricity -- from where -- coal, natural gas, hydro, solar, wind?
  • Earth resources beyond fossil fuels -- minerals, metal ores, etc?
  • Other manufactured items -- plastics, paper, metals, glass, ceramics, inks and toner, electronic components, batteries, cotton and other natural and manufactured materials, rubber and other petrochemical sourced materials and objects, etc.
  • What ecosystems -- forests, marshes, swamps, marine ecosystems, coastal ecosystems, etc. -- have been affected by the production of these objects?
  • What will happen to the objects and materials in your setting when you dispose of them? What ecosystems will be affected?
  • What other systems or contexts have been and will be affected by the production, use, and disposal of the items in your physical setting?
  • How do these objects affect you, personally? How do they affect your emotions, personality, values, physical conditioning, etc?
  • Has slave labor, child labor, or other poor working conditions been involved?
  • What reasonably good working conditions have been or will be involved in the production and disposal of these objects?

Now, you can take some time to ponder the whole system of intertwined contexts. In extending our transcontextual approach, you may want to sketch what you've found or to represent something about your findings in some form of artistic expression, such as dance, drama, painting, sculpture, etc. Or, you may want to express your findings in poetry or stories. And, of course, you may want to just write down you ideas in more traditional prose or even in list form. And, , please share your question, ideas, and expressions in the Comments, below, or in our members' Group Discussion Forum.

Exploration #2

The photo above can provide you with another opportunity to explore transcontextual relationships and dynamics. The photo was taken in the spring of 1994 in Mumbai, India. Some added contextual information includes: (a) the temperature was hot and hovering around 40 degrees Celsius or 104 degree Fahrenheit. The relative humidity was high and hovering in the 90% or above range. And, a distinctive and memorable quality of Mumbai was the all-pervading, all-permeating smell. I have lived in Philadelphia and New York City, as well as up and down the east coast of the United States and Canada; I have worked in everything from factories to biology laboratories of all kinds; and I had never smelled anything like Mumbai air. As far as I could tell, it was a mixture of vehicle exhaust, human and cow excrement, human and cow urine, factory pollution, and human death. I had been forewarned that when the plane doors open, be prepared. But, that was not the case. The smell permeated the plane at a couple thousand feet or 600 meters above Mumbai. The smell stayed in my clothing for a week or so after leaving.

Examine and ponder the multiplicity of intertwined contexts you can find in or infer from the photograph. Please share and discuss your findings and ponderings in the Comments, below, or in our members' Group Discussion Forum.

NOTE:

[1] Bateson (1972/2000, 1979/2002, 1991) & Bateson, G., & Bateson, MC (1987/2005) -- Bateson (1979/2002) only uses the term "epistemology" once, but the entire book is a detailed examination of personal epistemology.

REFERENCES:

Bateson, G. (1972/2000). Steps to an ecology of mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Bateson, G. (1979/2002). Mind and nature:A necessary unity. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.

Bateson, G. (1991). Sacred unity: Further steps to an ecology of mind (R. E. Donaldson, Ed.). New York: Harper Collins.

Bateson, G., & Bateson, M. C. (1987/2005). Angels fear: Towards an epistemology of the sacred. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.

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