Integrating diverse expertise is crucial to many forms of crossdisciplinary team research. But it is not easy. One of the challenges to integration that has been overlooked is the fact that much integration unfolds in several stages or components we can call integrative pathways. Examples include the multi-decade development of the chromosome theory of heredity (Darden & Maull, 1977) or the iterative reasoning to find common ground in a Toolbox dialogue workshop (Laursen, 2018).

Integrative pathways can be more difficult to track and sustain than single-step integration, because there are more moving parts. Although multistage or multipart integrations are common and desirable, integration specialists lack adaptable tools for dealing with this complexity. Instead, integrationists often treat each integrative pathway as unique, inventing unique tools and methods for it, or subsume it into a general category of integration, using a tool that may neglect important nuances. Thus, there is an important need for a conceptual resource that makes it easier to track and sustain integrative pathways that share structures across contexts.

To meet this need, I developed a new tool for integration specialists called integrative topologies (Laursen, in press). These topologies model the shape of integrative pathways by showing different ways that multiple input-process-output sets can connect. Basic topologies include the weave, zipper, and chain. These shapes can also hybridize and stack. The shape of integrative pathways can help integrationists understand what is happening and how the structure of the unfolding integration might influence the integrative process or products, just as the branching structure of a tree influences how it grows and the properties the wood will have.

This poster illustrates how integration specialists might use integrative topologies to describe, teach, facilitate, and evaluate unfolding integration. The central example is a novel intervention that helps a research team articulate an integrative pathway for their project.

The topologies can be used informally as heuristics or formally as analytic frameworks. They provide conceptual schema that can be customized to local situations. Integrative topologies support variety without erasing distinctions, reserving a place for integration alongside disintegration and preservation. More topologies may be articulated in the future, inspired by creative uses of these initial topologies.