Models and integration

Models can be used as integrative devices in scientific practice, as well as at the science-policy interface, in many different ways. In this chapter, three ways in which models can function as such devices are discussed. As themselves, the locus of the integration of different kinds of epistemic components, as coupled and modular structures that integrate other models, and as boundary objects that, in virtue of their position in a particular situation, can facilitate integration and interdisciplinarity. A single model can be integrative in all three ways at one and the same time. Special attention is paid to the collaborative aspects of interdisciplinarity and how various forms of integration can support such efforts.