transversalité

18:44 Feb 25, 2017 

This term could mean a number of things and without knowing what the team in question does it is impossible to be sure which meaning to select. E.g. it could mean "cross-disciplinary" in the sense of academic or health service disciplines; working with other departments and teams across the organisation; working as an integrated, information-sharing, horizontally structured, rather than hierarchical, team etc.

17:24 Feb 25, 2017 

Think of warp and weft...

07:16 Feb 25, 2017 

However, if anyone thinks I'm underestimating current use of transversality in business and/or educational jargon, I'd be grateful to be put right.

06:56 Feb 25, 2017 

It has recently become established in a very specific area: knowledge transfer in relation to regional innovation. Here's a definition (which is quite a mouthful in itself):

"What is Transversality
1. The policy process that enhances knowledge transfer where (in economic situations) market failure prevents related others (e.g. firms or other economic organizations) realising the potential of neighbouring or more distant relatedness."
http://www.igi-global.com/dictionary/transversality/48059

It seems that a specialist called Philip Cook is largely responsible for this; here's a review of his book Complex Adaptive Innovation Systems: Relatedness and Transversality in the Evolving Region (Regions and Cities) (2012):
http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/15/4/reviews/5.html

Beyond this, however, I don't think it's in general use in business and management in contexts like yours.

In education, with which I'm more familiar, transversalité is common in French, but although it's occasionally used in English I don't think it's a standard established term and I avoid it in favour of the kind of solution suggested here, usually involving "cross-".

06:49 Feb 25, 2017 

Needless to say, English texts translated from French, in Linguee or elsewhere, can't be taken as evidence of authentic English usage in themselves without corroboration from original texts written by competent native speakers. The use of transversality as a translation of transversalité is very likely to arise, for obvious reasons. I doubt it is becoming more common, but even if it is, that doesn't mean it is necessarily becoming more suitable.

As far as I can tell, transversality is confined in English to very specific fields and its use remains much more restricted than transversalité.

As you say, it is certainly a technical term in mathematics.

It is also a standard, though very specialised, philosophical term for a rather elusive concept developed by Félix Guattari.

(continued in next post)