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NCRM Research Methods Festival Oxford 30 June – 3 July 2008

NCRM Research Methods Festival Oxford 30 June – 3 July 2008. Crossing Disciplinary and Methodological Boundaries Peter Halfpenny Executive Director National Centre for e-Social Science. Begin at the beginning. In the beginning …. Isidore Marie Auguste François Xavier Comte (1798 – 1857)

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NCRM Research Methods Festival Oxford 30 June – 3 July 2008

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  1. NCRM Research Methods Festival Oxford 30 June – 3 July 2008 Crossing Disciplinary andMethodological BoundariesPeter HalfpennyExecutive DirectorNational Centre for e-Social Science

  2. Begin at the beginning

  3. In the beginning … Isidore Marie AugusteFrançois Xavier Comte(1798 – 1857) Social Physics – later ‘Sociology’ Queen of the Sciences- organised the lower sciences- already ‘multi’

  4. Sociology is multi • Macro, micro, meso • Theoretical, empirical • Individual, institutions, societies • Causal, interpretive • Cases, samples, populations • Work, education, family, community, class, gender, ethnicity, environment, health, crime, media, consumption, art, science… • -isms galore …

  5. Social sciences are multi • Sociology • Economics • Politics • Social Anthropology • Business Studies • Geography • Media Studies • and more …

  6. Research methods are multi • Festival programme! • 69 sessions • 23 ‘what is …? topics • Multimodal, archival, participatory, grounded, agent-based, secondary, multi-level, visual, ethnographic, longitudinal, comparative, statistical, critical … • social segregation, interview questions, risk, ethics, population trends, social networks …

  7. Boundaries everywhere • Social sciences are • multi-disciplinary • multi-method • Social sciences criss-crossed by boundaries • How to respond? • Erase them • Work within them • Work across them

  8. 1. Erase the boundaries • Seek some overarching whole? • A dominant paradigm? • A philosophical solution? • Postmodernism • seeking a solution is fruitless / misguided  

  9. 2. Work within boundaries • Focus narrowly by topic and method • Advantages • cumulation • Disadvantages • insular • against the trend

  10. 3. Work across boundaries • Increasing potential • digital ‘data deluge’ • Internet enables collaboration • computer support unlimited • 21st Century ‘grand challenges’

  11. ESRC Key Challenges • Succeeding in the global economy • Individual behaviour and its relationship to biological and social determinants • Education for life • Environmental change • Security and international relations • Religion and society • Population changeESRC Delivery Plan 2006 p.6

  12. RCUK Interdisciplinary priorities • Energy • Living with environmental change • Global threats to security • Ageing • Lifelong health and well-being • Digital economy • Nanoscience

  13. Crossing boundaries • Social sciences • criss-crossed with boundaries • substantial experience of crossing boundaries • substantial incentives to cross boundaries • realising the potential of the digital age • addressing key challenges • funding opportunities

  14. Problems crossing boundaries • ecological fallacy • multi at macro level not at micro level • incentives to work in collaborative multi teams? • lack of synthesis • how to integrate the multi bits?

  15. Problems crossing boundaries • complex explanations • how to understand multi explanations? • from lone scholars to collaborative multi teams • lack of simple policy implications • how to promote multi-agency policies?

  16. Transcending boundaries • Don’t reify boundaries • Focus on research questions • Pragmatic mixes of methods and disciplines • Creatively craft explanations that draw on a wide range of evidence to illuminate the research question at hand… or is this a fudge?

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