Conceptual andTheoretical Frameworks of Research

1. Conceptual andTheoretical Frameworks of Research Personal Skills and Philosophic Bases of Research Spring, 2012 Paul Ilsley

2. Questions that researchers ask… • How to exercise a pragmatic approach in research /create practical relevance? < > How to formulate a pragmatic question in terms of scientific terminology? • How do I know my research is scientific enough? • What is a good method? Does the method I’ve chosen really capture what I want to know? • How do I justify the choices I have made as a researcher? Will I be able to stand behind my choices? • Do I choose an ontological and an epistemological stance? What happens if they don’t match?

3. …more questions… • What is my role as an interviewer? What are my obligations towards my informants? How much do the informants have to know about the research I do? • How to move from interpretation of experience to situating it in political, cultural context? • Where is the line between interpretation based on data and interpretation based on theory? • How do I fit all the concepts that I find interesting into my design? What is the relationship between them? • Can I mix two different approaches (e.g. sociological, cultural, cognitive…) • What is the quality of “expertise” produced in few-year doctorate programs under heavy time pressure (2 articles per year)?

4. Some Challenges • Lack of enthusiasm • Lack of holistic vision of the research • Lack of due consideration of literature • Confusion of terms • Ontological stances • Epistemological beliefs • Methodological choices • Different audiences • Different stakeholders • Excessive doubting

5. Ontological stances • From Greek, o´ntos, “the science or study of being” (OED…, 1989), describes the character of reality. • Deals with our conception of reality. What kind of reality do we wish to obtain knowledge about? • Essentialism -Nihilism • Existentialism -Normativist • Materialism -Social idealist • Catholicism -Nationalist • Critical realism -Politicist • Many (millions?) of other ones

6. Epistemological beliefs • From Greek for knowledge, knowing or “the theory or science of the method or grounds of knowledge” (OED…, 1989) • Deals with the grounds and validity of knowledge • Rationalism • Empiricism • Theories of knowledge: • Relativism • Structuralism • Constructivism • Intentions to obtain knowledge: • Hermeneutics, Phenomenology, Positivism

7. Only when your a priori standpoints are dealt with in accordance with implications on their own level (ontological and epistemological) you can take clear responsibility for what kind of knowledge you are producing through your research (Åsberg 2001, 314).

8. Methodological choices • The science of method … Also, the study of the direction and implications of empirical research, or of the suitability of the techniques employed in it...” (OED…, 1989). • Approaches adopted to obtain knowledge • Deductive, inductive, abductive, nomothetic, idiographic • Ways in which data are collected • interview, observation, written accounts, narratives, questionnaire

9. Deduction • The process of deducing or drawing a conclusion from a principle already known or assumed; spec. in Logic, inference by reasoning from generals to particulars; opposed to induction. • 1860 Abp. Thomson Laws Th. §113 Deduction the process of deriving facts from laws, and effects from their causes. • a1862 Buckle Civiliz. (1869) III. v. 291 By deduction we descend from the abstract to the concrete.

10. Induction • The process of inferring a general law or principle from the observation of particular instances (opposed to deduction, q.v.). • 1876 Fowler Induct. Logic (ed. 3) Pref., Induction..may or may not employ hypothesis, but what is essential to it is the inference from the particular to the general, from the known to the unknown.

11. Abduction • …mental activity by which the hypothesis is formed … our knowledge is not derived from experience alone (Peirce, 1877) • …the process of suggesting a hypothesis which can serve as an explanation of what has appeared as puzzling (Polkinghorne, 1983)

12. Assignment for the Break • Describe your own ontology, epistemology, and methodology. • Find the congruity among these. Why do you explain your ontology, epistemology, methodology in these terms? Look for similarities and congruities among them. One thing leads to another – try to find these connections! • Create a plan for your literature review. • Create a plan (or an agenda) for your data collection and data analysis. • Be prepared to defend your statements. • Max 20pages.