The gold standard: Epistemologically, ecologically informed research

Abstract

In this article I have a lofty aim: to change how we think about the gold standard of research in social science. Complex global social problems --wicked problems-- such as a global refugee crisis, global poverty, persistent gender and social inequality, and most recently, a worldwide pandemic, have shown the need for scholars to develop different approaches that meaningfully capture complexity. Yet, social science research typically avoids complex, interconnected, and contextualized realities. Instead, reductionist approaches, and particularly randomized control trials, are often touted as the gold standard of research. Within our complex, messy social world, however, I suggest a different benchmark for the gold-standard in social research is needed, and I propose one that entails two key components. The first component requires us to foreground our research question with methodological mindfulness, a deep contemplation of the pre-research process, so that we more fully understand the process by which we make our knowledge claims. This is a step that I call epistemologically-informed research. The second component entails an approach that requires us to embed our research problem in the social, political, economic, and geographic ecologies that contextualize it. This is an approach that I call ecologically-informed research. Drawing on the insights of feminist, critical and ecological scholars, I argue that research informed by a critical, ecological epistemology is a vital and still under-appreciated approach in answering questions facing us today. By providing an overview of Institutional Ethnography, I show how critical, ecological approaches have the unique capacity to provide compelling explanations for how social relations shape complex phenomenon, substantially enriching the depth of our understanding on a range of topics relevant to social scientists.