Methodological Assumptions Research Articles

‘When you change the view from where you stood, the things you view will change for good’: An introduction to the mobilities paradigm in musical theatre

Musical theatre is frequently framed as connected to place and space, as terms like ‘the Broadway musical’ or ‘the Viennese operetta’ imply. National categorization, used prominently in titles of key monographs and handbooks, has turned out to be a moulding structure for the genre’s historiography. The term ‘American popular song form’ insinuates that musical form and style may reasonably be categorized by national adjectives. This is also true for the national attribution of earlier genres, such as the supposedly British ballad opera, French opéra comique and German singspiel. Signature pieces of the genre, e.g., the musicals of Rodgers and Hammerstein, have been read as documents of national re-affirmation. Nevertheless, a major portion of the repertoire can just as well be reinterpreted as a statement for mobility, thus bringing into question the tropes of regional rootedness and national at-homeness. Starting with methodological assumptions given in Stephen Greenblatt’s cultural mobility manifesto (), this article will examine the unquestioned frames of fixity in musical theatre scholarship and sound out alternatives that allow readings of the genre as mobile.

New challenges of international energy security: between continuation and change. Implications of the COVID-19 pandemic

The main research objective of the presented study is to analyse, in accordance with selected theoretical and methodological assumptions, the main challenges of international energy security. This will be possible thanks to a comprehensive analysis in the explanatory and predictive dimension. Analyses of energy security issues take into account long-term development trends as well as unpredictable events related to the functioning of infrastructure and energy technology. Thus, unexpected, sudden phenomena resulting from the dynamics of the international environment gain in importance. The energy security policy has been narrowly defined so far, and thus the issue of thinking in terms of various development opportunities in the raw materials industry is often overlooked. The dilemma related to “non-linear” thinking often ignores a variety of solutions that, taken together, can cause a radical turn in the energy market and its evolution. The methodological framework of the conducted research included research methods appropriate to the science of international relations. The factor method was useful in identifying the determinants of energy security redefinition in the contemporary world. The prognostic analysis turned out to be helpful in the part of the thesis on the prospects for the development of energy security.

Influence of the Numerical Modelling Methods on Dispersions and Errors of Analysis Results of Ship Hull and Deckhouse Vibrations

Abstract Ships’ (especially containers) vibrations significantly impact navigation safety. The presented analyses aims to identify the main forces exciting the ship’s superstructure and hull vibrations, test their influence on vibration levels, and verify the assumptions of the computational methodology. Two container ships were analysed. The influence of different modeling methods on the obtained calculation results was investigated. The impact of various operating parameters on the vibration level was also analysed. The numerical analyses results are compared with some empirical formulas. As a result, the calculation confidence level was estimated. The calculation results have been verified by comparison with measurement tests carried out on the real ship.

The Result of the Meeting of Voluntary Migrants with Forced Migrants at the Volunteering Background – Research Report

Abstract The aim of the paper is to present the specificity of voluntary work of Erasmus+ Spanish students (voluntary migrants) in aid of children in Polish primary schools attended by foreigners (often forced migrants). The first – theoretical part of the text presents the outline of migration issues, including forced and educational migration as well as voluntary work. The second part of the text shows methodological assumptions of qualitative research, which was conducted using the method of individual cases in June 2022 among Spanish volunteers working on behalf of the Dialog Foundation in Bialystok, Poland. Chosen research results concerning the activities undertaken by the volunteers, their motivation to act and the multilateral benefits from their work have been shown. In the light of the results of the research, Spanish volunteers contributed to the integration of pupils in the primary schools, in which they conducted workshops. The results of the research may hopefully be useful to develop further educational research concerning volunteering in aid of children in an intercultural environment.

관광 부문 질적연구의 패러다임과 토대이론에 대한 고찰

Although the number of qualitative studies in the field of tourism has increased, errors in applying the research paradigm and methodology are still common. This study aims to address the qualitative research paradigm and methodologies, with a particular emphasis on the grounded theory, which is commonly used in qualitative research. This research examines various research paradigms, such as positivism, post-positivism, critical theory, and constructivism, as well as their ontological, epistemological, and methodological assumptions. The concept of grounded theory and its evolution are discussed. Furthermore, the research paradigm, research method, research cases, as well as criticisms and credibility for various types of grounded theory, are discussed. Finally, recommendations for encouraging appropriate qualitative research are provided. It is hoped that this study will spark lively debates about the research paradigm and methodologies of qualitative studies in tourism.

Bodily Practices and Healthy Bodies: Representations of Gymnastics in a Brazilian Women’s Magazine (1940–1950)

This research aims to understand the influence of bodily practices, especially gymnastics, in the construction of representations of a healthy body conveyed in a Brazilian women's magazine in the 1940s and 1950s. We use records from the Jornal das Moças magazine for the analysis based on the theoretical and methodological assumptions of cultural history. The results show that gymnastics for women was linked to body maintenance and used as a tool for establishing a body standard, thus disciplining and shapingthe construction of women's health concepts, determined by the aesthetic bias of that period: a slim body as an ideal standard of beauty and health.

Mapping research approaches to data practices in schools

Digital data have a major impact on school practices and play a central role for teachers, including their pedagogical practice. From a research perspective, the question arises how data practices and data-related transformation processes in schools can be studied. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to methodically review research approaches and underlying methodological assumptions about data practices in schools based on a systematic review. The focus is on social science research designs, social science research instruments, and knowledge production methods. The article provides an overview of previous research practice in this area and concludes with possible implications for future research.

Językowy obraz demokracji w polszczyźnie

THE LINGUISTIC IMAGE OF DEMOCRACY IN POLISH LANGUAGE
 The article attempts to reconstruct the linguistic image of DEMOCRACY in Polish language in accordance with the methodological assumptions of the “Lublin school of cognitive ethnolinguistics”. The material for analysis has been excerpted from three types of sources: dictionaries, surveys and texts. First, a set of fundamental defining features (“basic features”) of the concept of DEMOCRACY has been established, which focused on four aspects: political, social, ethical and economic. Second, using the operation of profiling, the author of the article outlined which sets of features are ascribed to DEMOCRACY in various types of Polish public discourse. Particular attention has been given to the following (basic) features of the analysed concept: power/majority rule, freedom, equality, tolerance and pluralism.

Addressing methodological assumptions of correspondence tests when measuring discrimination

ABSTRACT In this study, we introduce a critical assessment of methodological assumptions made by researchers when using correspondence tests to measure ethnic discrimination. We aim to investigate whether (1) the order in which the applications are sent out, between the test and control person, (2) the conducted matched triad tests, in comparison to matched duo tests, and (3) the timing of application within the week, have an effect on discrimination rates. For this purpose, we made use of 2.984 matched correspondence tests across Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. Our findings suggest that the correspondence tests are rather robust for the variability in methodology. While these different methodological choices do affect the general invitation rates, they do not affect discrimination rates.

Cinderella or princess: Past and present of economic history

The article considers: (a) the main features of the development of economic history (EH) as an academic discipline in the second half of the 20th century; key challenges faced by the EH in the early 2020s. Based on the results of the survey of 147 international economic historians author reveals the most popular methods used by scholars from different local research communities. Special attention is paid to the study of respondents’ perception of the place of EH among other sciences. The analysis has shown that nowadays EH is gradually becoming an interdisciplinary research platform connecting scholars from a wide variety of subject At the same time, these scholars are united not as much by the unity of conceptual views, as by the desire to study EH not for the sake of history per se, but for the sake of finding the origins of modern social and economic challenges. The article also contains the results of a survey of 42 Russian economic historians about the theoretical and methodological assumptions they use and their vision of the problems of studying economic history in today’s Russia. The analysis has revealed that one of the main challenges for the development of the Russian community of economic historians is its high fragmentation, manifested in the lack of methodological consensus, as well as a rather pessimistic vision of future prospects of EH.

The development of history of education as a teaching subject in Serbia (1871–1989)

ABSTRACT This article is focused on the theoretical basis of the study of the history of education in Serbia in the period from the foundation of the first Teacher College (1871) to the end of the socialist establishment in the country (1989). By theoretical bases, we mean theoretical and methodological assumptions, including ideological patterns, which influenced the constitution of the history of education as a scientific discipline. The aim of the paper is to analyse and clarify scientific and non-scientific assumptions in the conception of the history of education in Serbia. As a teaching discipline, the history of education has always been placed within the framework of professional education of primary school teachers and education scientists. As a scientific discipline it has gone through different phases, which are presented in this paper: from Christian-oriented support for teacher training, through fitting into current developments in cultural history, to particular propaedeutics of the method of dialectical materialism for all disciplines of the educational science. The history of education in Serbia in the 20th century reached its full development through cooperation with general historians on projects from the national history of education and schooling, as part of the shift of interests from political to social historiography. This orientation of scientific discipline was not accompanied by an increase, but rather a decrease in the role of the history of education in the professional education of teachers in Serbia.

On Cultural Transmission. A Case Study: Condillac and Italy

The period that Étienne Bonnot de Condillac (1715-80) spent in Parma at the court of Philip and Louise Elizabeth (1758-67), as tutor to their son Ferdinand 1 , offers an interesting model for inquiring under what specific assumptions the concept of “cultural migrations”, or intellectual transmission, between different philosophical cultures should be considered. The difficulties for the historian of ideas in formulating hypotheses about the relevance and modes of cultural transmission are evident even in a case such as Condillac’s, whose actual presence in Parma and Italy seems to support the obvious belief that such transmission necessarily occurred through the philosophers direct action: his conversations with local scholars, contacts with other philosophers, intellectual exchanges and so on. However, one may legitimately question this sort of easy conclusion. For the philosophical novelties that the French philosopher introduced and which met with favor in the rest of Europe were sometimes dismissed or neglected in the Duchy of Parma and throughout Italy, even by scholars less conservative and orthodox in their philosophical positions who were more open to novelty. Moreover, the migration of authors does not entail the migration of their ideas. Given such questions, a preliminary analysis of some of the methodological assumptions underlying this type of inquiry is worthwhile.

High‐resolution mapping of 33 years of material stock and population growth in Germany using Earth Observation data

AbstractGlobal societal material stock in buildings and infrastructure have accumulated rapidly within the last decades, along with population growth. Recently, an approach for nation‐wide mapping of material stock at 10 m spatial resolution, using freely available and globally consistent Earth Observation (EO) imagery, has been introduced as an alternative to cost‐intensive cadastral data or broad‐scale but thematically limited nighttime light‐based mapping. This study assessed the potential of EO data archives to create spatially explicit time series data of material stock dynamics and their relation to population in Germany, at a spatial resolution of 30 m. We used Landsat imagery with a change‐aftereffect‐trend analysis to derive yearly masks of land surface change from 1985 onward. Those served as an input to an annual reverse calculation of six material stock types and building volume‐based annual gridded population, based on maps for 2018. Material stocks and population in Germany grew by 13% and 4%, respectively, showing highly variable spatial patterns. We found a minimum building stock of ca. 180 t/cap across all municipalities and growth processes characterized by sprawl. A rapid growth of stocks per capita occurred in East Germany after the reunification in 1990, with increased building activity but population decline. Possible over‐ or underestimations of stock growth cannot be ruled out due to methodological assumptions, requiring further research.

Application of the DEA Method for Evaluation of Information Usefulness Efficiency on Websites

The article presents analysis and evaluation of information usefulness efficiency for recipients with secondary and higher education using the example of information and shopping websites. Different levels of quality and information usefulness efficiency have an impact on different ways of processing information by users which, in turn, may result in different consumer behavior and their decisions. The study describes the basic methodological assumptions, the research evaluation procedure of information usefulness efficiency, and the forms of informational content and various forms of information presentation and visualization, as well as the results of data analysis from the study conducted on a group of respondents. In order to determine the factors that have the greatest impact on the perception of information usefulness on websites by users, the data obtained from the study using various methods, such as online questionnaire, usability testing and heuristic analysis, were analyzed using the DEA method, which is usually used for the analysis and evaluation of efficiency. The results of the research presented in this article can be useful in creating assumptions for methods of content presentation and visualization of various forms of content building for the needs of different user groups for information and business websites.

Methodological choices in brucellosis burden of disease assessments: A systematic review

Abstract Background Foodborne and zoonotic diseases such as brucellosis present many challenges to public health and economic welfare. Increasingly, researchers and public health institutes use disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) to generate a comprehensive comparison of the population health impact of these conditions. DALY calculations entail several methodological choices and assumptions, with data gaps and uncertainties to accommodate. The following review identifies existing brucellosis burden studies and analyses their methodological choices and assumptions. Methods/Findings A systematic search for brucellosis burden calculations was conducted in pre-selected international and grey literature databases. Using a standardized reporting framework, we evaluated each estimate on a variety of key methodological assumptions necessary to compute a DALY. One study reported estimates at the global level, the rest (13) at national or subnational. Most studies retrieved brucellosis epidemiological data from administrative registries. Incidence data were often estimated based on laboratory-confirmed tests. Not all studies included mortality estimates (YLLs) in their assessments due to the lack of data or the assumption that brucellosis is not a fatal disease. Only two studies used a model with variable health states and corresponding disability weights. The rest used a simplified singular health state approach. Wide variation was seen in the duration chosen for brucellosis, ranging from 2 weeks to 4.5 years, irrespective of whether a chronic state was included. Conclusions Available brucellosis burden assessments vary widely in their methodology and assumptions. Further research is needed to characterize better the total clinical course of brucellosis and estimate case-fatality rate. In addition, reporting of methodological choices should be improved to enhance transparency and comparability of estimates. These steps will increase the value of these estimates for policymakers. Key messages • Inconsistencies in reporting methods and assumptions are found, which hinder transparency and understanding of the methodological choices and the reuse of estimates for prioritization purposes. • Thus, there is a need for a more standardized reporting system for DALY estimates, which could resemble a checklist that reports the methodological choices and assumptions.

Inferring cultural reproduction from lithic data: A critical review.

The cultural reproduction of lithic technology, long an implicit assumption of archaeological theories, has garnered increasing attention over the past decades. Major debates ranging from the origins of the human culture capacity to the interpretation of spatiotemporal patterning now make explicit reference to social learning mechanisms and cultural evolutionary dynamics. This burgeoning literature has produced important insights and methodological innovations. However, this rapid growth has sometimes led to confusion and controversy due to an under-examination of underlying theoretical and methodological assumptions. The time is thus ripe for a critical assessment of progress in the study of the cultural reproduction of lithic technology. Here we review recent work addressing the evolutionary origins of human culture and the meaning of artifact variation at both intrasite and intersite levels. We propose that further progress will require a more extended and context-specific evolutionary approach to address the complexity of real-world cultural reproduction.

Pluralism in the Cognitive Sciences: Theoretical, Methodological or Explanatory?

The article considers the opposition of the doctrines of pluralism and monism and their related principles of proliferation and unification in the context of the development of modern cognitive sciences in three important respects for philosophy of science: theoretical, methodological, and explanatory. The article criticizes T. Kuhn’s views of theoretical monism and extends the defense of theoretical pluralism undertaken in author’s previous publications devoted to the conception of theoretical complexes, aimed at the correct description of large groups of theories in the cognitive sciences, such as connectionism, moderate embodied cognition, etc. Pluralism is also defended in methodological dimension. Theoretical pluralism and methodological pluralism are represented as an inevitable consequence of the conception of theoretical complexes and its principle of proliferation calling for the creation/improvement of scientific theories and models which are both compatible and incompatible with respect to a number of basic ontological and methodological assumptions. Theoretical pluralism and methodological pluralism should promote progress with respect to a number of the so-called epistemic qualities, both associated with the approximation of the truth (e.g. predictive success, the ability to give unexpected explanations to known facts, etc.) and not so associated (empirical fit, simplicity according to some interpretations, and the broad scope of the proposed explanations). At the same time the author claims that it is currently not possible to draw a similar conclusion in relation to the explanatory context: if the strategy of explanatory monism or explanatory pluralism will turn out be the preferred strategy for the cognitive sciences should become clear in the course of further research.

Henrik Ibsen and Conspiracy Thinking: The Case of Peer Gynt

Henrik Ibsen and Conspiracy Thinking: The Case of <i>Peer Gynt</i>

Data Analytics Study Clarifies Parent/Child Well Relationships in Unconventional Basins

_ This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper SPE 209171, “Parent/Child Well Relationships Across US Unconventional Basins: Learnings From A Data Analytics Study,” by Joe Cozby, SPE, EOG Resources, and Mukul M. Sharma, SPE, The University of Texas at Austin. The paper has not been peer reviewed. _ In this study, parent/child well pairs for wells completed within the last 7 years in nine different unconventional basins are identified using a Python code applied to public data. These basins are the Bakken, Delaware, Eagle Ford, Haynesville, Marcellus/Utica, Midland, Niobrara, Powder River, and Scoop/Stack Basins. The study finds that, as stated in the technical literature, child-well performance increases with spacing and decreases with infill timing. In the complete paper, the authors show that parent cumulative production [barrel of oil equivalent (BOE)] at the child-well completion is a better indicator of child-well performance. Challenges of Child Wells Many different factors influence the completion and production of a child well. An engineer’s role is to determine the optimal way to complete infill wells to mitigate those risks, namely depletion and fracture communication, and maintain economic efficiencies. This section of the complete paper provides a high-level overview of the primary problems that cause child wells’ reduced production performance, including depletion and fracture communication. Current Public Production Analysis The data analysis conducted in this study was inspired primarily by the work of two previous studies outlined in the complete paper. Both groups of researchers took a high-level approach to analyzing and characterizing various unconventional basins by aggregating all parent/child well pairs within each basin for analysis. The authors of this paper detail the methodology and results used by these studies to allow the reader an appreciation of the methodological changes and assumptions adopted in their own study.

Aggregating the Impacts of Non-State and Subnational Climate Actions: An Exploration of Methods

This paper discusses methodological assumptions to estimate the collective impact of mitigation commitments and targets of non-state and subnational entities. It serves as a supplement to the Initiative for Climate Action Transparency (ICAT) Non-State and Subnational Action Guide. The paper will facilitate users in employing methods that are suitable for their specific objectives when determining the collective impact of mitigation actions taken by cities, businesses and states. It will also promote greater transparency in reporting impact assessment results.