Methodological Pluralism Research Articles

The ability trap: reductionist theorising about academic ability and the ramifications for education policy and school-based practice

ABSTRACT The paper argues that there is a reductive logic inherent in conceptualisations of academic ability in some Western education research as currently configured. Effective interrogation of this concept necessitates consideration across relevant fields of research, as outlined in three areas of critique: that research on educational stratification can adopt a contradictory stance with respect to conceptualising academic ability and defer to innate cognitive ability in pupil test data while denouncing this elsewhere; that cultural reproduction theory is itself a powerful social construction with ramifications for the possibility of equal learning opportunities for all; and that a narrow focus on educational stratification reifies instrumental outcomes, devaluing some of the broader purposes of education. It is argued that these reductive tendencies have ramifications for education policy and school-based practices. A lack of focus on, and clarity about, the concept of academic ability warrants more holistic conceptualising, which draws on methodological pluralism.

Making evidence and policy in public health emergencies: lessons from COVID-19 for adaptive evidence-making and intervention

Background:In public health emergencies, evidence, intervention, decisions and translation proceed simultaneously, in greatly compressed timeframes, with knowledge and advice constantly in flux. Idealised approaches to evidence-based policy and practice are ill equipped to deal with the uncertainties arising in evolving situations of need. Key points for discussion:There is much to learn from rapid assessment and outbreak science approaches. These emphasise methodological pluralism, adaptive knowledge generation, intervention pragmatism, and an understanding of health and intervention as situated in their practices of implementation. The unprecedented challenges of novel viral outbreaks like COVID-19 do not simply require us to speed up existing evidence-based approaches, but necessitate new ways of thinking about how a more emergent and adaptive evidence-making might be done. The COVID-19 pandemic requires us to appraise critically what constitutes ‘evidence-enough’ for iterative rapid decisions in-the-now. There are important lessons for how evidence and intervention co-emerge in social practices, and for how evidence-making and intervening proceeds through dialogue incorporating multiple forms of evidence and expertise. Conclusions and implications:Rather than treating adaptive evidence-making and decision making as a break from the routine, we argue that this should be a defining feature of an ‘evidence-making intervention’ approach to health.

Mixed Methods Research in Knowledge Management Studies (2009–2014): A Content Analysis of Journal Articles

The purpose of this article is to investigate the adoption and utilisation of mixed methods research (MMR) in an emerging field, such as knowledge management (KM). Methodologies used by researchers have a bearing on the reliability and validity of the knowledge they produce. There is need to explore the prevalence in use of various methodologies over time. Such studies provide researchers time to reflect on their research practices. It is important to reflect on how researchers are adopting and utilising MMR approaches and what can be done to improve methodological approaches in research. A qualitative content analysis of articles from five leading KM-centric journals published between 2009 and 2014 was conducted for the research purpose. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of the utilisation of MMR in KM and provide guidance for those seeking to learn about and apply MMR approaches in research in context. Only 1.1% of the studies were classified as representing some form of MMR. Of the eight articles that were sampled, five of them did not explicitly identify themselves as MMR studies. Two of the articles did not give reasons for combining quantitative and qualitative approaches. None of the studies that were examined identified the MMR approach that was employed. Four of the MMR studies were exploratory, three were explanatory and one was convergent. All the articles were partially mixed studies. Few researchers indicated how they prioritised qualitative and quantitative strands. A handful of sampled studies used MMR and employed basic design typologies in contrast to complex typologies. It is recommended that KM research should embrace MMR and use complex design typologies in order to enhance their understanding of the complex problems that KM scholars encounter. Methodological pluralism has the potential of contributing to the growth in knowledge and development of many perspectives in the field: an appreciation of the advantages of using MMR and its potential to provide a holistic, innovative and robust perspective of research phenomena. The selection criteria in this study excluded other journals that cover KM research. Further research may uncover whether the prevalence rates reported in this study are consistent with those journals which were excluded in this study. Methodologies used by researchers for different kinds of research may be different. The research method employed in this study does not have the ability to establish that. Future studies may employ interviews and other data collection techniques in order to triangulate methods to determine why MMR was not prevalent. The future research directions should consider the extent to which personal, interpersonal and social contexts influence researchers to use MMR.

Chemistry is pluralistic

Recently, philosophers have come forth with approaches to chemistry based on its actual practice, imparting to it a proper aim and character of its own. These approaches add to the currently growing movement of pluralist philosophies of science. We draw on recent pluralist accounts from (the philosophy of) chemistry and analyse three notions from modern chemical practice and theory (acidity, electronegativity and the concept of element) in terms of these accounts, in order to complement the so far more general pluralist approaches with specific evidence. Our survey reveals that the concept of element indicates conceptual pluralisms in chemistry. that electronegativity illustrates methodological pluralism in determining one and the same concept, and that acidity is an instance of plurality hidden behind ‘one notion’.

Translation quality assessment: a critical methodological review

ABSTRACT Translation quality assessment (TQA) represents one of the most productive lines of research in Translation Studies (TS), with scholars proposing different TQA models. In parallel to these theoretical models is the emergence of a diverse array of assessment methods trialled and used to evaluate translation quality in different settings (e.g., error analysis, corpus-based evaluation, rubric scoring, calibration of dichotomous items, Thurstonian comparative judgement). Despite these developments, it seems that little effort has been made to bring to the fore methodological aspects of the TQA practices. Against this background, this methodological review sets out to track the developmental trend of the TQA methods, hoping to bring clarity to the nature of the methodological pluralism, driving forces behind methodological evolution, as well as promises and constraints of each methodological choice. The review also attempts to interrogate the TQA practices, focusing on three overarching issues of reliability, validity and practicality. By doing so, we hope to highlight their merits and demerits, and occasionally challenge their legitimacy. Finally, the review describes some gaps in TQA practice and research, and suggests potential directions to move forward the enterprise of TQA.

The Concept of the Administrative Law Doctrine

In conditions of modern state-building and law-making caused by significant changes in positive law, arises the necessity of developing a new understanding of the doctrine of administrative law. This understanding should be based on the methodological pluralism, present the doctrine as a complex, multidimensional system phenomenon that denotes a set of legal scientific judgments about administrative legal framework. The above outlines the purpose of this study. The main method of scientific work is the method of legal analysis, the use of which allowed, in the context of a holistic presentation of knowledge about the doctrine of administrative law, to determine its concept, structure, system by analysing the consequences of: a) the philosophy of law, b) the theory of law, c) the history of law; d) the administrative law. The focus is on the methodological significance of philosophical, theoretical positions, connections with the general legal doctrine in the mutual perception of research achievements; delimitation of administrative law with other branches; ensuring the consideration of administrative legislation in the statutory material of other branches of law (and vice versa); identification of the identity or differences in the genesis of legal phenomena, etc. It is proved that the phenomenon "doctrine of administrative law" constitutes a system described by: 1. Unity in relation to the environment (integrity) and diversity of relations with it; 2. Its structure, the presence of relatively independent components in its system; 3. The presence of determinant features of "doctrine" as an entity, which constitute the result of the interaction of its components; 4. The presence of contradictions within the system that are the driving force of self-development of the system; 5. Historicity, the presence of over-time development, the "historical basis" and the experience of the past. The definition of the doctrine of administrative law is offered. The practical significance of the research results is that the theoretical provisions and conclusions can form the basis for further research on the doctrine of administrative law and its issues

Psychology\u2019s Status as a Science: Peculiarities and Intrinsic Challenges. Moving Beyond its Current Deadlock Towards Conceptual Integration

Psychology holds an exceptional position among the sciences. Yet even after 140 years as an independent discipline, psychology is still struggling with its most basic foundations. Its key phenomena, mind and behaviour, are poorly defined (and their definition instead often delegated to neuroscience or philosophy) while specific terms and constructs proliferate. A unified theoretical framework has not been developed and its categorisation as a ‘soft science’ ascribes to psychology a lower level of scientificity. The article traces these problems to the peculiarities of psychology’s study phenomena, their interrelations with and centrality to everyday knowledge and language (which may explain the proliferation and unclarity of terms and concepts), as well as to their complex relations with other study phenomena. It shows that adequate explorations of such diverse kinds of phenomena and their interrelations with the most elusive of all—immediate experience—inherently require a plurality of epistemologies, paradigms, theories, methodologies and methods that complement those developed for the natural sciences. Their systematic integration within just one discipline, made necessary by these phenomena’s joint emergence in the single individual as the basic unit of analysis, makes psychology in fact the hardest science of all. But Galtonian nomothetic methodology has turned much of today’s psychology into a science of populations rather than individuals, showing that blind adherence to natural-science principles has not advanced but impeded the development of psychology as a science. Finally, the article introduces paradigmatic frameworks that can provide solid foundations for conceptual integration and new developments.

Ecological Economists: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly?

Clive Spash proposes a classification of ecological economists in three camps, “social ecological economists” (SEE), “new resource economists” (NRE), and “new environmental pragmatists” (NEP). Even if this classification describes the communities of the field and their main scientific strategies with an intuitive perspective, we have three concerns with it. First, this classification is more a normative view of what Spash thinks ecological economics should be rather than a positive description of the field; SEE are presented as the “good” ecological economists, whereas NRE are depicted as “bad” neoclassical economists, and NEP as “ugly” environmentalists ready to use economic tools and concepts to serve ecological conservation purpose. Next, it seems to us that the classification is not based on a so clear epistemic criterion, leading to blind spots and double belongings, especially for transdisciplinary works, concepts, and models. It also underestimates the role of the scientific ecology in the field. Finally, it appears to us that this description of what should be a genuine ecological economist leads to delegitimize methodological and conceptual pluralism in the field and the journal Ecological Economics.

Network pluralism in psychology: the perspective of polymethodology and transdisciplinarity

The current transformations present in psychological science, on the one hand, affect its methodological and disciplinary status, on the other, they change the relationship with the current socio-cultural reality and everyday human life practices. The problem of integration of psychological knowledge arises again and is rethought at this new stage of psychology development. Opposing research orientations, such as methodological monism and methodological pluralism, methodological rigorism and methodological liberalism, offer different strategies for epistemic integration. However, from the standpoint of network pluralism, these orientations are seen as part of a unified process of cognition, where the dialectical relationships between them contribute to the achievement of integral knowledge. Flexible, networked, searchibly labile methodological strategies are coming to the aid of psychological science that seeks to integration of researches in an ontologically and epistemologically complicated world. In epistemological terms, there are polymethodologies and metatheoretical constructs that allow us to use many theories and approaches to solve a particular problem. The antinomy of incompleteness and the integrity of cognition is most effectively solved today by the network methodology. Network pluralism is a research position that supports a variety of psychological approaches, conceptual representations and theories, comprehended in the perspective of hermeneutical optics, the principle of coherence and with the ability of integration of polar attitudes in the ideal of holistic knowledge. The integration of psychological research takes place at different levels of the methodology of science: the philosophical and general scientific refers to a transdisciplinary approach that overcomes the disciplinary model of knowledge organization, replacing its problem-oriented version of the network; at the specific scientific level, the use of polymethodology leads to search methodological strategies, which are based on the approaches and methodologies available in the scientist’s arsenal; in the conceptual plan the metatheoretical constructs which are nowadays both a field of his free choice and personal responsibility are being processed here. The ability in cognitive activity to self-reflection, critical thinking and communicative rationality are important features-qualities of the modern researcher, which complete his professionalism and socio-cultural competence.

YOUTH OF UKRAINE IN SOCIO-POLITICAL CHANGES IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE 1940s

Summary. The aim of the research is to fully explore the peculiarities of youth involvement in the socio-political processes that occurred in Ukraine during the second half of the 1940s. This aim has been achieved by using the complex of sources, historiographical achievements and applying the modern methodological approaches. The research methodology is based on the principles of scientific character, historicism, dialectical approach, the author’s objectivity, specific analysis, system-formation considering the methodological pluralism that exists in historical science today. There was used the principle of author’s objectivity particularly to evaluate the events and phenomena that had been occurring during this period and influenced on socio-economic, political and cultural life of the youth. The author used general scientific, interdisciplinary, general historical as well as specific sources research methods of the scientific research. The scientific novelty of the article consists in the argumentation of the fact, that, the material and social living conditions of the youth, its socio-political engagements and religious beliefs are studied here in the context of social, economic and political challenges of the postwar period considering the influence of external factors, ideologization and cultural life politization of Ukraine. Conclusions. Summing up, one of the main problems of the postwar young generation was the scarcity of housing, poor housing conditions and many others inconveniences. However, the targeted and aggressive state propaganda gave the population a hope for a better future and convinced people that all these postwar hardships were only temporary so the youth got used to the specific conditions of that time. It was the postwar generation who had the hardest time dealing with the choosing of their beliefs, assessment of the external and internal political events, sorting themselves out and their likes or dislikes due to the totalitarian regime in the country. Poor material and living conditions and rigorous policy of the ruling regime provoked the need of social changes among the young generation. This need contributed to the emergence of the «Khrushchev’s Thaw».

METHOD AND TIME. LOTMAN’S OCCASION. Article second

The method can and should be thought of as something that is constantly changing. “Lot-man’s case” is just the case when you can hope that it will turn out to “spy” on how it works in detail. Two aspects of “Lotman reassemble” can be noted. The first can be de-fined as “radical methodological pluralism”. The second is the mechanism of “radical permanent transformations of the method”, i. e. reassembly in the literal sense of the word, as a clearly observable technological process. This is how the principle of the prima-cy of history works, the principle of historicism.

Deliberation, Democracy, and the Digital Landscape

Deliberative scholarship is particularly well positioned to offer insight on our new digital reality. The papers in this Special Issue showcase both the methodological pluralism that flourishes in deliberative democracy studies and the productive collaborations across methodologies. This Special Issue shows how deliberative theory can place digital media in a wider theoretical context, sharpen our understanding of the Internet’s worst features, and show the way forward to a better design for digital public engagement. Whether online or offline, democracy will always remain a work in progress, and these essays should help us navigate a course toward a more deliberative democracy in the digital age.

Problematizing profit and profitability: discussions

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to report the outcome of an interdisciplinary discussion on the concepts of profit and profitability and various ways in which we could potentially problematize these concepts. It is our hope that a much greater attention or reconsideration of the problematization of profit and related accounting numbers will be fostered in part by the exchanges we include here.Design/methodology/approachThis paper adopts an interdisciplinary discussion approach and brings into conversation ideas and views of several scholars on problematizing profit and profitability in various contexts and explores potential implications of such problematization.FindingsProfit and profitability measures make invisible the collective endeavour of people who work hard (backstage) to achieve a desired profit level for a division and/or an organization. Profit tends to preclude the social process of debate around contradictions among the ends and means of collective activity. An inherent message that we can discern from our contributors is the typical failure of managers to appreciate the value of critical theory and interpretive research for them. Practitioners and positivist researchers seem to be so influenced by neo-liberal economic ideas that organizations are distrusted and at times reviled in their attachment to profit.Research limitations/implicationsProblematizing opens-up the potential for interesting and significant theoretical insights. A much greater pragmatic and theoretical reconsideration of profit and profitability will be fostered by the exchanges we include here.Originality/valueIn setting out a future research agenda, this paper fosters theoretical and methodological pluralism in the research community focussing on problematizing profit and profitability in various settings. The discussion perspectives offered in this paper provides not only a basis for further research in this critical area of discourse and regulation on the role and status of profit and profitability but also emancipatory potential for practitioners (to be reflective of their practices and their undesired consequences of such practices) whose overarching focus is on these accounting numbers.

Atividade científica e a questão da não neutralidade da ciência: perspectiva epistemológica de Hugh Lacey

Esse artigo tem a pretensão de provocar reflexões sobre atividade científica e a não neutralidade da ciência, tendo como fundamento epistemológico a perspectiva teórica de Hugh Lacey. Contemplando suas percepções sobre os valores e a atividade científica, destacam-se as perspectivas que perpetuam nas práticas da ciência contemporânea, bem como os valores modernos de controles que predominam no campo científico. Metodologicamente, classifica-se esta pesquisa como de natureza bibliográfica, de caráter descritivo e qualitativo. Os resultados obtidos enfatizam o pluralismo metodológico defendido pelo autor como princípio necessário para a neutralidade da ciência uma vez que a sua teoria parte do pressuposto de que existe uma relação dialética entre ciência, atividade científica e bem-estar humano. Destaca-se, também, a necessidade de que o ensino das ciências seja praticado a partir de perspectiva crítica reflexiva, sem ser relativista uma vez que a ciência é uma prática sócio-histórica inserida no mundo dos valores e da experiência humana, empreendida por agentes humanos, cujas ações são explicáveis em termos de suas crenças, percepções, deliberações, desejos, valores e outros ensejos intencionais.

Public Policy Timing in a Sustainable Approach to Shaping Public Policy

This study addresses the problem of optimal public policy timing and the relation to public health policy. Ways of recognizing this problem are presented, as well as the role of public policy timing, which is perceived or can be performed from various economic theories and concepts, mainly: regulation theory; the concept of adaptive public policy; and the theory of policy timing based on the concepts of option value and the transaction costs of the political process. The approach of methodological pluralism adopted by the authors made it possible to reach for various cognitive inspirations borrowed from numerous theoretical approaches, in order to create a comprehensive and coherent theoretical foundation for the purposes of analyzing the role of timing in applied public policies. Next, an attempt was made to define the role of public policy timing in the applied approach, i.e., the case of Polish policy towards the public hospital care sector. The final conclusion is that the role of timing is marginalized in Polish public health policy. The time dimension of its creation was ignored or treated as an exogenous event in relation to the rest of the policy formulation process. There is no political approach that adaptively links the right combination of resources and regulatory activity to timing for specific stages of development or growth in public hospital care.

СТРУКТУРОВАНІСТЬ СИСТЕМИ НАУКОВОГО ПІЗНАННЯ

Досліджуються рівні системи наукового пізнання, які аналізують науковці. Наводяться різні класифікації. Наголошено, що окремі автори в методологію правознавства включають загальнофілософські методи, загальнонаукові та приватноправові методи. Деякі вчені розширюють розуміння методології правових явищ до чотирьох компонентів, що в умовах розвитку методологічного плюралізму видається найбільш доцільним і обґрунтованим. Вони виділяють такі групи методів: загальнофілософські методи (застосовуються вченими в усіх науках, на кожній стадії дослідження); загальнонаукові методи пізнання (розкривають загальнофілософський метод); спеціальні методи (розроблені конкретними науками та застосовуються в юриспруденції); власні методи правознавства (використовуються на стадії пізнання юридичної практики).
 Серед методів, що використовуються юридичною наукою, практично немає жодного, який би не застосовувався в інших га лузях знань.
 Акцентовано увагу на тому, що всі названі групи методів необхідні для проведення повноцінного, усебічного, завершеного державно-правового дослідження, кожний з них може знадобитися на якомусь етапі дослідження, тому вже навіть через це методологія має бути множинною, плюралістичною.
 Основною заслугою системного підходу є те, що він дає змогу зберегти і розвинути принцип цілісності у вивченні того чи іншого предмета дослідження, охопити не тільки основні, але й супровідні явища, отже, установити та проаналізувати весь цілісний процес виникнення та розвитку відповідного інститута, встановити його основні зв’язки, зони впливу.
 Саме системний підхід найбільш повно відповідає реалізації у практичному житті вимог діалектичного закону про взаємний зв’язок, взаємну зумовленість явищ і предметів у природі та суспільства.

The Southern Turn in Comparative Constitutional Law: An Introduction

This introductory chapter argues for and conceptualizes a “Southern turn” in comparative constitutional law. It takes stock of existing scholarship on the Global South and comparative constitutional law, situates the volume in this context and seeks to move the debate forward. Its argument has three elements: The first is that the “Global South” has already become a term used productively in various disciplines and in legal scholarship, even though in very different and sometimes undertheorized ways. Secondly, we argue that the ‘Global South’ is a useful concept to capture and understand a constitutional experience that is distinct from, and at the same time deeply entangled with, constitutionalism in the Global North. Thirdly, we contend that the Southern turn implies a specific epistemic, methodological and institutional sensitivity that has implications for comparative constitutional scholarship as a whole. This sensitivity embraces epistemic reflexivity, methodological pluralism as well as institutional diversification, collaboration and “slow comparison” and thus points the way towards an understanding of the discipline as “world comparative law”.

The case for creative, visual and multimodal methods in operationalising concepts in research design: An examination of storyboarding trust stories

Creative, visual and multimodal research methods are commonly employed by sociologists in the ‘outward-facing’ activities of data collection, presentation and dissemination of research findings; however, they are rarely applied to the ‘inward-facing’ research practices of conceptualisation and research design. Responding to Pierre Bourdieu’s calls for methodological pluralism in sociology and for the construction of the object to be rigorously undertaken in every moment of research, I explore how such methods can be used by the researcher as effective thinking tools to enhance the creativity and quality of conceptual work as a precursor to empirical investigation. I investigate the affordances of this approach using a creative research method – storyboarding – to examine trust. Although empirical research commonly cites trust as an explanatory factor, its meaning is ambiguous and contested. Based on three imagined trust dilemmas developed with the involvement of a visual artist, I demonstrate how a visual creative process can encourage consistent attention to the construction of the research object. It also speculatively reveals new facets of phenomena and supports reflexive attention to the researcher’s relation to the object of research. I argue for sociological thinking to engage an eclectic range of visual and creative forms as legitimate tools capable of extending rigour and creativity.

Feminist methods in a “post-truth” political climate: objectives, strategies, and divisions

The legitimacy of feminist ways of knowing and the well-being of marginalized identities they attend to are endangered by a “post-truth,” North American political climate. There thus arises an urgent need to examine and vindicate the significance of feminist methods (FM) for women and people of color (WPC). This article contributes to this goal by critically examining the themes that have hitherto organized FM as a category of efforts to reverse WPC’s historical dispossession in the academy. This article identifies three thematic objectives of FM (symbolic, social, and economic empowerment of WPC to reverse their historical dispossession), three thematic strategies of FM to accomplish these objectives in research design (centering WPC in the research agenda, designing more inclusive methods, innovating new theoretical concepts to analyze findings), and two thematic debates that continue to divide FM (styles of intersectionality and identity in the feminist movement as an analytical approach and political effort at large). This article concludes by situating these thematic distinctions in Lamont and Swidler’s broader articulation of methodological tribalism, opening dialogue on the political and analytical advantages of and need for superior methodological pluralism in FM.

Corrupción, integración y regionalismo en las relaciones internacionales: una discusión de los sustentos de su necesidad causal


 
 
 
 Pocas dudas existen acerca de que la corrupción es el nodo final de una larga cadena de entidades que están vinculadas causalmente y, a la vez, es un fenómeno que puede perturbar de forma severa los procesos de integración regional, así como de regionalización. Esta creencia, altamente arraigada en la comunidad científica que estudia aquel fenómeno, ha dado lugar a que se publiquen numerosos estudios que no combinan métodos de investigación ni enfoques episte-mológicos que diluciden modelos causales robustos. Así, el presente artículo de revisión pretende someter a discusión los fundamentos de la necesidad causal subyacente a los estudios en relaciones internacionales de la corrupción en su relación con la integración y el regionalismo. Como principal conclusión, se señala la necesidad de un eclecticismo metodológico y epistemológico que permita explicar las relaciones causales como una posibilidad de ampliar el análisis de causalidad, a partir de conceptos que cuenten con unidades observables y no observables desde un mayor pluralismo metodológico.