Theoretical Pluralism Research Articles

The declining share of primary data and the neglect of the individual level in international business research

Complementing Nielsen and colleagues’ (2020) analysis of methodological trends in the Journal of International Business Studies over the past 50 years, we examine similar data on methods published in a wider range of leading international business (IB) journals. Our analysis shows a clear decline of studies based on primary data relative to secondary data, and a persistently low level of individual-level studies among the growing body of research using secondary data across all IB journals considered. We discuss the main mechanisms driving these trends and identify the problems of IB’s increasing exposure to the risks inherent in secondary data. We also discuss the implications related to neglecting individual-level data for theory advancement in IB, such as a disregard for novel secondary data opportunities at the individual level and the risk of reduced theoretical pluralism. In doing so, we substantially extend the debate initiated by Nielsen and colleagues (2020).

Crisis” and “re-foundation” of psychology – outmoded topics of theoretical-psychological discourse?

In the 1970-80ies critical assessments of the problematic state of psychology as science were flourishing, stressing the theoretical disintegration and practical irrelevance of psychological basic research and connecting both defects to a misplaced dependence of mainstream psychology on a scientistic notion of scientific cognition. Talks of a crisis in psychology were gaining ground again. Controverting the paradigmatic maturity vs. the pre-/non-paradigmatic state of our discipline or, alternatively, its necessarily multi-paradigmatic character, the quest for unification as against a programmatic theoretical pluralism became a top issue of scholarly dispute. The institutionalisation of ISTP in 1985 and its initial epistemological and meta-theoretical core themes clearly reflected this pervasive trend. Some 35 years later, it has become noticeably quiet about such concerns, and there is no evidence of a renewal of large-scale discussions on a foundational crisis in psychology, let alone of ambitious attempts at theoretical unification or re-foundation – despite the fact that none of the “epistemopathologial“ (Koch, 1981) diagnoses of traditional variable-psychology have been refuted or lost strategic importance. Combining historical retrospection with an exemplary analysis of topical theoretical-psychological subjects, the aim of my paper is to get a clearer idea of where Theoretical Psychology currently stands in regard to the meta-scientific study of psychological theory-problems.

Beyond the undertheorized role of organizational power as political power in theories of the state

AbstractCritics express concerns over the theoretical pluralism in theories of the state and state power. This paper explores how organizational theories can provide more focus to theories of the state and state power thereby increasing their explanatory power. After summarizing concerns raised by political sociologists over pluralism in theories of the state and state power, the analysis focuses on existing theories of the state that employ concepts from organizational theory to understand the organizational state and its relationship to society. Particular attention is given to the state as a resource extraction and distribution mechanism, the resource dependent relationships among organizational entities inside and outside the state, and the power relations between states and organizations in their environment. This focus brings greater attention to the how groups, corporations, industries, and class fractions exercise power through organizations to influence the policy formation process.

Situating service work in action: A review and a pragmatist agenda for analysing interactive service work

AbstractResearch on interactive service work has paid close attention to how organizations and frontline employees deal with the inherent complexity of the customer–employee–employer triangle. This raises questions about the agency of interactive service workers with respect to the indeterminacy of service interactions. Our meta‐narrative review finds that the theorization of worker agency in service interactions remains underdeveloped in the two dominant research streams of mainstream management and labour process theory studies. Implicitly or explicitly, these streams either subsume agency under managerial prescription or view it through the binary polar of control and resistance. There has been less focus on service workers’ efforts to overcome practical difficulties in everyday service interactions. To address this lacuna, we offer a conceptual framework that draws on a less prominent, third research stream, which we label pragmatist. This stream includes scholarship largely unfamiliar to the international English‐speaking community, published mainly in French and German academic journals. We propose three contributions in this paper. First, we contribute to the interactive service work literature by mapping the theoretical plurality within and beyond the English‐speaking community. Second, we problematize established streams of research by articulating the intellectual axes of the field; this allows us to present a new research area to account for the concrete dynamics of service interaction and to capture frontline employee agency. Third, we propose a pragmatist research framework coupled with a future research agenda more attentive to the embeddedness and materiality of frontline workers’ situated actions. This way, we address the indeterminacy of interactive situations.

Theoretical Pluralism in Transcultural Research: Chinese People Constructing Selves in the UK

This paper argues for a consideration of theoretical pluralism when conducting social science research in globalized and transcultural contexts via reflecting on a qualitative study which was designed to explore the ways in which second-generation Chinese young individuals were constructing selves in UK contexts. Narrative case studies were compiled and analyses conducted with a pluralist orientation integrating (Western) social constructionism and elements of (Chinese) Confucian philosophy and ultimately Taoist orientations. The multiple and dynamic positionalities demonstrated by the research participants prompted us to review many aspects of our research, which demanded sensitivity in respect of the following key areas –cultural complexity of research context, methodology and methods, epistemology and ontology, reflection and reflexivity, the criteria appropriate for conducting transcultural research, and the pluralist theoretical framework which enabled the development of potentially transformative representations of individuals in shifting contemporary global contexts.

Theoretical plurality, the extended evolutionary synthesis, and archaeology

The study of cultural evolution now includes multiple theoretical frameworks. Despite common influence from Darwinian evolutionary theory, there is considerable diversity. Thus, we recognize those most influenced by the tenets of the Modern Synthesis (evolutionary archaeology, cultural transmission theory, and human behavioral ecology) and those most aligned more closely with concepts emerging in the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (cultural macroevolution and evolutionary cognitive archaeology). There has been substantial debate between adherents of these schools of thought as to their appropriateness and priority for addressing the fundamentals of cultural evolution. I argue that theoretical diversity is necessary to address research questions arising from a complex archaeological record. Concepts associated with the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis may offer unique insights into the cultural evolutionary process.

Asking the wrong questions: musings on a conversation with Gakire Katese Odile about “Intercultural Theatre”

ABSTRACT ‘Asking the Wrong Questions: Musings on a Conversation with Gakire Katese Odile about Intercultural Theatre’: After an interview with Gakire Katese Odile, a Rwandan drummer, director, and entrepreneur, I was struck by the failure of my theories to account for her work. Rehearsing this failure allows for an exploration of the ramifications of acknowledging the fact that Odile had already theorized her own work. She uses her theorization to shift the nature of the debate surrounding the relationship between theatre and performance, the nature of interculturalism, and the political impact of theatre. I find myself challenged to consider what theoretical pluralism – as opposed to the assimilative mode so often on display in European academies – might do to our intellectual landscape.

Integration of Accountability and Fraud Diamond Theories as a Framework to Predict Fraud in the General Education Sector: A Case Study of Zambia

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present a critical review of the contributions of more than one theory to fraud research (which is often referred to as “theoretical triangulation or integration” or “theoretical pluralism) in a public organization,”, with a particular focus on the manner in which chosen variables from a given theory could be employed to develop research assumptions. Design/methodology/approach: The authors conduct an analysis of how to employ theoretical integration and methodological monism in fraud research. To this end, they use three theories for illustrative purposes. Findings: The authors argue that using theories with varying epistemological notions that are captured by appropriate research methods enables one to explore and account for different layers of theoretical concepts pertaining to fraud in organizations. Originality/value: The paper contributes to the thinking about the interaction between theory applications by demonstrating that theoretical integration is more meaningful than single theories in order to provide deeper understandings of fraud phenomena.

Monism vs. Pluralism, the Global Financial Crisis, and the Methodological Struggle in the Field of International Political Economy

In recent years, a comprehensive debate has been taking place over the ontological, epistemological, and methodological roots underlying the discipline of International Political Economy (IPE). A fundamental and sometimes fierce discussion arose over the questions of which research strategies should prevail, which methods should be applied, and what kind of knowledge counts as scientific. The debate has tended to reduce the different positions and IPE approaches to American IPE on the one side and British IPE on the other. Framing the perspectives in this way, however, is misleading. This article argues that the issue at the core of the methodological debate is not the American versus the British school, but rather theoretical monism versus theoretical pluralism. Hence, the core of the debate addresses the question whether scientific work in IPE should ultimately subscribe to one methodology or one fundamental principle, or whether the field should make use of a wide variety of theories and methods so as to enable scholars to adapt their research strategy depending on the case under study. A short analysis of existing approaches to the global financial crisis shows the importance of the existence of multiple perspectives, concepts, and theoretical approaches. The paper concludes that the 2008 financial crisis in particular has shown how dangerous it is to reduce intellectual endeavour to a narrow mind-set. Only pluralism conveys the ability to respond in an adequate manner to the old and new challenges of our times.

Formation of Laboring Competencies for Workers of the Oil Industry

The oil activity is one of the sectors prioritized by the Cuban government and its development requires the constant formation and training of the personnel who work there, thus the strategic mission of the Petroleum Training Center is the training of the personnel who work in the branch oil company and in this the formation of labor competence in drilling operators constitutes a fundamental pillar, for which it is intended to contribute to the formation of laboring competence in drilling operators in the formation scenario of the Teaching Unit Exploration Production and the oil company in Cuba. In order to respond to this reality, the theoretical and methodological references of competency training are studied, which reveals a theoretical plurality that allows combining competency training, the historical-cultural conception and advanced education, taking from them the significant elements, and evidencing the relevance of unity within diversity. It was possible to reach these results through the application of theoretical methods of science, such as the historical-logical method to determine the evolutionary antecedents and the logic of the development of labor competence, and the methods of analysis, synthesis, induction and deduction that led to theoretically and methodologically support the formation of laboring competence. The empirical level of science method used was the review of documents related to the training process and the quality management system since the training of the drilling operator's job competence is a professional training process that is supported by the training process. The determination of the referents and the training scenario in which the training process takes place showed the need for a modeling of the process to adjust it to the training context of the drilling operator.

Paul K. Feyerabend’s Method against Method

The article examines and criticizes Paul Karl Feyerabend’s seminal work entitled, “How to Be a Good Empiricist—A Plea for Tolerance in Matters Epistemological” which persuasively argued for a pluralistic view of scientific knowledge and theoretical truth. Throughout the article, a number of polemical points, analytic elaborations, and broader philosophical concerns are raised regarding the notions of consistency condition, meaning invariance, theoretical alternatives, and the very principle of theoretical pluralism. The article concludes that Feyerabend’s call for a plurality of theories as the surest path to the progress of science is in need of numerous conceptual qualifications, provoking the reader into critical thinking about the deeper underpinnings of science while providing very few ready-made answers to the problems enunciated.

La radicalización de la modernidad. Ideas y debates de la Francia contemporánea

<div class="page" title="Page 1"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span>Este artículo conjunta dos tradiciones argumen- tativas que nutren la teoría política: la que se construye a partir de la lectura empática y analítica de grandes teóricos y la que da cuerpo al ensayo riguroso y convocante del encuentro entre pensador y texto, en este caso del intelectual francés Pierre Rosanvallon. Aquí se exponen y analizan ejes temáticos y problemáticas centrales de la obra de este historiador, a la luz de sus propias premisas conceptuales, configuradas en un permanente interlocución con científicos sociales y filósofos con los que ha dialogado. Pluralismo teórico y originalidad definen a este autor. A su vez, su pensamiento se contextualiza con los desarrollos sociales, políticos y culturales que permiten ponderar las propias visiones y diagnósticos de Rosanvallon. </span></p></div></div></div>

THE CHOICE OF AN OBJECT OF STUDY IN THE THEORY OF LAW

The relevance of the problem of choosing the object of study in the theory of law is determined by the need to tackle the debatable issue of pluralism in understanding of law. It is noted that one of the reasons for theoretical and legal pluralism on the concept of law is the lack of uniform criteria for identifying the object of study in the general theory of law. The situation with the concept of law in legal science, including with the pluralism of opinions, is considered largely as a result of the scientists and practitioners attitude described as first understand the law and then create a single concept of law. The fundamental research carried out in legal science and wide discussions on the concept of law are taken as positive; one of the parameters is the principle of separation of the object and subject of legal science. It is shown that when constructing a scientific theory of law, the primary question is the object of study, that is, the question of law itself as a special fragment of the real world, but not a disputable issue of the concept of law. However, in practice, when identifying the object of scientific knowledge in the general theory of law, scholars choose to study the most diverse fragments of the world, although they designate them with the same term law. Since various objects called law are subjected to scientific research, one cannot expect to derive a single concept of law. With regard to the analysis of the concept of law and the data of modern science, the following set of attributes for identifying law as an object of study in law theory is proposed for consideration: Law is a set of social norms enshrined in written language by the state and designed for people to interact with each other and with public authority such as state and other entities.

In Search for Design Elements: A New Perspective for Employing Ethnography in Human-Computer Interaction Design Research

ABSTRACT Design ethnography has been widely used in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) to understand people’s everyday behaviors, in order to build technologies capable of meeting users’ needs. Building on top of the recent debate on ethnography within HCI, this article proposes to employ reflexivity and theoretical pluralism to ground a new way of using design ethnography in HCI, directly envisioning novel designs during the fieldwork. Inspired by design practices like biomimicry, I describe the figure of the ethno-designer, a digital design ethnographer who dives into ‘successful’ virtual environments in search for insightful design patterns, with the purpose of creating new designs in other, even distant, contexts. In this perspective, the fieldwork becomes an incessant source of inspiration for identifying effective ‘design elements’, understanding how they work and their ‘experiential effects’, and producing design implications to create novel technologies across multiple application domains.

Afterword: SFL, theoretical pluralism and content and language integration at the levels of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment

ABSTRACT This article is an afterword to the special issue on social-semiotic and systemic functional approaches to content and language-integrated learning in bilingual/multilingual education. It provides a conceptual overview of the contributions of each of the six articles. It highlights the theoretical pluralism which allows SFL to be combined with a range of other perspectives from applied linguistics and education, to throw light on content and language integration across a wide range of bilingual/multilingual education settings. In particular, the afterword focuses on how SFL and other compatible perspectives allow for a deeper understanding of content and language integration in three educational domains: curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. The afterword also highlights the potential of the use of SFL as a key part of the knowledge base for teachers in bilingual/multilingual education programmes, and suggests ways in which the findings from the studies can be incorporated in teacher education and professional development at each of the levels of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment.

Social reality as the object of scientific knowledge

The concept of social reality and the problems associated with its scientific knowledge are considered. Author considers three aspects of the meaning and significance of this concept to explicate it. The article analyzes the objective and subjective reasons that determine the theoretical and methodological conservatism of social and humanitarian sciences which is expressed in the ontologization of knowledge and the rejection of theoretical pluralism of scientific research. The article substantiates the basic principles of studying social reality in modern socio-humanitarian science which open up new perspectives of knowledge and transformation of the social world.

Bringing Morgenthau’s ethics in: pluralism, incommensurability and the turn from fragmentation to dialogue in IR

Why did IR pluralism end with so many incommensurable camps? (How) can IR be demarcated as a discipline where these camps can find common ground for dialogue without glossing over theoretical pluralism? To answer the first question, the paper argues that Morgenthau’s critique of IR as social science can explain the proliferation of camps in IR pluralism that are incommensurable and cannot engage in dialogue. By transcending the dilemma of politics as highlighted in Morgenthau’s critique of social science, theories today are ideological camps that bestow on morality an ideological function that justifies their powers-that-be that serve particular means/ends hierarchies. This leads to the proliferation of empirical causal analyses that cannot be debated, since they rely on political interests that theory ideologically justifies and offers internal validation. To avoid this problem, the paper answers the second question by proposing to demarcate the discipline through Morgenthau’s concept of ‘interest defined as power’. It argues that demarcating the discipline on the basis of this concept opens room for engaging in dialogue in IR through leaving open the normative debate of means and ends, and thus acts as a bulwark against the proliferation of ideological camps, while promoting theoretical pluralism.

Enhancing Methodological Reporting in Public Administration: The Functional Equivalents Framework

Public administration scholarship reflects a multidisciplinary field in which many theoretical perspectives coexist. However, one of the dark sides of such theoretical pluralism is methodological fragmentation. It may be hard to assess the research quality and to engage with the findings from studies employing different methodologies, thus limiting meaningful conversations. Moreover, the constant race across social sciences to make methodologies more sophisticated may exacerbate the separation between academic and practitioner audiences. To counterbalance these two trends, this article aims at increasing methodological intelligibility in our field. It does so starting from the idea that each methodology entails choices in the conventional phases of research design, data collection, and data analysis, and that these choices must be reported. The paper nails down and exemplifies such reporting needs for five selected methodologies: survey studies, quantitative experimental studies, quantitative observational studies, qualitative case studies and ethnographies. Based on their discussion and comparison, the paper offers a framework composed by functional equivalents, that is to say, the common denominator among methodological reporting needs. Methodological choices that need reporting include the rationale for the selection of a methodology, delimitation of the study, the research instrument, data processing and ethical clearance. Increasing methodological reporting would facilitate dialogues among different methodological communities, and with practitioner readers. All of which would also promote field building in the scholarship of public administration.

Is feyerabendian philosophy relevant for scientific knowledge development in nursing?

To revitalize nursing science, there is a need for a new approach to guide nurse scientists in addressing complex problems in health care. By applying theoretical concepts from a revolutionary philosopher of science, Paul K. Feyerabend, new nursing knowledge can be produced using creativity and pluralistic approaches. Feyerabend proposed that methods within and outside of science can produce knowledge. Despite the recognition of Feyerabendian philosophy within science, there is currently a lack of literature regarding the relevance of Feyerabendian philosophy for nursing science. We aim to (a) describe and critique Feyerabendian concepts, (b) discuss the potential application of Feyerabendian philosophy for knowledge production within gerontological nursing and (c) describe theoretical possibilities for nurse scientists in using Feyerabendian philosophy to guide nursing knowledge development. We begin by introducing Feyerabend's life and his inspirations for his theoretical concepts, epistemological anarchism, theoretical pluralism and humanitarianism, and conclude by offering suggestions of how to apply Feyerabendian philosophy in nursing research.

Boundaries, Bridges and Brands: A Comment on Alvesson, Hallett, and Spicer’s “Uninhibited Institutionalisms”

This essay responds to Alvesson, Hallett, and Spicer’s recent critique of the instiutional literature. While it affirms and extends some of their particular criticisms, I reject their bleak assessment of the larger field and find value in some of the very features that they find to be most objectionable. I also offer some alternative suggestions for reform and future development. These include an explicit embrace of theoretical pluralism, a renewed focus on values, and a return to institutionalism’s pragmatist roots.