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)
