Introduction to Ontology & Epistemology (39

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An Introduction to Ontology & Epistemology
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• Second level
The Twilight Zone
Qualitative Research Support Sessions
Professor Katrina Pritchard
&
Dr Helen Williams
School of Management, Swansea University
breakingbinariesresearch.wordpress.com

• Second level
 About Breaking Binaries and the Twilight Zone Series
 Why worry about Ontology & Epistemology?
 OK so now I’m worried; what do I need to know?
 Where do I start?
 Ah so this is where reflexivity comes in?
 Questions, queries and next steps
Session Structure

• Second level
About breaking binaries & twilight zone series
 Research programme exploring
complex and diverse identities at work
Challenges categorical & binary
understanding of differences
Research projects funded by ISBE, the
CIPD and Swansea University

• Second level
‘.. To make unexamined metatheoretical commitments, and remain unaware
of their origins, amounts to an abdication of intellectual responsibility which
results in poor research practices.’
(Johnson & Duberley, 2003)
Why Worry?

• Second level
Whether explicitly acknowledged or not, all research is shaped by the
researchers ontological and epistemological assumptions
Methodology emerges from specific ontological and epistemological
commitments
This impacts how we conduct our research but also how we read others’
research outputs and write our own
Why worry?

• Second level
 Ontology:
 the philosophy of reality, how we think about the world
 does reality exist out there?
 Epistemology:
 the philosophy of knowledge
 how do we Know? Theorise? Act?
OK so now I’m worried! What do I need to know?

• Second level
Realism Relativism
Objectivism Subjectivism
Pragmatism
Critical Realism
Interpretivism
Constructivism
Ontology
Epistemology
Qualitative
Quantitative
Phenomenology

• Second level
Realism Relativism
Pragmatism
Critical Realism
Interpretivism
Constructivism
Ontology
Epistemology
Qualitative
Quantitative
Phenomenology
ADD TANGLED
MESS

• Second level
Paradigms
Positions
Discourses
Labels
 Generates feelings ranging from
intellectual discomfort to inadequacy
Causes feuds and arguments between
academics
Can be the subject of research in their
own right
Turns

• Second level
Paradigms
Positions
Discourses
Labels
 Critical Realism illustrates this mess! What must the world be like for knowledge of
the world to be possible?
 At the heart of critical realism is realism is a need to focus on
ontology.
 Ontological realism asserts that much of reality exists and operates
independently of our awareness or knowledge of it. Reality does
not wholly answer to empirical surveying or hermeneutical
examination.
 According to CR social sciences has pay attention to epistemology
at the expense of ontology.
 Sociology has focused on how we know what we know, while
questions about the nature of the known are largely treated as an
afterthought.
Turns

• Second level
Ontology
Epistemology
Methodology
Method

• Second level
It is essential to understand what philosophical commitments have
shaped understandings in your field of study
It is important to appreciate how different commitments allow you to see
or act to hide understandings
It matters less the label you apply than the way in which you can explain
your own philosophical position

• Second level
 Everyone struggles with this!
 Many writers shift position during their
careers (although not all of them acknowledge it)
Ontological oscillation is real and we all feel it; although consistency
within a research project is generally required
Some good news!
In our view being ‘right’ matters less than being ‘clear’; many
different commitments are potentially justifiable but you must
actually do the work to set out your position

• Second level
So where do I start?
Realism Relativism
Pragmatism
Critical Realism
Interpretivism
Constructivism
Ontology
Epistemology
Qualitative
Quantitative
Phenomenology

• Second level
Realism Relativism
Pragmatism
Critical Realism
Interpretivism
Constructivism
Ontology
Epistemology
Qualitative
Quantitative
Phenomenology
HW
KP

• Second level
An opportunity to explore this position
map in relation to your own research
plans and project

• Second level
 Reflexivity is a practice through which we shift our focus from the phenomena under
investigation to question our role(s) as researchers in the production of knowledge,
and also to generate learning
 “awareness of the situatedness of scientific knowledge and an understanding of the
research and research community from which the knowledge has appeared” (Hardy et
al., 2001, p. 554)
Ah so is this where reflexivity comes in?

• Second level
 Firstly, to enable reflexivity researchers must attempt to effectively situate themselves outside their
research practice, to create a distance, space or an alternative angle thereby providing an
opportunity to view their own research differently
 Secondly, researchers must engage in some form of questioning or interrogation of their own
practice from this alternative positioning, and potentially allow others (including participants) the
opportunity of voice
 Thirdly, this process should lead us to question how we “make truth claims and construct
meaning” (Cunliffe, 2003, p. 985), which usually involves the researcher experiencing some sense of
discomfort or disruption

• Second level
Reflexive
Self
Reflexive
Relations
Reflexive
Methodology

• Second level

• Second level
Queries?
Questions?
&
Next steps?

• Second level
Twilight Zone Series

• Second level
Thank you!
@ProfKPritchard
@HelenCWilliams
@BreakBinaries
helen.c.williams@swansea.ac.uk
k.l.pritchard@swansea.ac.uk

Introduction to Ontology & Epistemology (39

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