Social science perspectives on climate change and development

University of Copenhagen

Xaquín S. Pérez-Sindín López

Category: Philosophy & approach

  • Ontology in research

    Imagine all managers in a given organization leave and are replaced by new ones. Would such alteration have an important impact on the organization itself? Would the organization keep being the same? If you as researcher consider that such change is irrelevant to understand the organization itself, it means that your ontological position is rather…

  • What is your research paradigm?

    The Oxford English Dictionary defines the basic meaning of the term paradigm as “a pattern or model, an exemplar”. In terms of your own research, paradigm means the way of examining social phenomena. Burrell and Morgan (1982) suggest a taxanomy of four different paradigms as a result of crossing two variables: objectivism/subjectivism and radical change/regulation.…

  • Are you forced to assume a philosophy for your research?

    If after reading the previous post on positivism and interpretativism philosophy you think that choicing one or another is still unrealistic in practice you might be interesting on adopting the view of pragmatism. This view argues that more important than the research philosophy is the research question. The pragmatism view also argues that is perfectly…

  • Are you “resources” or “feeling” researcher? #understandingresearchphilosophies

    As researcher you are creating new knowledge. But, what is or not knowledge for you? Two main views may be adopted. (1) The researcher who concerns on numbers and countable elements: “resources” researcher (2) The researcher who concerns more with the feelings and attitudes of the people involved in the organization studied: “feeling” researcher 1.…

  • Understanding research philosophies

    The point of this post is not about choosing one or another philosophy for your research. Actually, you could skip this topic and begin thinking about whether you will use questionnaire or secondary data method. The point here is enhancing your understanding of the way in which we approach the study of a particular field.…

  • What roles do your values play?

    A value is an idea what people share about what is good or bad, desireble or undesireble. Values are reflected in apparantly trivial everyday behaviors. The sociologist Robin M. Williams, Jr. (1970) identified fifteen fundamental values (in reference to american society achievement and success activity and work humanitarianism efficiency and practicality progress material confort equality…