Social science perspectives on climate change and development

University of Copenhagen

Xaquín S. Pérez-Sindín López

Tag: qualitative methods

  • Beyond Hayek: Can Social Science Understand Dispersed Knowledge?

    Few schools of thought have been as influential in contemporary debates about markets, planning, and the role of the state as the Austrian School of Economics. Thinkers such as Carl Menger, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, and Israel Kirzner developed a powerful critique of central planning that continues to shape discussions about public policy, economic…

  • The Black Swan: Understanding the Power of the Unexpected

    We like to believe the world is predictable. We build plans, forecasts, strategies, and expectations based on what we already know. We look at the past and assume it can help us understand the future. Most of the time, this works well enough. But every so often, something happens that breaks our assumptions completely. This…

  • 2014 Bronislaw Malinowski Award Recipient: Paul Durrenberger

    Dr. Durrenberger is an esteemed senior scholar who is widely recognized for his applications of social science methodologies to understand and serve the needs of the world. His long career boasts field work in Northern Thailand, Iceland, Turkey, North Carolina, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and Iowa. His prolific publication record includes seminal articles in the American Anthropologist,…

  • The meaning of qualitative methods

    Throwing an eye over the definition provided by oxford dictionary will make easier to understand the meaning of the term qualitative method. The word “method” refers to “a particular procedure for accomplishing or approaching something, especially a systematic or established one”. On the other hand, if we claim the same source for the word qualitative…

  • 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…