Mike asks:
>Eugene writes:
>I agree with Diane that "solution" for qual. vs. quant. is not in schools
>and purifying methodologies but in politics, practices, and deeds.
>
>----
>L.S. Vygotsky wrote: "most complex contradications of
>psychology's methodology are brought to the fieldo of practice
>and can only be resolved there. Here the dispute stops being
>sterile.
>
>----
>So, if we generalize from psychology, to whatever melange of
>disciplines we are dealing with in this discussion, do we
>arrive at a concensus?
So far I have several half-baked ideas where it seems to me useful to find a
"field of solutions" (although, I'm not sure I'd satisfy Mike's
interdisciplinary quest as I (mis?)understand it):
1) I think it is very useful to consider personal life project of researcher
(in Russian, "lichnostiy zhiznenniy proekt") or Eva's question of why the
researcher is doing what he or she is doing at the deep personal level.
This question will often lead to revealing meaning of the researcher as
addressing tensions in social and political relations in the society through
personal experience (I like the Russian word "perezhivanie" better than the
English word "experience" -- literally, "living over" you can read about
this notion in Vygotsky's article in Valsiner's Vygotsky reader, ch14).
2) Bakhtin's notion of addressivity is also handy. Each research is an
attempt to address somebody else questions and raise its own for somebody
else. It is important to understand who is that "somebody" in both cases
(as an addresser and a new addressee) and what are the questions in order to
understand what constitutes meaningfulness and reliability.
3) I think Latour's analysis of academic practices is also useful. What is
place of the research in researcher's career cycle, negotiation of
resources, making differences in other practices (not only through policies
but through new ideologies and throwing new "black boxes")? Talking with
taxpayers and non-taxpayers about your research... Those who get grants are
reliable ( :-) or :-( depending on your personal grantability and state of
your career)...
4) Research as an attempt to bridge communities of practice...
5) Research as a moral and ethical action and deed...
What do you think?
To Diane: Schools, universities, disciplines... in short, institutions -- is
it possible to breath freely in institutions? Do such institutions exist? I
think they do... I have experienced some and sometimes...
Eugene