scholarly journals Pre-understanding: An interpretation-enhancer and horizon-expander in research

2021 ◽  
pp. 017084062199450
Author(s):  
Mats Alvesson ◽  
Jörgen Sandberg
Keyword(s):  
Idea Generation ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Empirical Base ◽  
Positive Input ◽  
Empirical Material

Pre-understanding – our presuppositions of reality – underlies all research. Many researchers probably also draw productively on their pre-understanding in their studies. However, very few rationales and methodological resources exist for how researchers can enrich their research by mobilizing their pre-understanding more actively and systematically. We elaborate and propose a framework for how researchers more actively, systematically and visibly can bring forward their pre-understanding and use it as a positive input in research, alongside formal data and theory. In particular, we show how researchers, in dialogue with data and theory, can mobilize their pre-understanding as an interpretation-enhancer and horizon-expander throughout the research process, including stimulating imagination and idea generation, broadening the empirical base, and evaluating what empirical material and theoretical ideas are interesting and relevant to pursue.

Conceptualization of the acidification theory in Swedish environmental research

1996 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-132
Author(s):  
Gunilla Ôberg ◽  
Karin Bäckstrand
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Community ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Environmental Research ◽  
Review System ◽  
The Core ◽  
System A ◽  
Chain Of Evidence ◽  
Hidden Patterns ◽  
Empirical Material

The aim of the present study was to describe and analyse the process of formulating the acidification theory in the Swedish research community. The empirical material was limited to articles written by Swedish researchers during the period 1950–1989 and published in international scientific journals utilizing a peer-review system. A model was developed to represent what Swedish researchers have regarded as the core of the acidification theory. Guided by the developed model, a qualitative content analysis of the scientific articles was conducted; i.e., we examined how central components and causal relationships of the theory have been explained and discussed. It should be emphasized that the present article describes an investigation of science itself (i.e., science in action) and is not an up-to-date review of acidification research. Our analysis revealed that some parts of the chain of evidence underlying the acidification theory were accepted before they were scrutinized by the scientific community and that the acidification complex was not conceptualized in accordance with the conceptualization of its various components. Actually, the acidification problem as a whole (i.e., the sum of all of its components) was not treated as a scientific theory that needed to be evaluated. This strongly indicates that the conceptualization was guided by factors that are generally, within the scientific community, considered to be external to the research process. There is no evidence that Swedish acidification research has adhered less stringently to scientific norms than environmental research in general has. Indeed, it is likely that such hidden patterns normally influence the conceptualization of science and we, therefore, conclude that the influence of factors that are not strictly a part of the research process must be further elucidated if the prerequisites and implications of research are to be clarified.Key words: scientific conceptualization, research process, acidification.

scholarly journals Field as Archive / Archive as Field

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-261
Author(s):  
Eray Çaylı
Keyword(s):  
Research Process ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Archival Research ◽  
Architectural Research ◽  
Empirical Material ◽  
Do So ◽  
Critical Reflections

Abstract This article introduces the special issue 'Field as Archive / Archive as Field': a set of critical reflections on archival research and fieldwork in academic studies focused on space. The special issue asks, how might the experience of carrying out research in the archive and the field, with all its contingencies and errancies, be taken seriously as empirical material in its own right? In other words, rather than reducing the research process to an empirically insignificant instrument through which to access useable data, how could scholars and practitioners of architecture treat this work as the very stuff of the histories, theories, criticisms, and/or practices they produce? In raising these questions that remain relatively underexplored, especially in architectural research, this special issue works from the contemporary historical juncture that is marked by an increasing visibility of rhetorical and physical hostility throughout social and political affairs. Probing how this historical juncture might impact and be impacted by spatial research, contributors to the special issue explore these impacts through the markedly urban and architectural registers in which they take place, including heritage, infrastructure, displacement, housing, and protest. They, moreover, do so through a variety of contexts relevant to the journal's scope: Egypt, Zanzibar, Turkey, Greece, Iran, and Israel/Palestine.

scholarly journals Influencing Factors in Prioritized Model of Patient Treatment with Mobile Computed Tomography Scan for Medium-Sized Hospitals in Thailand

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chamaiporn Sudasna Na Ayudhya ◽  
Achara Chandrachai ◽  
Kriskrai Sitthiseripratip ◽  
Sombat Muengtaweepongsa ◽  
Nattee Niparnan
Keyword(s):  
Computed Tomography ◽  
Idea Generation ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Patient Treatment ◽  
Scheduling Problems ◽  
Value Innovation ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Innovation Product

The purpose of this study was to determine the factors influencing the prioritization model for the treatment of patients with mobile computed tomography (mCT) scanning. The main research process entailed value innovation product planning (VIPP), which focuses on three steps: idea generation; idea screening; concept testing and development. This was applied research comprising primary and secondary data, based on contextual research in conjunction with in-depth interviews from neuro-medical and senior professional level staff. Through the VIPP process, here were show three factors affecting the calculation in the scheduling model: the reservation queue to use mCT, the distance between the hospitals and the severity or waiting time of the patients. The results indicate that it is necessary to consider these factors in developing and testing scheduling equations using a specially developed computational program that can handle scheduling problems with limited resources to support the determination of mCT space and schedules, next phase.

Artfulness as a dimension of professional practice in organizations and action research: Acknowledging sensory-aware and embodied attunement in professional organizations

2021 ◽  
pp. 147675032110333
Author(s):  
Julie Borup Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Professional Practice ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Professional Organizations ◽  
Public Knowledge ◽  
Sensory Awareness ◽  
Public Sector Organizations ◽  
Participatory Processes ◽  
Empirical Material

This article addresses the importance of action research to provide approaches to emphasizing and acknowledging artful aspects of professional practice in public sector organizations. The article introduces the philosophical works of Knud Ejler Løgstrup and Kari Martinsen as perspectives on artful aspects of professional practices and knowing. In order to concentrate on artful aspects of the research process, empirical material from two arts-involving workshops with teachers are presented as the concrete methodological expression of the participatory ideas of action research. The article addresses embodied dimensions of practice, the role of sensory awareness in professional knowing in organizations, which are some of the main preconditions for contributing to creative, social change, and scholarly weight. Thus, the article contributes with ways to regard action research as artful, participatory processes and practices that enable creation of organizational and public knowledge on the artful aspects of professional practice.

Paradoxes of economic theory in the perception of justice

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-50
Author(s):  
Sergey A. Bochkarev
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Economic Knowledge ◽  
Negative Experience ◽  
Main Achievement ◽  
Economic Context ◽  
Legal Thought ◽  
Practical Development ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Empirical Material

The article considers the economic theory at the main stages of its formation in relation to the phenomenon of justice. A variant of the topic disclosure is implemented through: a) distancing from existing and widespread practices of its knowledge; b) using the experience of these practices as a source and empirical material for diagnosing points of contact and discrepancies between the economic and legal approaches to justice, existing trends and distortions in economic and legal thought; c) extracting the desired understanding of what the justice economy is through analyzing and solving the problems of the research process devoted to it. Following this methodological course, we found that justice in economic theory is in a paradoxical state. And this state is not accidental. It is caused, as it was found out, by a number of circumstances. First of all, the impact of the negative experience of the knowledge of justice and the organization of its work in practice that underlies economic knowledge. Then the influence of stereotypes and biases that arose on its basis. Under the weight of a combination of these factors, science has removed justice from its sphere of competence and scientific and practical development. At the same time, the study found that the contradictions identified in the economic idea are the property, and their struggle provides its Genesis. The main achievement of science is that it, despite its negative experience, gave this very experience. Its reinterpretation and verification in the modern socio-economic context makes it possible to make sure that justice can and should be considered as an economic enterprise.

scholarly journals Crafting research communication in building history

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gunnar Almevik ◽  
Jonathan Westin
Keyword(s):  
Research Output ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Historic Building ◽  
Traditional Research ◽  
Virtual Reconstruction ◽  
Research Outcome ◽  
Digital Artefact ◽  
Interactive Application ◽  
Empirical Material

This research is presented through an interactive application. A virtual reconstruction based on the remains from a medieval stave church is used as a case study to re-establish the historic building as a tangible place and assemblage. Augmented by virtual reality, the research focuses on the sensuous aspects of the stave church as a whole—where architecture, artefacts, light, and materials interact—through the movements of approaching, entering, and dwelling. The research output is a virtual reconstruction, or a virtual diorama, that “re-members” the stave church elements and re-contextualises contemporaneous religious artefacts that have been dismembered and diffused in various exhibitions and deposits. The contribution in this research is methodological, seeking to test and provide a case to discuss how non-traditional research outcome can be crafted to elicit the sensuous aspects of research and still attend to the rigor of science. We seek to methodologise the digital artefact as a research output but also as a means for testing hypothesis and observing the effects when enacting the environment. The connection to the craft sciences concerns both the empirical material, the wooden stave church as a crafted object, and the exploration of an interactive application as a research output or hermeneutic device in the research process.

scholarly journals Reproducibility2020: Progress and Priorities

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonard P. Freedman ◽  
Gautham Venugopalan ◽  
Rosann Wisman
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Publication Bias ◽  
Biomedical Research ◽  
Idea Generation ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Research Community ◽  
Preclinical Studies ◽  
Preclinical Research ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Standards And Guidelines

ABSTRACTThe preclinical research process is a cycle of idea generation, experimentation, and reporting of results. The biomedical research community relies on the reproducibility of published discoveries to create new lines of research and to translate research findings into therapeutic applications. Since 2012, when scientists from Amgen reported that they were able to reproduce only 6 of 53 “landmark” preclinical studies, the biomedical research community began discussing the scale of the reproducibility problem and developing initiatives to address critical challenges. GBSI released the “Case for Standards” in 2013, one of the first comprehensive reports to address the rising concern of irreproducible biomedical research. Further attention was drawn to issues that limit scientific self-correction including reporting and publication bias, underpowered studies, lack of open access to methods and data, and lack of clearly defined standards and guidelines in areas such as reagent validation. To evaluate the progress made towards reproducibility since 2013, GBSI identified and examined initiatives designed to advance quality and reproducibility. Through this process, we identified key roles for funders, journals, researchers and other stakeholders and recommended actions for future progress. This paper describes our findings and conclusions.

Me, Myself, and iPhone

2021 ◽  
pp. 68-86
Author(s):  
Adam Badger
Keyword(s):  
Research Process ◽  
Field Site ◽  
Gig Economy ◽  
Delivery Platform ◽  
Methodological Approaches ◽  
And Performance ◽  
A Site ◽  
Empirical Material ◽  
Critical Reflections

This chapter explores methodological approaches to the study of gig economy work through the deployment of the researcher’s smartphone. Set within the context of a covert ethnography of a delivery platform in London, the phone became a site to both experience work and record empirical findings in the workplace. Specifically, this chapter considers the sociomaterial construction and performance of the smartphone at work to highlight how its capacities and affordances shaped the empirical output. Critical reflections on the limits of the smartphone work alongside reflexive considerations of the researching self to position the researcher and phone as active agents in the research process; in which methodological decisions bear impacts on the nature of the empirical material produced. Of particular significance is the deployment of various apps, tailored to the needs of the field site and research to create diverse, multi-modal datasets, in addition to their synthesis into a coherent and curated ethnographic field diary for subsequent analysis.

The Role of the Librarian in the Research Life Cycle

2020 ◽  
pp. 335-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josiline Phiri Chigwada
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Support Services ◽  
Idea Generation ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Dissemination Of Research ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
The Impact

This chapter documents the role that is played by the librarians in the research life cycle and how they collaborate with researchers. Initially, librarians were regarded as service people who provide research support services during the research process. A literature review was done to unpack how this role was affected by the digital technologies and examine the partnering role that is now being displayed by librarians. It was noted that although there are some challenges that are encountered, researchers are collaborating with librarians from idea generation to the dissemination of research findings and evaluating the impact of the research. It was recommended that librarians should move along with these changes and should continuously develop themselves so that they are aware of the services that they are supposed to provide during the research process.

scholarly journals Making (Non)Sense of Urban Water Flows: Qualities and Processes for Transformative and Transgressive Learning Moments

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (23) ◽  
pp. 6817
Author(s):  
Anna James
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Water Crisis ◽  
Arts Based Research ◽  
Entry Points ◽  
Ecological Relations ◽  
Local Water ◽  
Sustainability Challenges ◽  
Empirical Material

Urban sustainability and justice depend upon the flow of water across complex urban space. Yet, the characteristics of urban space produce a fragmented sense of our water resources. Cape Town, South Africa, the context of this research, is one such city whose water challenges have been exacerbated by climate change-induced drought, to the extent that the city nearly shut off the water running to residents’ taps. This context presents a particular challenge for the focus of this special issue, transformative and transgressive learning, an emerging arena of thought and practice concerned with learning processes that might foster more sustainable socio-ecological relations. The empirical material for this research draws from 12 arts-based inquiry workshops run with youth in an environmental organisation over four months, exploring a local water crisis. The data were generated through an engaged arts-based research process. The paper traces how transformative and transgressive learning in the context of urban water crisis might be characterised as making (non)sense by bringing the empirical material into dialogue with five entry points of transformative and transgressive learning literature rooted in Freirean educational praxis. This paper crafts and engages the concept of making (non)sense, a way of thinking about qualities and processes of learning praxis that responds to the wicked sustainability challenges we face today, particularly in terms of a Global South perspective. I argue such a praxis needs qualities and processes that disrupt and trouble the norm in the context of the socio-ecological challenge of urban water.

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