Between Theological Ideals and Empirical Realities: Complex Diversity in Interreligious Dialogue

Abstract Empirical research on the practice of interreligious dialogue delivers inspiring results for a practical-theological reflection. The contribution thus discusses the question of what theological and social science research can learn from each other. The author presents four exemplary theses on the Catholic understanding of the nature, aims and methods of interreligious dialogue, and puts them into a mutual dialogue with the empirical results of this study. The results demonstrate that interreligious dialogue only exists within different social and political contexts that should be recognised theologically as “incarnated” forms of dialogue. The diverse social and political functions of interreligious dialogue can be interpreted as dimensions of the evangelizing mission of the Church. In turn, social science research on interreligious dialogue should take “inside” dimensions into academic consideration such as aspects of theological self-understanding, the question of truth or the missionary dimension of interreligious dialogue.

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In Defense of Robin Barrow's Concern About Empirical Research in Education

Philosophical Inquiry in Education ◽

10.7202/1071436ar ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 26 (2) ◽

pp. 137-145

Author(s):

Jack Martin

Keyword(s):

Social Science ◽

Empirical Research ◽

Social Science Research ◽

Science Research ◽

Scientific Data ◽

Additional Material ◽

Teachers And Students ◽

Research In Education ◽

Empirical Regularity ◽

Social Scientific

This paper offers a defense of Robin Barrow’s main arguments in Giving Teaching Back to Teachers, including additional material concerning the inability of the aggregate data and statistical methods employed in research in education (and research on teaching) to speak to individual teachers and students or to particular classrooms. This defense and extension of Barrow’s position is applied in a critique ofa proposal made by Lorraine Foreman-Peck in her 2004 debate with Barrow, entitled What Use is Educational Research?, published in 2005 by the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain. A central confusion that attends and limits much empirical research in education and social science concerns conflation of two different senses of the concept general, as “common to all” or “on average.” The havoc this confusion plays ought not be ignored or minimized by educational researchers and their advocates who tend to exaggerate the empirical regularity in social scientific data and therefore the generalizability of social science research in education and elsewhere.

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Social Network Analysis and Communities of Practice

Encyclopedia of Communities of Practice in Information and Knowledge Management ◽

10.4018/978-1-59140-556-6.ch079 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 474-480 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Dimitris Asimakopoulos ◽

Jie Yan

Keyword(s):

Social Network ◽

Social Network Analysis ◽

Network Analysis ◽

Social Science ◽

Communities Of Practice ◽

Empirical Research ◽

Historical Perspective ◽

Social Science Research ◽

Science Research ◽

Software Packages

Social network analysis (Scott, 2000; Wasserman & Faust, 1994) is a relatively new theory and methodology that has found wide application in social science research. In the early 2000s, an increasing number of scholars have been interested in computerized Social Network Analysis (SNA) and have adopted social network theory and techniques to study communities of practice (CoPs). In this article, the authors introduce SNA from a historical perspective, compare SNA with non-network theories and methods, and introduce popular SNA software packages. With reference to recent empirical research, the authors discuss several areas in which SNA has been applied to CoP research.

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Single-father Parenting in Contemporary Russian and Foreign Social Science Research

Asian Social Science ◽

10.5539/ass.v14n2p173 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 14 (2) ◽

pp. 173

Author(s):

Popov Viktor Alexeevich ◽

Kanareikina Tatiana Alexandrovna

Keyword(s):

Comparative Analysis ◽

Social Science ◽

Empirical Research ◽

Social Science Research ◽

Science Research ◽

Psychological Aspects ◽

Child Rearing ◽

Parenting Strategies ◽

Single Male ◽

Single Father

The article contains a comparative analysis of Russian and foreign research exploring the phenomenon of single father hood. The most significant pedagogical and psychological aspects of child-rearing in single male parent families dealt with in Russian and foreign studies have been examined along with the results of the authors’ empirical research into the characteristics of parental responsibilities and single-father parenting strategies.

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Kant on the Experience of Passivity

World Journal of Social Science Research ◽

10.22158/wjssr.v2n2p200 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

pp. 200

Author(s):

Motohide Saji

Keyword(s):

Social Science ◽

Human Development ◽

Empirical Research ◽

Social Science Research ◽

Science Research ◽

Initial Activity ◽

Early Human Development ◽

And Control ◽

Early Human ◽

Do So

This article reconstructs Kant’s thought on early human development and its effect throughout one’s life in his empirical, anthropological work. To do so, I examine Kant’s treatment of three aspects of the early human development chronologically. Kant’s argument concerns processes that one goes through before becoming an adult, which take place beyond one’s control, which form the basis for one’s adult self, and which affect one throughout one’s life. One’s experience of these three aspects can be called the experience of passivity. First, while an infant, one is subject to the drive and inability to coordinate and control one’s bodily motion, to the drive to communicate, and to the activity of imitation. Second, one is compelled to begin reasoning rather than actively beginning the exercise of reason. The initial activity of reason suddenly has already taken place in one beyond one’s control in such a way that one cannot choose whether to begin to exercise the faculty of reason in the first place. Third, one is affected by otherness in the formation and development of one’s self. Kant’s thought thus reconstructed proves to be consistent with what recent empirical research demonstrates. The present analysis ends with questions and implications for social science research.

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Research as Praxis

Harvard Educational Review ◽

10.17763/haer.56.3.bj2h231877069482 ◽

1986 ◽

Vol 56 (3) ◽

pp. 257-278 ◽

Cited By ~ 578

Author(s):

Patti Lather

Keyword(s):

Critical Theory ◽

Social Science ◽

Empirical Research ◽

Social Science Research ◽

Science Research ◽

Primary Objective ◽

Developing Area

The author, who is concerned with the methodological implications of critical theory, explores issues in the developing area of emancipatory research. She defines the concept of "research as praxis," examines it in the context of social science research, and discusses examples of empirical research designed to advance emancipatory knowledge. The primary objective of this essay is to help researchers involve the researched in a democratized process of inquiry characterized by negotiation, reciprocity, empowerment — research as praxis.

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