Replicability. Politics and Poetics of Accountability, Validation and Legitimation

Replicability is a term that not only comes with different meanings in the literature of many domains but is often associated or confused with other terms such as ‘reproducibility,’ ‘repeatability,’ ‘reliability,’ ‘validity,’ and so on. To add to the confusion, it can even be used differently across diverse disciplines. Though all named concepts are important, what makes them barely advantageous is that they do not cover some peculiar aspects of the replicability and validation processes, i.e., appropriateness of conceptualization; trustworthiness of operational definition and operational acts; accuracy of researcher’s description, categorization and/or measurement; successfulness of observational (or field) relation. Moreover, in social sciences and organization studies, the concept of validity of data is highly questionable due to the quite frequent shortage of real statuses of the observed objects. The present paper aims to challenge the received view on the concept of ‘replicability,’ by proposing a “situational approach” based on the idea that replicability works under certain organizational and socio-technic conditions, and that it is heavily influenced by the way that different stakeholders (scientists, technicians, participants artifacts, and technologies) respond to them. Consequently, it is important to understand how and why replicability works in different contexts. Its main purpose, without denying the importance of current conventional perspectives on replicability and its siblings, is to widen and change them to include an organizational setting and a reflexive epistemology. This implies the pursuit of a third way of replicability, between the postmodernist negation of its possibility and its opposite, i.e., a naïve naturalism. A way asserting that replicability is a jigsaw puzzle or a mosaic, constituted by discursive practices (poetics) and organizational achievements guiding the politics of accountability, validation and legitimation. The domain here considered pertains to the social and organizational sciences. However, though going beyond the aim of this essay, many issues could be reframed and adapted to medical, natural and physical sciences, as some of the following examples can show.

Characteristics and field relation of Ulleri Augen Gneiss to country rocks in the Lesser Himalaya: A case study from Syaprubesi-Chhyamthali area, central Nepal

The distribution of Ulleri Augen Gneiss and its origin in the Lesser Nepal Himalaya adjacent to the Main Central Thrust zone is stilla debate among the geo-scientists. Geological mapping was carried out along the Syaprubesi-Chhyamthali area of central Nepal with the aim to study the field relation, distribution, deformation and metamorphism of the Ulleri Augen Gneiss. During mapping, close traverses were set to observe the field relation and a number of systematic samples were collected for analysis of composition and texture. Some preliminary findings were obtained related to its geological position and distribution. This gneiss is hosted within the Kuncha Formation, the oldest unit of the Nawakot Group in the Lesser Himalaya. It has been evolved within this unit as a tabular form in some places and lenses in other places. It shows both concordant (i.e., sill type) and discordant (i.e., dike type) relationship with the host rock. It is characterized by augen-shaped porphyroblasts of K-feldspar and S-C mylonitic texture showing top to the SW sense of shear. The S-C structures and lineated textures shown by the minerals are associated with the shearing caused by the movement along the MCT during the syn-MCT metamorphic deformation. It is characterized in different types of lithologies such as augen gneiss, banded gneiss and two-mica gneiss. An attempt is made to explain the petrological characteristics and field relation of the Ulleri Augen Gneiss with the host rocks along with structural aspects. Based on the field relation and texture analysis, the evolution of the protolith of this Ulleri Augun Gneiss can be interpreted as a multi-story emplacement within the host rocks during and immediately after the sedimentation.

Geology of the Patharkhola Area, Almora District, Uttarakhand (India): With Special Reference to the Lithology and Field Relation

The Patharkhola area (longitude 79°09'E to 79°17'56''E and latitude 29°47'42''N to 29°56'69''N) covering an area of about 125 square Kms situated in Almora District, Uttarakhand forming a part of the Almora Nappe has been selected for the detailed geological mapping at an scale of 2 cm equal to 1 Km. The rocks mainly include phyllites, schists and gneisses forming an anticlinal structure showing phyllites in the NW, S to SW and in the western part of the area, while the schists occur in the folded outcrop pattern in between both the limbs of the fold and the gneisses occur in the core of the fold. Although thin quartzitic bands has also been noticed interbedded with phyllites and schists. Several transverse faults have been noticed in the area under investigation which has been demarcated in the map. Bulletin of Department of Geology, vol. 20-21, 2018, pp: 1-6