Pragmatism and Methodology: Doing Research That Matters with Mixed Methods

✍ Scribed by Alex Gillespie, Vlad Glăveanu, Constance de Saint Laurent

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2024
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 252
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Taking a pragmatist approach to methods and methodology that fosters meaningful, impactful, and ethical research, this book rises to the challenge of today's data revolution. It shows how pragmatism can turn challenges, such as the abundance and accumulation of big qualitative data, into opportunities. The authors summarize the pragmatist approach to different aspects of research, from epistemology, theory, and questions to ethics, as well as data collection and analysis. The chapters outline and document a new type of mixed methods design called 'multi-resolution research,” which serves to overcome old divides between quantitative and qualitative methods. It is the ideal resource for students and researchers within the social and behavioural sciences seeking new ways to analyze large sets of qualitative data. This book is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Half-title page
Title page
Copyright page
Dedication
Contents
Preface
Chapter 1 Pragmatism
1.1 Paradigms: “Things” or “Processes”?
1.1.1 The Cartesian Paradigm
1.1.2 The Hegelian Paradigm
1.2 Pragmatism: Knowledge within Human Activity
1.2.1 Beyond Subject and Object: The Truth Is in the Future
1.2.2 Starting from Where We Are
1.2.3 Navigating Rupture and Surprise
1.3 Potential Criticisms
1.3.1 Relativist?
1.3.2 Uncritical?
1.3.3 Behaviorist?
1.4 Methodological Contributions
1.4.1 Pragmatism and Mixed Methods
1.4.2 Pragmatism and Applied Research
1.4.3 Pragmatism and Abduction
1.5 Pragmatist Propositions
Chapter 2 Epistemology: How We Know
2.1 The Post-truth Context
2.1.1 The Trouble with Conspiracies
2.1.2 The Role of Epistemology
2.2 (Mis)conceptions about Epistemology
2.2.1 Epistemology Guides Research
2.2.2 Epistemological Purism versus Pluralism
2.2.3 The Limits of Epistemology
2.3 The “Death” of Truth?
2.3.1 Definitions of Truth
2.3.2 Blaming Postmodernism
2.4 Mapping Epistemological Positions
2.4.1 The Question of Reality
2.4.2 The Question of Universal Laws
2.4.3 The Question of Types of Truth
2.4.4 The Question of How We Reach Valid Knowledge
2.5 Epistemological Pragmatism and Methodological Pluralism
2.5.1 Weaponizing Doubt
2.5.2 The Pragmatist Position
2.5.3 Beyond Realism and Relativism
2.6 The Consequences of Pragmatism
Chapter 3 Theory: What We Know
3.1 A Realist Approach to Theory
3.2 A Relativist Approach to Theory
3.3 A Pragmatist Approach to Theory
3.3.1 Theory: A Mirror of Nature?
3.3.2 Theory: A Tool, Map, and Model
3.3.3 Theory Development and Disruptive Data
3.4 Illustration: Theory in Creativity Research
3.5 The Consequences of a Pragmatist Approach to Theory
3.6 Impoverishing versus Enriching Theory
Chapter 4 Creating Questions
4.1 Qualitative versus Quantitative Research
4.1.1 Incommensurable Paradigms?
4.1.2 The Integration Challenge
4.1.3 A Pragmatist Approach
4.2 Differentiating Qualitative and Quantitative Research Questions
4.2.1 Inductive Questions
4.2.2 Deductive Questions
4.2.3 Abductive Questions
4.2.4 Matching Questions to Methods
4.3 Heuristics for Creating Questions
4.3.1 Creating Questions Inductively
4.3.2 Creating Questions Deductively
4.3.3 Creating Questions Abductively
4.3.4 Mixing Induction, Deduction, and Abduction
4.4 Being Sensitive to Surprise
Chapter 5 Eliciting and Transforming Data
5.1 What Are Data?
5.1.1 Data as Reality
5.1.2 Data as Construction
5.1.3 Data as Disruption
5.1.4 Data as a Process
5.2 Data Elicitation and Data Types
5.3 Big Qualitative Data
5.3.1 Increased Access to More Types of Data
5.3.2 Increased Access to Behavioral Data
5.3.3 Increased Large Quantities of Unstructured Data
5.4 Accessing Data and Ethical Challenges
5.4.1 Accessing Data
5.4.2 Ethical Issues
5.5 The Potentials of Data
Chapter 6 Mixing Qualitative and Quantitative Methods
6.1 The Integration Challenge: A Pragmatist Approach
6.2 Integrating Qualitative and Quantitative Research Purposes
6.2.1 Simultaneous Designs
6.2.2 Qualitative First Designs
6.2.3 Quantitative First Designs
6.2.4 Recursive Designs
6.3 Integration Synergies
6.4 Creating Mixed Methods
6.5 The Contributions of a Pragmatist Approach
Chapter 7 Multi-resolution Research
7.1 Mixed Analyses of Big Qualitative Data
7.2 Conceptualizing Multi-resolution Research
7.3 Quantitizing and Qualitizing
7.4 Abduction: Puzzle-Solving Investigation
7.5 Legitimacy: Doubly Constrained Interpretation
7.6 Data Requirements
7.7 The Benefits of Multi-resolution Research
7.7.1 Increasing the Legitimacy of Quantitative Research
7.7.2 Increasing the Impact of Qualitative Research
7.7.3 The Micro in the Macro and the Macro in the Micro
Chapter 8 Ethics
8.1 Framing the Debate
8.2 Pragmatism and Ethics
8.3 A Pragmatist New Look at Research Ethics
8.4 The Case of Deception
8.5 Ethics in Mixed Methods Research
8.6 Ethics in Multi-resolution Research
8.7 Conclusion
Chapter 9 Expanding Human Possibilities
9.1 Human Interests
9.2 Hierarchies of Knowledge and Interests
9.3 Empowering Human Activity
9.4 Methodologies of the Possible
9.5 Conclusion
References
Index