The necessity of being flexible

✍ Scribed by Ilja Maso

• Book ID: 104644224
• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Year: 1989
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 651 KB
• Volume: 23
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0033-5177
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00151901

✦ Synopsis

In two kinds of research, changing the focus or nature of a research problem is an accepted practice: exploratory and qualitative research. By investigating the terms under which this practice is acceptable in these areas, by stressing the exploratory or qualitative character of all kinds of research, and by demonstrating its scientific quality, the conditions are outlined under which it is acceptable and even necessary to change the problem in any research. It is also argued that the changing of a research problem does not always imply post-factum explanations which are only plausible (Merton).