Read any useful research lately, unanswered research questions
From:
Ron Lubensky
Date:
Jul 11 01:19 UTC
Short link
Political science is very much theory-driven and sees research as
designed for theory verification. On the other hand, practitioners
are more inclined to approach projects in an open-ended manner,
capable of theory generation from observation and experience. The
more positivist slant of some academies leads it to prefer
quantitative methods (eg survey) over qualitative methods (eg
ethnography), even though the latter have greater potential to reveal
the kind of meaning and explanation that practitioners want. For
example in e-democracy work, action research is a methodology that
formalises the iterative, interactive and emancipatory endeavour of
practice, as processes get refined to meet the needs of the
community. Some research methods texts in political studies don't
even mention it.
Ron Lubensky
Citizens Parliament Project Researcher
Dept of Government & International Relations
School of Political & Social Studies
The University of Sydney
h Melbourne, Australia
p 61 03 8307 0967 | m 0411 412 626
e <email obscured>
b http://members.optusnet.com.au/rlubensky/
w http://www.citizensparliament.org.au