On the 9th November the Consumers, Markets and Society group is hosting a workshop on the Nature of Academic Knowledge: Understanding How Any Research Methodology Is Dependent on Its Underpinning Ontological & Epistemological Assumptions. The workshop is from 10am-3pm and led by Markus Wohlfeil.
We would welcome all PGR students, early career researchers and academics who may have particular methodological queries and would like to engage in particular methodological discussions. Participants can attend in person (Hugh Aston Building, Leicester) or on-line.
To attend please register your interest with amy.takhar@dmu.ac.uk.
Abstract
The primary purpose of academic research is to create knowledge in a particular field that helps us to better understand the world around us… well… or at least a specific phenomenon we are currently interested in. But this leaves us with some important questions: What exactly is “knowledge”? How can we obtain such knowledge? And how do we know that the obtained knowledge is actually “true” and “worth knowing”?
Each time we choose a particular methodology for the academic research at hand, it is essential for good academic research to ensure that the chosen methodology is compatible with its underpinning ontological and epistemological stance and assumptions concerning the nature of reality, truth, human nature, the role of science and knowledge. Indeed, it is important for an academic researcher to prove and justify the rigour of the research and trustworthiness of the obtained knowledge to examiners, reviewers and others audiences by demonstrating how his or her methodology is harmonically embedded within its epistemological and ontological assumptions.
After ripping up Saunders’ misleading research onion, this workshop seminar introduces early career researchers, PGR students, dissertation supervisors and even more experienced academic researchers in a comprehensive manner to the intricacies of Logical Empiricism, Critical Realism, Semiotic & Sociological-Theoretical Constructivism, Interpretivism, Existential-Phenomenology and Existentialism in terms of their key epistemological ideas concerning reality, truth, human nature, role of science and knowledge. Participants will thereby learn what specific methodologies like Popper’s Falsificationism, Case Study Research, Grounded Theory, Semiotics, Critical Theory, Action Research, Ethnography/Netnography, Autoethnography and Phenomenology are compatible with what specific epistemologies.