Binding: Paperback
Description: In this innovative introduction to research in the social and human sciences Valerie Malhotra Bentz and Jeremy J. Shapiro guide students through the maze of research traditions cultures of inquiry and epistemological frameworks that blanket the intellectual landscape. The goal of their approach is to help the researcher survive and flourish in today's often confusing multicultural multiparadigm research environment where disciplines overlap. Postmodernism and multiculturalism have shattered the traditional unitary model of scientific research; and the emerging global informational economy is producing new economic social cultural and political problems and new research questions. Their solution is mindful inquiry - empowering the researcher both psychologically and philosophically by putting the researcher rather than research techniques at the center of the research process. The mindful inquirer uses awareness of self - personal social and historical - to shape the research project or dissertation and keep it expressive and responsible to the traditions of scholarly research. While grounding their own approach in a synthesis of critical theory phenomenology hermeneutics and Buddhism Bentz and Shapiro explain the forces that have produced the current epistemological crisis and introduce the reader to the underlying logic rather than the detailed methods and techniques of 10 cultures of inquiry - ethnography quantitative behavioral science phenomenology action research hermeneutics evaluation research feminist research critical social science historical - comparative research and theoretical research. Mindful Inquiry in Social Research not only clarifies conceptual and intellectual traditions in research but also puts researchers squarely in the investigative saddle able to choose justify and explain the intellectual framework and personal rationale of their research. For many students beginning researchers and scholarly practitioners Mindful Inquiry in Social Research will provide clarity grounding and good preparation for a challenging research task such as a dissertation thesis major paper or professional research project. While helping the researcher survive epistemological diversity it will also help turn the research project into a positive contribution to the researcher's life and personal development rather that a detour or a hindrance.
Title: Mindful Inquiry In Social Research
Author(s): Shapiro Jeremy J.
Publisher: Sage Publications Inc
Barcode: 9780761904090
Pages: 232 Pages
Publication Date: 6/24/1998
Category: Social Research & Statistics