ERIC Number: EJ890547
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2010-Jul
Pages: 18
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0024-2519
EISSN: N/A
Inquiring into the Real: A Realist Phenomenological Approach
Budd, John M.; Hill, Heather; Shannon, Brooke
Library Quarterly, v80 n3 p267-284 Jul 2010
The need for postpositivist or antipositivist methods in the social sciences, including library and information science, is well documented. A promising alternative synthesizes critical realism and phenomenology. This method embraces ontological reality in all things, including human and social action. The ontology underlying the realist phenomenological approach recognizes, following Bhaskar, intransitive and transitive objects of knowledge (mind-independent reality and individual and social perceptions of that reality). The synthesis encompasses some particular elements, including perceptions of parts and wholes, the reconciliation of presence and absence, and the essential character of intentionality. Withholding judgment (exercising a particular kind of skepticism) enables inquirers to delve into the historicity and background of action. Potential uses of the method are manifold; some specifics are examined here.
Descriptors: Information Science Education, Social Action, Social Sciences, Information Science, Phenomenology, Realism, Social Cognition
University of Chicago Press. Journals Division, P.O. Box 37005, Chicago, IL 60637. Tel: 877-705-188; Tel: 773-753-3347; Fax: 877-705-1879; Fax: 773-753-0811; e-mail: subscriptions@press.uchicago.edu; Web site: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
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Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A