Objectivity and Subjectivity in Social Research


Book Description

Objectivity and subjectivity are key concepts in social research. This book, written by leading authors in the field, takes a completely new approach to objectivity and subjectivity, no longer treating them as opposed - as many existing texts do - but as logically and methodologically related in social research. The book debates: - the philosophical bases of objectivity and relativity - relationism and dynamic synthesis - situated objectivity - theorised subjectivity - social objects and realism - objectivity and subjectivity in practice The authors explain complex arguments with great clarity for social science students, while also providing the detail and comprehensiveness required to meet the needs of practising researchers and scholars.




The California School of Organizational Studies Handbook of Organizational Consulting Psychology


Book Description

Discover a wealth of issues in the field of consulting psychologywith this landmark book. Explore key topics in assessment andevaluation, building teams, executive coaching, career counseling,interpersonal conflicts and relationships, benefit design,personality testing, and much more. Learn to delineate and betterunderstand the wide array of information you are faced with, andbecome more adept and knowledgeable in the field of consultingpsychology. This comprehensive volume has expert contributorsrecruited by the volume's editor--himself an eminent educator andpractitioner in the field. You will get: * Special issues in consulting to specific types of organizationsincluding industry, schools, government, non-profit, andinternational * Informative guidelines for professional practiceprocedures * Organized sections on individual, group and organizationalissues * And much more!




Objectivity: A Very Short Introduction


Book Description

- Is objectivity possible? - Can there be objectivity in matters of morals, or tastes? - What would a truly objective account of the world be like? - Is everything subjective, or relative? - Are moral judgments objective or culturally relative? Objectivity is both an essential and elusive philosophical concept. An account is generally considered to be objective if it attempts to capture the nature of the object studied without judgement of a conscious entity or subject. Objectivity stands in contrast to subjectivity: an objective account is impartial, one which could ideally be accepted by any subject, because it does not draw on any assumptions, prejudices, or values of particular subjects. Stephen Gaukroger shows that it is far from clear that we can resolve moral or aesthetic disputes in this way and it has often been argued that such an approach is not always appropriate for disciplines that deal with human, rather than natural, phenomena. Moreover, even in those cases where we seek to be objective, it may be difficult to judge what a truly objective account would look like, and whether it is achievable. This Very Short Introduction demonstrates that there are a number of common misunderstandings about what objectivity is, and explores the theoretical and practical problems of objectivity by assessing the basic questions raised by it. As well as considering the core philosophical issues, Gaukroger also deals with the way in which particular understandings of objectivity impinge on social research, science, and art. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.




Objectivity


Book Description

Objectivity has a history, and it is full of surprises. In Objectivity, Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison chart the emergence of objectivity in the mid-nineteenth-century sciences — and show how the concept differs from alternatives, truth-to-nature and trained judgment. This is a story of lofty epistemic ideals fused with workaday practices in the making of scientific images. From the eighteenth through the early twenty-first centuries, the images that reveal the deepest commitments of the empirical sciences — from anatomy to crystallography — are those featured in scientific atlases: the compendia that teach practitioners of a discipline what is worth looking at and how to look at it. Atlas images define the working objects of the sciences of the eye: snowflakes, galaxies, skeletons, even elementary particles. Galison and Daston use atlas images to uncover a hidden history of scientific objectivity and its rivals. Whether an atlas maker idealizes an image to capture the essentials in the name of truth-to-nature or refuses to erase even the most incidental detail in the name of objectivity or highlights patterns in the name of trained judgment is a decision enforced by an ethos as well as by an epistemology. As Daston and Galison argue, atlases shape the subjects as well as the objects of science. To pursue objectivity — or truth-to-nature or trained judgment — is simultaneously to cultivate a distinctive scientific self wherein knowing and knower converge. Moreover, the very point at which they visibly converge is in the very act of seeing not as a separate individual but as a member of a particular scientific community. Embedded in the atlas image, therefore, are the traces of consequential choices about knowledge, persona, and collective sight. Objectivity is a book addressed to any one interested in the elusive and crucial notion of objectivity — and in what it means to peer into the world scientifically.




Objectivity and Diversity


Book Description

Worries about scientific objectivity just won t go away, but by now, it s safe to say, no one who reflects on the appropriate role of values and interests in scientific research thinks it is or could be free of them. It now seems obvious that social, political, and economic values and interests influence research on weapons, for example, or health and the environment. Yet the dominant late twentieth-century philosophies of science have tended to conceptualize the reliability and predictive power of the results of research as damaged by such values and interests, and they continue to do so in spite of powerful analyses of how sciences operate in practice and in spite of the rise around the globe in the last four decades of various forms of participatory action research and citizen science, both of which take their research agendas from the concerns of disadvantaged groups. Why are the epistemic/scientific norm of objectivity and the social/political norm of diversity still perceived as inevitably in conflict with each other? Why aren t they perceived as in conflict only sometimes, but many times as providing valuable resources for each other? How can we promote science that is both more epistemically adequate and socially just? Sandra Harding probes these questions with clarity and concrete cases, and in doing so puts severe pressure on conventional philosophies of science and points to intellectually sounder and politically more progressive ways to think about them. She proposes a new way to relink sciences and their philosophies to democratic social relations, even while these are themselves undergoing transformations. A must read for anyone interested in how to think about the politics of science globally."




The SAGE Handbook of Organization Studies


Book Description

Praise for the award winning First Edition: ′This handbook is organized to help teachers and students to cover the mainstream work in the field of organization studies. This is an excellent reference tool with which to study organizational theory and practice′ - International Review of Administrative Sciences ′The editors have put together an impressive reference work, serious in intent and rigorous in implementation. As a publishing achievement, and a scholarly ′event′ in the field, SAGE is to be congratulated. It is designed as a work of synthesis, to link past and present, general and specific′ - Journal of General Management Praise for the New Edition: ′An excellent collection of papers giving a timely overview of the field′ - Gareth Morgan ′In this substantially updated, revised and extended edition of the widely acclaimed Handbook, the high standard of the contributions is maintained. Close consideration is given to newly emergent, such as networks and complexity, as well as more established topics. Metaphors of conversation and discourse are engagingly invoked to make and explore new distinctions, directions and connections. It is a key reference volume for more advanced students of this rapidly developing field′ - Hugh Willmott , Diageo Professor of Management Studies, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge ′Giving the authors of the Handbook of Organization Studies the opportunity to revise and update their earlier contributions makes this handbook unique. Comparing the revised chapters to their originals offers the reader unparalleled insight into how knowledge develops in our discipline. New frameworks and deeper understandings, grounded in continuing scholarship, abound in this updated classic′ - Mary Jo Hatch, C. Coleman McGehee Eminent Scholars Research Professor of Banking and Commerce McIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia A decade after it first published to international acclaim, the seminal Handbook of Organization Studies has been updated to capture exciting new developments in the field. Providing a retrospective and prospective overview of organization studies, the Handbook continues to challenge and inspire readers with its synthesis of knowledge and literature. As ever, contributions have been selected to reflect the diversity of the field. New chapters cover areas such as organizational change; knowledge management; and organizational networks. Part One reflects on the relationship between theory, research and practice in organization studies. Part Two address a number of the most significant issues to affect organization studies such as leadership, diversity and globalization. Comprehensive and far-reaching, this important resource will set new standards for the understanding of organizational studies. It will be invaluable to researchers, teachers and advanced students alike.




Phenomenology of the Embodied Organization


Book Description

Drawing on contemporary debates and responding to an analytic lacuna in organization and management studies and calls from organizational practice, Phenomenology of the Embodied Organization explores the fundamental and integral role of the body and embodiment in organizational life-worlds.




Advances In Doctoral Research In Management


Book Description

Within the academic realm, doctoral research plays a vital role in the advancement of knowledge. In areas ranging from strategy and international business to marketing, finance and operations management, the contributions in this volume represent the very best in doctoral research in the field of management worldwide.This first book in the Advances in Doctoral Research in Management series includes both doctoral research papers and a section on doctoral research notes consisting of shorter versions of extended monographs. There is also a section on research methodology papers that builds awareness and provides applications of new methodological concepts, techniques and tools.