Guest lecture prepared for Philosphy of Science: second year class, OGM, University of Aruba. Discusses my view on research in the past and now, and its implications for conducting social scientific research.

1. Edward M. Erasmus, MA
University of Aruba
March 8, 2012

2. Have a conversation about…
• Science
• Portrayal of science in our modern society
• My perception of science: then…
• My view on science: now….
• Implication for my approach to social-scientific
research
• Some after-thoughts

3. Let’s do some brain exercises….

4. Tricky Coin Triangle Puzzle
Can you form a NEW triangle that points down?
You can only move THREE of the pennies to do so

5. Find the man in the coffee beans

6. Find the 9 hidden people/faces in the picture

7. NEO: This isn't real?
MORPHEUS: What is real? How do you define real? If you’re talking
about your senses, what you feel, taste, smell, or see, then all you’re
talking about are electrical signals interpreted by your brain [...]
You have been living inside a dreamworld, Neo. As in Baudrillard’s
vision, your whole life has been spent inside the map, not the
territory [...]
-THE MATRIX (1999)

8. Science and research
All research is based on assumptions about how we
perceive the world and how we can best come to
understand it.
Nobody really knows how we can best understand the
world.
Philosophers have been arguing about that very
question for a little more than two millennia now….

9. What is science?
the systematic observation of natural events and
conditions in order to discover facts about them
and to formulate laws and principles based on
these facts….
Source: Academic Press Dictionary of Science & Technology

10. What is science?
the intellectual and practical activity encompassing
the systematic study of the structure and behavior
of the physical and natural world through
observation and experiment…
Source: Oxford Dictionaries

11. What is science?
Portrayal of science and scientists in our modern
world….

12. What is science?

13. What is science?

14. Famous scientists….
Frequently mentioned by
kids….
Mentioned by all ages…
Frequently mentioned by
adults my age...
Frequently mentioned by
youngsters

15. How about this guy?...

16. How about this lady?...

17. Is this a research area?....

18. How about this?....

19. Science….
Many of us in the Western (pop) culture have been
brought up with a somewhat popular view of
science, or at least a fairly eminent view of science,
as it should be done…..

20. Science…
But is science really an independent, detached and
objective activity performed by highly developed
intellectuals (super humans)?

21. Science under scrutiny….

22. Global warming debate (1990’s – to date)

23. Vaccination-autism hoax (2011)

24. Financial Crisis (2008)

25. BP oil spill (2010)

27. Fallacies in leadership
and management
theories… (1980’s – today)

28. “To the man who only has a hammer, everything
he encounters begins to look like a nail.”
- Abraham H. Maslow

29. My view of science…. Then…..

30. My view of science….. Then….
I have carried the idea that science (both natural
and social) is driven by a certain type of objective
‘scientific method’.
I think the origin of this conception of science has
been influenced by many factors in my life.
Although difficult to pinpoint and reflect on all of
them, I think my view of science was formed (and
was maintained) by the following: my educational
background, my work relationship with academic
colleagues and the commercial media.

31. Educational background (finance and
accounting)
I was taught that the system of acquiring
knowledge should be completely objective and
rational (i.e. through statistics and surveys).
Focus on methods (and much less on
methodology)
Analyze and seek to find rational solutions based
on figures.
The idea that human thoughts and behavior are
controllable and predictable.

32. Work relationship with academics
Academics often try to portray their opinions
(during meetings, through reports and memo’s,
and so) to be derived from objective and
coherent considerations of facts.
Most of the times their points of view are not
questioned by others, as they fear to contradict
the objectivist status of these academics.

33. Commercial media
Jean Baudrillard: era of ‘hyperreality’
 Our perception of reality is being dictated by conceptual
models presented through the media.
 Science is promoted as an objectivist instrument.
 Increasing amount of authors who use the media to market
their scientific ideas on a mass scale.
 The ‘pop era’ that initiated in the 1980s, which was a period
that yielded a lot of functionalist works.
 ‘Scientific’ works with so-called ‘how-to’-approaches that
provided executives ‘quick-fix’ are easier to sell.

34. Commercial media

35. Commercial media

36. Commercial media

37. Dominant view about science
(paradigm)
Science is based on the notion of ‘objectivity’ (= refers to
the view that the truth of a thing is independent from the
observing subject).
Assumption that there is order and laws in the cosmos
that reason can discover in order to represent and control
nature and social conditions.
Assumptions are applicable to both natural and social
sciences…..

38. Dominant view about science
 This paradigm of modernist assertions about the existence of truth claims
that stem from the European Enlightenment of the 18th century.
 The Enlightenment was about rationality; it was the ‘Age of reason’.
Reason, rationality and science began to take over from religion to tell the
truth about the world.
 Science could provide laws, i.e. unquestionable truths about the world,
such as Newton and his law of gravity.
 Out of this came the idea of the ‘modern project’ towards progress.
 The world is progressing towards better things, such as the industrial
revolution and medicine. Science and technology will solve all the
problems of society.
 Throughout the 20th century and still today this project has been followed.
 Normative discourse (Deetz, 1996)

39. But there’s another side to the story……
…. Actually….there are more sides to the story……

40. Another view on science?
Academic study in Organization, Culture and
Management.
Anthropological approach to understand organizations
and the social world around them.
 Confrontational/contradictory views of science.
Complete paradigm shift……

41. Key science questions…
How do we know?
What is knowing?
Is science objective?
Is everything reducible to physics and mathematics?
Is everything reducible to a few rules?
Should science serve society or should society serve
science?

42. “At the simplest level, only people who know
they do not know everything will be curious
enough to find things out.”
-- Virginia Postrel, The Future and Its Enemies, p.88 [The Free Press, 1998]

43. Another view on science?
Different scholars argue that when it comes to social
science, different philosophical orientations may be
applied.
And there’s when the Science Wars started….
‘As academic students we find ourselves tangled in ‘paradigmatic barbwires’
located in the battlefields of these so-called ‘Science Wars’ and there seems
to be no easy way out.’
(Edward Erasmus, 2001)

44. Another view on science?
When it comes to social science, different
philosophical orientations may be distinguished:
Functionalist, Interpretive, Radical humanist, and
radical structuralist (Burrell & Morgan, 1979)
Modern, symbolic, critical and postmodern (Hatch,
1997)
Normative, Interpretive, Critical and Dialogic
(Deetz, 1996)

45. Another view on science?
So what difference does it make?.....
From a philosophical standpoint: each dimension
or paradigm provide a different understanding of
ontology (what is knowing?) and epistemology
(how do we know?);
Consequently…. How do we engage and conduct
research?

46. Different paradigms – different ontology
OBJECTIVISM SUBJECTIVISM POST-MODERNISM
Ontology “…the social world external to The truth of some class of There is no such thing as
(the study of the individual cognition is a real statements depends on the universal truth or standard.
assumptions on the world made up of hard, mental state or reactions of theJean-Francois Lyotard defines
nature of reality). tangible and relatively person making the statement. postmodernism as “incredulity
immutable structures” (Burrel towards metanarratives”
and Morgan, 1979, p. 4) “…the social world external to (Fields, 1995, p. 5). Lyotard
individual cognition is made up argues that “there are no
of nothing more than names, metanarratives that define
concepts and labels which are reality or history for all people
used to structure reality” at all times” (Okholm, 1999, p.
(Burrel and Morgan, 1979, p. 3). The postmodernists see
4). such assumption as oppressive.
Instead, society should
celebrate centerlessness,
diversity and choice.

47. Different paradigms – different epistemology
OBJECTIVISM SUBJECTIVISM POST-MODERNISM
Epistemology characterized by explaining and knowledge is restricted to one’s “any attempt at universal
(the study of ordinary predicting the occurrences in own perceptions. The knowledge or a theory of
knowledge in the social world “by searching epistemological stance in historical evolution is
everyday life). for regularities and causal subjectivism is labeled by illegitimate, as there is no
relationships between its Burrel and Morgan (1979, p. 5) overall meaning to social life
constituent elements” (Burrel as ‘anti-positivism’ and is that could render coherent
and Morgan, 1979, p. 1). “firmly set against the utility of historical progress. Rather
a search for laws or underlying social science should
regularities in the world of investigate, and indeed
social affairs”. The social world celebrate, diversity, as different
from the view of the anti- eras and social groups develop
positivist is fundamentally distinctive types of knowledge.”
relativistic and it can only be (Tucker, 1998, p. 131)
understood from the
perspective of those who are
participants in the activities
that are being researched.

48. Different paradigms – different approach to research
OBJECTIVISM SUBJECTIVISM POST-MODERNISM
Approach to scientific Science (both natural and The study of “self-reflecting Postmodernism is in essence
research social) is driven by a certain humans” (Flyvbjerg, 2001, p. ‘anti-methodological’ (Alvesson
type of objective ‘scientific 32). and Sköldberg, 2000, p. 184).
method’. The belief in a socially Postmodernism favors the way
Ignores human values, needs, constructed, subjectively-based of looking at the world in which
motives, history, and cultural reality, one that is influenced “plurality of voices cry out for
context in (social) research. by culture and history. their version of reality” (Fields,
Only testable statements are Focus on meaning. 1995, p.). In doing research this
relevant. Knowledge cannot be severed approach would imply that
from the social context in which everyone has an equal voice
it originates. and, more importantly, all
voices are considered equally
valid.

49. Another view on science?
So in essence…..
Your philosophical position/assumptions dictate how you
view the world and how you can best attempt to
understand it through scientific research….
In scientific research: you are required to expose your
methodological assumptions (=philosophical beliefs).

50. So what now?....
Unlearn and learn again…. How to conduct research.
During the course of my study I conducted research
using different paradigmatic positions.
Started to explore the differences in outcomes.
Started to understand the differences…and
similarities….
Learn to view the world from different perspectives.
Paradigm incommensurability (Burrell & Morgan,
1979) bothered me a lot.

51. Paradigm incommensurability
Paradigms have different world view.
It is impossible to compare them.
Not desirable to combine paradigms while conducting
research.

52. Deetz (1996) provided the answer…

53. Deetz (1996) provided the answer…
According to Deetz (1996), new dimensions of
contrast between paradigms need to be defined that
correspond to the reasons for conflict between
paradigms in the 1990s.
Deetz suggests a new grid for classifying worldviews
for research without defining new paradigms.

54. Deetz (1996) provided the answer…
In Deetz’s view:
Paradigms or worldviews themselves are produced
and reproduced through discursive practices and can
shift partially in their meaning over time.
Paradigm assumptions and boundaries are somewhat
blurred or ill-defined, and individuals may implicitly or
explicitly “buy into or borrow” aspects from several
paradigms forming “hybrid” thinking.

55. The real voyage of discovery consists not in
seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.
- Marcel Proust

56. Designing a new approach to scientific study
My personal point of view:
Conduct research using different paradigms.
Discover what it means by experiencing it…..
Don’t compromise with one position…
Multiple perspectives provide new
understandings of the social world…
Hybrid-thinking is the key!!

57. Designing a new approach to scientific study
Over the years I developed my own method for
research….
Does not mean yours have to be the same…..
One thing is certain: I no longer believe in such thing
as an ‘objective’ scientific method.

58. Designing a new approach to scientific study
My approach is positioned in a hybrid research model consisting of elements of the
interpretive and the dialogic discourse of Deetz (1996).
I believe that research can be best approached by aiming to understand the social
world through firsthand experience of the social actors themselves, and through my
own immersion in the phenomena being explored. My methodological position
therefore considers meaning and knowledge as being emergent and recursiveness,
continuance and change are considered as fundamental attributes and
opportunities in my exploration, my ‘reality’ construction, and in my personal
learning.
In the research I use the reflexive dialogue in a multi-layered way, placing my focus
towards a consideration of a variety of analytical frames and perspectives.

59. ‘Research is a personal, political, and social process.’
- Reason & Marshall, 2001

60. Implications for my approach to research
 Emphasis on qualitative methods for data collection
 An open-ended, emergent design
 Grounded (inductive) generalizations/theory
 Sensemaking as primary focus
 Reflexivity
 Multivocality in reporting through multiperspective analysis
 Textual voices in reporting
 Contextuality

61. When Rafikki meets the now grown Simba, he
smacks Simba on the head with a stick. Simba, after
shaking it off says, “What’d you do that for”. Rafikki
replies, “Doesn’t matter - it was in the past!”. Rafikki
swings again. Simba ducks. Rafikki says, “...but you
learned.”
- From The Lion King, Walt Disney Pictures, 1994

62. Some after thoughts
Things I have learned and still experience in every day
professional life:
 Management and organizational thinking in Aruba are
profoundly dominated by the rationalistic (normative)
paradigm.
 Other paradigms are still heavily questioned by different
schools of science.
 Context plays a pivotal role in interpreting the research
findings.
 Reality is layered and multiple…. Accept that.
 There are facts and things, but also visions and thoughts.

63. Some after thoughts
You can look at reality in many ways. And if you do it
in a way that is somewhat unusual for you, you see
new things.
And all the lines of approach together often turn up
a complex picture, but also generate a better
understanding of the social world….

64. “To the man who only has a hammer, everything
he encounters begins to look like a nail.”
- Abraham H. Maslow

66. Edward M. Erasmus, MA
e.erasmus@fzanv.com
erasmus.bpas@gmail.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/edwardmerasmus
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/em_erasmus
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/edwardmerasmus

67. QUESTIONS???