The Sage Handbook of Social Constructionist Practice. Группа авторов
foundationalism. In many respects, constructionist ideas proposed a dramatic liberation from methodological dogma. The strangulating grip of what had become a ‘methodolatry’ was released. Given this liberation, what may now be said about the nature of research practice? To what have the constructionist dialogues given birth? The contributions to the present section begin to answer this question.
To appreciate the issues at stake, it will be useful first to briefly scan the historical background for the present undertakings. We may then consider some general outcomes, along with more specific implications for constructionist researchers themselves. Finally, we turn to the particular features of the contributions to this section.
Beyond the Positivist Paradigm
As outlined in the opening chapter of this volume, the constructionist dialogues have undermined the positivist conception of scientific knowledge on which this view of research practice is based. For constructionists, scientific descriptions are not mirrors or maps of the world as it is. Rather, the act of research has its roots in a social process in which ontological assumptions, logics, and values are negotiated. Research places these assumptions into practice. Thus, differing groups of scientists may develop different paradigms of understanding and practice that guide their research and what may plausibly be said about the world. Groups of scientists working within different paradigms may pursue different ends, with different values, different research practices, facing different worlds of understanding.
Positivist researchers in the social sciences often criticize all research that is not positivist for its failing to follow their notion of what the standards of proper science are. ‘Not everything goes’, as it is said. To be sure, not everything can go within the limits of a given paradigm. However, we must not forget the paradigmatic limits of the positivist construction of science itself. For constructionists, when we expand our orientations to research, we also enrich the potentials for action in the world.
Practices of Research: Creativity and Convergence
Constructionist ideas of scientific research have moved across the sciences, releasing a vast source of creative energy. Excitement abounds, as the boundaries of what is possible continue to expand. New conceptions of research are invited, open to a wide spectrum of aims and values. The margins between the disciplines are blurred. Most important for present purposes, there is no principled end to what may be fashioned as a practice of research. Perhaps the most visible result of this dawning of consciousness is represented in the appearance of new journals and handbooks of research methods and practices. In the case of journals, we wish to mention the Berlin-based FQS – Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research, as well as Qualitative Psychology, Qualitative Inquiry, International Journal of Qualitative Inquiry, The Qualitative Report, Qualitative Research in Psychology, and the International Journal of Social Research Methodology, among others. As for handbooks, many have been recently published, including the Handbook of Arts-Based Research, Handbook of Feminist Research, Handbook of Discourse Analysis, The Routledge Handbook of Critical Discourse Studies, The Sage Handbook of Social Research Methods, and the Handbook of Constructionist Research. However, the signal accomplishment is no doubt the Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research (Denzin and Lincoln, 1994, 2000, 2005, 2011) and now in its fifth edition (2018).
Turning to the present Handbook, the contributors to this section have been especially engaged in constructionist dialogues. However, they are but a small sampling of a vast number of such researchers. They represent innovations in six different countries: Brazil, England, Norway, Mexico, Canada, and the United States. And, while each chapter was written in isolation from the others, one can begin to realize the emergence of certain commonalities. The fourteen authors who developed these practices diverge in the way they describe, illustrate and write up their research topics, but their specific background in social constructionist theory seems to favor a certain range of ideals in research practice.
The most powerful shift from a positivist to a constructionist perspective is represented in the way these researchers challenge the trope that research must be unbiased, value neutral, and independent of the interests of the researcher. Also of significance, these researchers often place the interests and outcomes of the research participants in a place of importance for doing the research. The rationale for doing research thus shifts away from a hypotheses-testing model that builds toward establishing a general theory to one that is more specifically related to the special circumstances and motives of the research participants. Accumulating empirical facts, substantiated by statistical analysis, is replaced with a concern for the interests of the participants and others who may be affected by the research. Issues of social justice, social change, power dynamics, and well-being are pervasive. As advocated by Bodiford and Camargo-Borgas (2014), research from a social constructionist position should be relationally sensitive, useful and generative, organic and dynamic, and engaging in complexity and multiplicity.
In much the same vein, the researchers often see the relationship of the researcher to the participants as one of collaboration. Participants are often regarded as co-researchers. Research is done with, not about, or on others. The emphasis on ‘withness’, as John Shotter (2010) called it, sets this orientation to constructionist research practices apart from usual empirical research. Helen Kara's (2015) book, Creative Research Methods in the Social Sciences: A Practical Guide provides further examples of similarly oriented research. To summarize the significant characteristics of research practice favored by social constructionist researchers in this Handbook:
1 The research practice is value-invested. Researchers are not only conscious of the values implied or favored by a given practice of inquiry but engage in research for the very purpose of fulfilling a vision of a better world. This means, for example, that they are conscious of how a research practice constructs the research participants, themselves, and the world. As well, they may be sensitive to indigenous viewpoints, which may diverge from their own, differential power relations among diverse groups, and ethical concerns that are absent from those accepted in Western scientific communities (Romm, 2018). In all cases, the hope is that the research practice will contribute to enhanced ways of relating among various groups.
2 The research is dedicated to social change. Consistent with the last point, the research practices are designed to affect change. The point of research is not to collect, archive, add to or challenge existing theoretical views so much as to improve on existing social conditions. Constructionist informed research may be useful in formulating new modes of relating among social groups. In this sense, the practice is ‘future-forming’ (Gergen, 2015). Through the research itself, new potentials for future practices are demonstrated.
3 The practice is collaborative. Coherent with the two preceding features, researchers frequently develop practices in which relevant members of society collaborate. The major drivers of a research project may be participants who desire some major change in their life circumstances or the culture at large. Participatory action research is a classic example, but the more general attempt is to work with others who are relevant to the research topic, as opposed to observing and reporting on them.
4 The orientation is pragmatic. The contributors do not select a fixed or given method to guide their research. Rather, their primary concern is with achieving a value-based end, and the particular research practice is chosen or created as a means to this end. Existing practices may be combined in various fashions, or entirely new practices may be created. Most fascinating here are movements toward performative or arts-based inquiry, in which researchers may draw from theatrical, literary, artistic, and musical traditions to enrich research practices, from conception to presentation. Consistent with the previous points, if research is dedicated to social change, it is important that its significance is communicated with sophistication and power to the public at large (Leavy, 2019).
As is clear, the emergence of such an orientation to research radically expands the scope and relevance of social science research, with important implications for practices of education, medicine, organization development, governance, and law among them.
The Present Contributions