Pedro
Thank you. I think your point is excellent and one worthy of further study
and elucidation. Epistemic transference -- such a lovely concept to
describe how different disciplines interact.
You are also pointing out that the appropriate paradigms and analyses are
dependent upon the audience and the goals, a point far too often ignored.
There is also a related issue: the difference between science and practice
(or theory and application).
When work is intended to be used to increase our deep understanding of a
field (science or research), careful attention must be paid to methods, to
precision, and to accuracy. Scientists are after "truth" -- in quotation
marks because science is always refining what it believes to be true. Much
of the work by academic anthropologists falls into this camp, which also
means it is often unintelligible to those outside of whichever branch of
anthropology it fits. The different areas of anthropology -- and almost all
disciplines -- disagree with one another leading to lovely fights at
conferences, in journals, and in department meetings. You might label this
as a failure of epistemic transference
When work is intended to be applied, we need much less care. We need
approximate models (or guidelines) that are easy to apply and that give
results that are "good enough."
This is simply another domain and description of Epistemic transference .
Thanks for your contribution.
Don
On Wed, Jan 29, 2014 at 6:25 PM, Pedro Oliveira
<[log in to unmask]>wrote:
> Listening to this exchange I wonder whether a
> parallel of "epistemic transference" would equally apply to matters of
> design and its different models. Hence, facing a particular problem, the
> question
> would be why a given set of ideas in design (e.g. DT in one case OR
> Systems Thinking on another case) would
> emerge as the most appropriate set of ideas for THAT particular problem.
>
Don Norman
Nielsen Norman Group, IDEO Fellow
[log in to unmask] www.jnd.org http://www.core77.com/blog/columns/
Book: "Design of Everyday Things: Revised and Expanded<http://amzn.to/ZOMyys>"
(DOET2).
Course: Udacity On-Line course based on
DOET2<https://www.udacity.com/course/design101>
(free).
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