My experience is that as realist approaches make their way into the mainstream they are increasingly being called upon as components of wider research projects. This means working with a range of people who have more or less (probably less) of an understanding of realism and putting it into practice. It also often means that assumptions about the world are merrily skirted over in the hubbub of getting a project up-and-running, only to awkwardly pop up later on.
So - What questions would you ask at the start of a project to throw light on people’s assumptions about how the world ‘works’ and what it means for how we research it? (this is my effort at asking a question about ontology, which I’m taking here to mean ‘how the world must be in order for knowledge to exist’)
I’m not searching for a comprehensive list of questions, but perhaps a distillation of 2-3 key questions to start the conversation?
Mark
Mark Pearson PhD
Senior Research Fellow
Peninsula Technology Assessment Group (PenTAG)
University of Exeter Medical School
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http://medicine.exeter.ac.uk/about/profiles/index.php?web_id=Mark_Pearson
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