Discussing the Importance of Ontology and Epistemology Awareness in Practitioner Research.

This paper uses the focus of identity and acculturation within schools as the basis for a reflection on the ways in which researchers ground their investigations. It identifies the necessity for researchers to ensure that their own ontological perceptions, epistemological stances and methods for data gathering and interpretation are closely aligned. By investigating the ways in which a diversity of methodological approaches are used to address the issue of identity formation, as reflected in three school-based studies (Houlette et al, 2004; illbourn, 2006; Nasir et al, 2009), the paper facilitates a teasing out of ontological and epistemological issues. The practical implications are that, through a deeper awareness of the ontological substructures informing their studies, researchers will be more clearly positioned to iteratively reflect upon, and define how best to engage with, their research projects

The Hidden Side of Transparency among Government Agency Bloggers

This paper shows and discusses blogs as social action in a corporate context by investigating and seeking to understand organizational bloggers’ motivations and discursive behaviors in the contextual and cultural diversity of a\ud blog-setting. Providing empirical findings on the possibilities and limitations that are embedded in an organizational blog in a government agency context, traced\ud through focus group interviews of the organizational bloggers, the paper shows that culturally bound limitations exist and are exposed when implementing an open-source social technology like the weblog. People, even within the same organization, have different goals in relation to the same technology, and the transparency of the blog and the blog comments is managed differently by the internal bloggers. Through the discussion of the different cultural discourses at work in the blog, diverging roles and dilemmas that the blogging employees meet when engaging in corporate blogging are exposed and discussed. The aim of the paper is to discuss the social implications of these different cultural discourses in a corporate blog and how corporate cultural tensions emerge because of the blog. The paper pinpoints the problematic of transparency through pointing out conflicting goals, roles and the resulting self-censorship by bloggers as they operate in an environment that is increasingly transparent, and shows examples of\ud how the group of bloggers with the shared narrative tradition is able to mobilize its members and create subgroups for appropriate blog behaviors and changing\ud behavior due to self-censorship, as well as identification with the key actors in the group

Value creation and change in social structures: the role of entrepreneurial innovation from an emergence perspective

Aim: Our aim is to develop a more complete understanding of how processes that entrepreneurs perform interact with wider society and the causal effects of society on entrepreneurial behaviour and vice versa. We aim to show how entrepreneurial agency is put into effect in relation to the disruption of social structure and social change. This has implications for innovation and entrepreneurship policy and practice, and for entrepreneurship theory. We also investigate the role of ‘value’ in these processes. Contribution to the literature Our central argument is that emergent forms (or ‘emergents’) may be short lived (ephemeral) but have causal power on the performance of the actors in the system of inter-relationships in the innovation ecosystem. The emphasis on inter-related social processes and ontological stratification provides theoretical development of extant entrepreneurship theory on new venture creation (by explaining process), effectuation (by linking individualism and holism) and opportunity recognition (by deconstructing opportunity into anticipation, ontology and process). Methodology The paper takes an 'emergence' perspective as a way to understand entrepreneurial processes that give rise to innovation. The anticipation of value and the inter-relationship with social and organisational structures are fundamental to this perspective. A longitudinal analysis of a case study of the development of a new business model within an entrepreneurial firm is described. The case is followed through seven phases in which the relationship between process and emergent ontological status is shown to have destabilising and stabilising effects which produce emergent properties. Results and Implications One methodological contribution is framing how to conceptualise the empirical evidence. Emergents have causal effects on the anticipations of value inherent in their particular system of innovation. This causality is manifest as the attraction of resource in the firm; the stabilisation of the emergent constitutes strategy in the enterprise. A key role of the entrepreneurs in our case study was the creation and maintenance of evolving ontological materiality, as meaningful to themselves and to those with whom they interacted. In simple terms, they made things meaningful to people who mattered

Other lives in accounting: critical reflections on oral history methodology in action

The aim of this paper is to provide a critical and reflexive evaluation of the use of an oral history methodology in a research project investigating the lived experiences of women accountants. It discusses the nature and benefits of oral history as a research methodology, which allows the subjectivities of individuals to be central to the empirical data. It allows the voices of those who have arguably been ignored, marginalised or silenced within particular contexts to be heard. The paper draws on feminist approaches to research methodology, which stress reciprocity and the minimisation of hierarchies within research. It evaluates some of the ethical issues arising, such as the ownership of research, the use of friends and strangers as research participants, and emotion, within the research relationship. The paper concludes that, when approached critically and reflexively, oral history provides a sound epistemological and methodological base for understanding the meaning of events and experience to individuals

Augmenting the field experience: a student-led comparison of techniques and technologies

In this study we report on our experiences of creating and running a student fieldtrip exercise which allowed students to compare a range of approaches to the design of technologies for augmenting landscape scenes. The main study site is around Keswick in the English Lake District, Cumbria, UK, an attractive upland environment popular with tourists and walkers. The aim of the exercise for the students was to assess the effectiveness of various forms of geographic information in augmenting real landscape scenes, as mediated through a range of techniques and technologies. These techniques were: computer-generated acetate overlays showing annotated wireframe views from certain key points; a custom-designed application running on a PDA; a mediascape running on the mScape software on a GPS-enabled mobile phone; Google Earth on a tablet PC; and a head-mounted in-field Virtual Reality system. Each group of students had all five techniques available to them, and were tasked with comparing them in the context of creating a visitor guide to the area centred on the field centre. Here we summarise their findings and reflect upon some of the broader research questions emerging from the project

The organization of organizational discourse

Discourse, as Fairclough, Graham, Lemke, and Wodak (2004) noted in the introduction to their new journal, Critical Discourse Studies, is now well established as a category in social sciences. And yet, as they also note, we find significant differences as to what discourse and discourse analysis refer. These differences are, they argue, because of different theoretical, academic, and cultural traditions and how these traditions "push discourse in different directions" (2004:4). In this review essay I sketch out the key direction that discourse has been pushed or pulled in organization studies. To set the scene, I review two books that seek to advance our understanding of discourse and language analysis in organization studies. Each has its strengths, but both are relatively disengaged from the journal literature in the same field. In response to this weakness, I present a brief, citation-based examination of discourse analysis in the management and organization studies field. This analysis brings to light eight different streams of work that are underway

The public library, exclusion and empathy: a literature review

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a review of the literature within the fields of public librarianship, social exclusion and empathy. Design/methodology/approach – The cross-disciplinary review involved the consultation of material from disciplines including library and information management, politics, social policy and social sciences, cultural studies, psychology, management and organizational theory. It was structured according to the following themes: exclusion, inclusion and social policy, social inclusion in public services and the cultural sector, the role of public libraries in social inclusion and professional empathy and the public library service. Findings –The concept of social inclusion remains at the core of public library policy and strategy, and is embedded in contemporary social theory. Conflicting views have emerged as to the perceived and actual role of the public library in combating social exclusion, with a need expressed for research to be conducted that bridges the gap between the “philosophical” interpretations of community librarianship and the more practical, “real world” studies, in order to fully understand the concept of community librarianship. A critical link is made between social inclusion and public librarianship to professional empathy. Research limitations/implications – The paper provides an edited version of the overall literature review, yet it is felt that it would be of theoretical and practical relevance and value to the professional and academic communities. Originality/value – Empathy is a relatively new concept in librarianship research, and prior to the study of which this review forms a part only limited findings have been available

Nature-based supportive care opportunities: A conceptual framework

Objective: Given preliminary evidence for positive health outcomes related to contact with nature for cancer populations, research is warranted to ascertain possible strategies for incorporating nature-based care opportunities into oncology contexts as additional strategies for addressing multidimensional aspects of cancer patients’ health and recovery needs. The objective of this study was to consolidate existing research related to nature-based supportive care opportunities and generate a conceptual framework for discerning relevant applications in the supportive care setting. Methods: Drawing on research investigating nature-based engagement in oncology contexts, a two-step analytic process was used to construct a conceptual framework for guiding nature-based supportive care design and future research. Concept analysis methodology generated new representations of understanding by extracting and synthesising salient concepts. Newly formulated concepts were transposed to findings from related research about patient-reported and healthcare expert-developed recommendations for nature-based supportive care in oncology. Results: Five theoretical concepts (themes) were formulated describing patients’ reasons for engaging with nature and the underlying needs these interactions address. These included: connecting with what is genuinely valued, distancing from the cancer experience, meaning-making and reframing the cancer experience, finding comfort and safety, and vital nurturance. Eight shared patient and expert recommendations were compiled, which address the identified needs through nature-based initiatives. Eleven additional patient-reported recommendations attend to beneficial and adverse experiential qualities of patients’ nature-based engagement and complete the framework. Conclusions: The framework outlines salient findings about helpful nature-based supportive care opportunities for ready access by healthcare practitioners, designers, researchers and patients themselves