Metatheory and Knowledge Organization

Metatheory is meta-analytic work that comes from sociology and its purpose is the analysis of theory. Metatheory is a common form of scholarship in knowledge organization (KO). This paper presents an analysis of five papers that are metatheoretical investigations in KO. The papers were published between 2008 and 2015 in the journal Knowledge Organization. The preliminary findings from this paper are that though the authors do metatheoretical work it is not made explicit by the majority of the authors. Of the four types of metatheoretical work, metatheorizing in order to better understand theory (Mu) is most popular. Further, the external/intellectual approach, which imports analytical lenses from other fields, was applied in four of the five papers. And, the use of metatheory as a method of analysis is closely related to these authors’ concern about epistemological, theoretical and methodological issues in the KO domain. Metatheory, while not always explicitly acknowledged as a method, is a valuable tool to better understand the foundations, the development of research, and the influence from other domains on KO

Toward Auto-netnography in Consumer Studies

The purpose of this paper is to offer an argument for a wider acceptance and adoption of online auto-ethnography - or auto-netnography as an alternative social media research method to online ethnography - or netnography - when undertaking consumer research. As an online research method, netnographies have attracted increasing attention from researchers in various inter-disciplinary studies during recent years but the method is still not considered mainstream. Whilst the proliferation of online communities using various social media platforms is increasingly supporting consumers when making product/service choices, the adoption of netnographies appears to leave room for an extension towards the consideration by consumer researchers of how auto-netnography could highlight these researchers' own personal experiences in online communities. Auto-netnography allows the researcher to capture their own online experiences as a consumer would through social observation, reflexive note taking, and other forms of data. Contemporary technology can also provide a more innovative approach with artificial intelligence offering an alternative dimension. We contend there is a need for consumer researchers - both academic and practitioner - to further reflect on and discuss the deployment of auto-netnography in order to contribute to further exploration of online communities through the qualitative lens

Visionary Realism And The Emergence Of A Eudaimonistic Society: Metatheory In A Time Of Metacrisis

This thesis aims to support the conditions for the emergence of a eudaimonistic, freeflourishing planetary society by helping ignite the potentials of metatheory as a transformational cultural force vis-à-vis our complex twenty-first century challenges. I argue that metatheory in its appropriate form provides indispensable intellectual scaffolding for the crucial psycho-spiritual, cultural, and social transformations demanded by these interconnected global challenges, or what I call the metacrisis. I advance these aims, first, by reflection on the nature, role, and function of metatheory in geo-historical context, articulating a vision for the revindication of metatheory as integrative metatheory 2.0; and, second, the development of the contours of a particular metatheory through an exploratory-dialogical encounter between what are arguably amongst the most comprehensive and sophisticated integrative metatheories arising in the wake of postmodernism: namely, critical realism, founded by Roy Bhaskar (1944–2014), and integral theory, founded by Ken Wilber (1949–). Thus, in this thesis, I deploy the methodology of hermeneutical dialectics and the method of immanent critique to forge a non-preservative synthesis of aspects of these two metatheories into a new metatheory—a visionary realism—that might help us to better understand and wisely respond to the metacrisis. I then apply this visionary realist framework to sketch the contours of the metacrisis at large, analyzing and synthesizing the philosophical, cultural, and psychological aspects of the metacrisis to identify key principles and holistic solution patterns that may inform deliberate social transformation

Exploring Ibn Khaldun’s thoughts on the ethical issues from social networking sites

Social Networking Sites (SNS) is a popular platform for sharing and communicating with people all around the world. Its popularity brings in various communication contents discussed by the public. However, SNS is an open communicative channel which has no specific rules for its users to follow. This result in its misappropriation by some people to share their unethical values or destructive ideas with others. This paper is in the view that computer ethics must follow Islamic ethics. Thus the aim of this paper is to identify the ethical issues in SNS with reference to Ibn Khaldun’s thoughts through his masterpiece The Muqaddimah. It has undertaken a qualitative methodology approach through a textual analysis method. The study has focused on acquiring expert verification throughout a proposed list of Ibn Khaldun’s thoughts. The findings show ten (10) Ibn Khaldun’s thoughts which have been justified as a reference to ethical issues in SNS nowadays. In conclusion, Ibn Khaldun’s thoughts may have contributed to ethical issues in SNS. These findings may guide other researchers to further deliberate the contributions of Ibn Khaldun in the disciplines of human social networking and information computer technology

A decade of metasynthesis research in health sciences : A meta-method study

The overall aim of this study was to analyze the methods applied in previous metasynthesis research and to inform future researchers of epistemological and methodological issues based on this analysis. Meta-method analysis was applied to a decade of 45 published metasynthesis studies that pertain to nursing and allied health studies. The findings show that the metasynthesis research can be classified into three areas: (1) health, illness and suffering, (2) care and support, and (3) parenting, newborn and childcare. Meta ethnography dominates the research area. Metastudy, metasummary, qualitative metasynthesis, and grounded formal theory are emerging methods. The metasynthesis studies suffer from modifications without explications, use of secondary method references, missing sample and search data and differences in the type of findings and the meta-concepts depicting the findings. The worth of metasynthesis research is questioned when the core ideas of qualitative meta studies, theoretical and/or methodological development (‘‘synthesis’’) combined with the potential of going beyond and behind the studies (‘‘meta’’), is missing. Metasynthesis research requires knowledge in both the substance and the various qualitative methods, and systematic attendance to the method accompanied by the openness and the creativity of a qualitative approach. Conclusions and recommendations are presented as epistemological reflections and a guide for future metasynthesis research in health sciences