ERIC Number: EJ1189007
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2018
Pages: 14
Abstractor: As Provided
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ISSN: ISSN-1364-5579
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Mixed Methods, Materialism and the Micropolitics of the Research-Assemblage
Fox, Nick J.; Alldred, Pam
International Journal of Social Research Methodology, v21 n2 p191-204 2018
We assess the potential for mixing social research methods, based upon a materialist and micropolitical analysis of the research-assemblage and of what individual research techniques and methods do in practice. Applying a DeleuzoGuattarian toolkit of assemblages, affects and capacities, we document what happens when research methods and techniques interact with the events they wish to study. Micropolitically, many of these techniques and methods have unintended effects of specifying and aggregating events, with the consequently that the knowledge produced by social inquiry is invested with these specifications and aggregations. We argue that rather than abandoning these social research tools, we may use the micropolitical analysis to assess precisely how each method affects knowledge production, and engineer the research designs we use accordingly. This forms the justification for mixing methods that are highly aggregative or specifying with those that are less so, effectively rehabilitating methods that have often been rejected by social researchers, including surveys and experiments.
Descriptors: Mixed Methods Research, Social Science Research, Epistemology, Theory Practice Relationship, Research Design, Realism, Qualitative Research
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
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Language: English
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