Hi Ralph,
Thanks for your reply. I’m happy to know that I’m on the right track with constructionism/constructivism - these two terms seem to be interchangeable, as you and I are using them to describe the same theoretical perspective. I’ve noted that established writers of research such as Crotty and Creswell use these terms differently too, to mean the same perspective. It’s not a major issue, but seems to get more apparent when it moves into a distinction with ‘social constructionism’. As you have pointed out social constructionism would suit my co-creation methodology better, so thanks for those insights and for your contextual views of pragmatism and phenomenology. You’ve touched on a lot of terms that I’m reading and writing about.
The main reasons I’m grappling with committing to an epistemology is mainly when discussions about ontology are brought into the discussion. Again these terms seem to be used synonymously with each other, however from an ontological perspective my own personal raison d’etre would be one of Objectivism, simply because a tree is a tree in it’s own right independent of people’s perceptions of it… I can see the strengths of this ontological view when it comes to our planet and how people have wrecked it. I think I need to just stop over thinking this and let the argument for my thesis stop at an epistemological level - as the main concern of doing a thesis is to position myself within a particular knowledge paradigm. It’s difficult to not think deeper, as there are so many complex health and environmental problems to be addressed. Stephanie Di Russo, brings up some interesting insights on why design needs a new knowledge paradigm: Why design needs a critical reality check – I think ∴ I design
Thanks for the link to your old professors. I’ve read some work from Caroline Hummel, her paper on resonant interaction was really interesting. Where I’m based in IT Carlow in Ireland, my lecturers look to Dutch research, so it’s very coincidental that you’ve responded to me! My research is based on a group of nurses and is to do with how they access information within in the fragmented structure of the health services here in Ireland. It’s a long road, but very interesting none the less.
Nice to read the W.B. Yeats poem in memory of your old professor Kees Overbeeke.
What’s your research about these days?
Thanks for taking the time to respond. Sandra.