The research process is not a smooth process that moves from one stage to another, or a sequential process growing from the roots of ontology and epistemology towards the data collection and analytical techniques and interpretations. The existentialist position of the interpretive / reformist paradigm is that reality is subjective and multiple, that it does not exist independently in the human mind. Their epistemological stance is that the available knowledge depends on the researcher's thoughts and desires. That is, “knowledge” is created by the seeker and deploying a specific methodology which is not necessarily a sequential set of “stages”, a “step-by-step” course or a “layer-by-layer” peeling activity like peeling-off an onion.
It is more practical to follow a continuous interaction progression by reconsidering, revising, and revisiting activities to achieve more presentable cogent arguments. Therefore, a dynamic research process is presented as a integrated-flexible vigorous set of activities as a Ven diagram by adding the activity of publishing as a critical element of the research process.
TopIntroduction
Social Research is defined as a systematic in-depth study about social issues and the way we understand the world. It is, in fact,
“…a never-ending journey of discovery, because the ‘knowledge’ that is presented today as ‘new’ can be nullified by another ‘new’ discovery tomorrow. Such negatives occur frequently and inevitably, reminding us of the impermanent nature of the world” (Saliya, 2022, p. 7).
Common knowledge is generated from critical discourses among scholars holding different world views. However, the falsification principle proposed by Karl Popper (1959 in McLeod, 2020) argues that the possibility of falsifying a scientific theory is an essential feature for knowledge to be scientific. Meanwhile, more modern scholars such as Mano Sinham (2020) reject this falsification requirement as a myth and suggest abandoning it.
Every type of research, either of natural sciences (biology, chemistry, mathematics, etc.) or social sciences (economics, political science, accounting, history, and aesthetics etc.), it is scientific because they follow a systematic process; methodological.
Academic research is basically of two types; quantitative and qualitative and, recently a third type (mixed method) came by combining these two to add more rigor. Traditionally, only quantitative research using numbers were considered as scientific but today qualitative inquiry, which goes beyond dealing with numbers, too is also considered as valid, dependable, credible, and therefore scientific. The 'knowledge' discovered through academic research should be published in indexed journals/conferences or as book chapters in edited books published by reputed publishers. Otherwise, such discoveries would be wasted; “publish or perish”, they say.
TopSocial Research And Quantum Mechanics
Contradicting positivist scientism, the analogy between evolution and quantum mechanics and sociology has demonstrated that quantum mechanics has an individual and a social consciousness for material objects (Nakmanson, 2003). Positivism, which is based on empiricism is challenged by post-positivist paradigms such as interpretivism, constructivism, pragmatism and critical thought. Empiricism is based on sensory experiences, through five senses, but certain things such as gravitation or any other attraction, which is felt towards the earth, cannot be smelled, tasted, touched, heard or seen with our five sensatory organs. There are certain things that cannot be cognized or apprehended through five senses. Therefore, the positivist-objectivist concept about single “truth” and existence of “reality” independent of the observer is convincingly disputed by post-positivists based on a subjectivist nature of multiple “truths” and relative “realities” and, sometimes even reject their existence.
This perspective coincides well with Einstein's theory of relativity and quantum mechanics which argue that certain observations are mental constructs and could vary when they are observed (see double slit experiment; Nakmanson, 2003). They argue that observations can control the behavior of material objects and, acknowledged that space and time are inextricably connected and, also reject the existence of gravity, hence reality too.
It is surprising to watch the wave–particle duality of light and the way observations can control the behavior of material objects, see the you tube video in Box 1.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVpXrbZ4bnU