Dear Colleagues,
I invite your kind attention to the outline of a possible new journal that
might be of interest to you. Kindly review the outline and give me your
suggestions. Please also tell me if you would be prepared to play a
leadership role for establishing this journal among the relevant
communities of scholars and research-oriented professionals.
The ouline below mentions some scholars by name, whom I know personally. I
have done so in good faith, to provide a recognisable context to the ideas
expressed. I do not imply that they are already backing this initiative,
although I hope they would!
I. OUTLINE OF A NEW JOURNAL
a. Applied Disciplines: A Festival of Perspectives
I am volunteering to do the necessary groundwork to define and develop a
new journal, that would address itself to the requirement of new research
thinking for applied disciplines, such as disciplines oriented towards
change, (re)design, development, transformation, etc., in several
practical domains, such as education, commerce, governance,
rehabilitation, communication, regional co-operation, etc. In these
domains, achieving improvements at a general level poses some difficult
challenges, not only because one needs to have a clear perspective about
what constitutes a general improvement (thus defining methods, quality
criteria, testing procedures, etc.), but more because of the multiplicity
of such perspectives becoming increasingly common. Thanks to a greater
level of interaction among the world's communities today, new values are
confronting each other in unsuspected places, in what Dr. A. Giri might
call a 'festival of perspectives'.
Applied disciplines, especially those that have received persistent
attention of researchers, have become typically polyphonic -- leading to a
plurality of standpoints on what type of support research can yield in
those disciplines. Integrating efforts, like that of Prof. M. C. Jackson
in the area of management systems, have typically emphasised the need for
various kinds of pluralism in thought and approach and, more importantly,
the need for 'reflective conversations' across the boundaries that
nevertheless get drawn.
b. Value, Research, and Extended Perspectives
Research institutions around the world have to deal with the tension
between the value-free notion of research (echoing the 'wertfrei' thesis
of Max Weber) and the value-full contexts of research within their very
institutions. Following a value-free notion, a researcher would work
primarily with observations in order to identify frameworks that would
help classify those observations according to their levels of sameness,
such that the classification becomes its own guarantee. Of course hardly
any of these researchers would deny that humans or institutions adopt
values in their actions or decisions. They would generally argue for
delimiting the domain of research: research cannot suggest a superior
value; therefore, it has to keep values outside of its domain.
In practice, of course, this has led to the use of research results in
accomplishing widely acclaimed outcomes (such as in, say, medicine or
tele-communication) as well as disasters of varying proportions (such as
loss of indigenous knowledge, environmental degradation, and genocide).
Given the institutional context of research today, there is a much higher
level of accountability associated with research and researchers than was
the case in the past (thanks to the rise of sponsored projects). Given the
contemporary sensibilities, if a research process (or product) leads to
negative externalities for any group of stakeholders, scarcely can the
researchers hide behind the doctrine of value-freedom any more.
In fact, a different kind of value-freedom is becoming necessary -- not
'freedom from values' but 'freedom of values'. The new challenge before
research in applied disciplines seems to be the following: Can research
facilitate multiple values and perspectives to be pursued, even new values
to be nurtured, while, say, improving actions, redesigning systems, and
extending networks? If this can be accomplished, it may still be a type of
value-freedom, but in an 'extended' sense, as Dr. H. Ponce might put it.
The contemporary world seems to demand a greater acceptance of diversity
-- in all avenues of culture. It poses a challenge to the forms of social
learning we have come to associate with research. Like Prof. S. Saberwal
has pointed out, any enterprise of social learning must evolve in response
to the forces of history. Therefore, extending perspectives on research is
also a need of our times.
c. Concepts and Exemplars of Extended Perspectives
To speak of extended perspectives in research, one needs to develop a
suitable vocabulary through which conversations across specialisms become
possible. This can potentially render learnings in one area intelligible
in another (quite like what the vocabulary of 'general systems' was meant
to do).
However, a vocabulary is only a means; it will not fully determine what
will get communicated! My own experience suggests that a vocabulary alone
is no guarantee for a successful 'multi-expert conversation' (my term),
which is necessary to extend research frontiers in applied disciplines.
There is also a need to speak of exemplary practices that amount to
extending perspectives in the real world as well as in research. In
research, exemplars are to be found in the works of scholars who have
chosen to work in the fringe areas that belong to no discipline in
particular, working often at a great risk to personal reputation,
assiduously building what Dr. D. Gasper has referred to as 'bridging
capital' between research communities (as opposed to 'bonding capital'
within research communities). An example would be Prof. G. de Zeeuw's
attempt to define a practice of research-based support to the less
powerful, that started as a new 'science of human action' ('andragology',
in Dutch) and continues to develop as 'third-phase science' today.
d. Naming the Journal
The journal would provide a forum for public intellectuals,
research-oriented practitioners (or 'reflective practitioners' -- name of
Donald Schön's book) and their counter-part, practice-oriented
researcherers, to discuss the emerging challenges in their respective
strivings. As such, the journal should focus on the crossroads of
practical inquiry where the ways of knowledge and the ways of action no
longer seem to illuminate each other. The approach would be to encourage
multi-perspectival conversations that push the frontiers of applied
research. Located outside the orthodox centres of learning, the journal
can afford to be unconventional and bold.
Suggested names: 1. Applied Research Frontiers, 2. Research Practice and
Perspectives, 3. Creative Research Practice, 4. Creative Researchers'
Forum, 5. Contemporary Research Systems, etc.
II. FORMING AN EDITORIAL BOARD
I have sent this letter to you expecting that you might play a role in
developing and guiding this journal. Please feel free to mark this mail to
anyone who you think might play a similar role. The Board should be as
international and as multi-disciplinary as possible.
III. PUBLISHERS
I have not yet started talking to any publisher. I will do so after
getting sufficient number of volunteers to support and guide this journal.
If you can help in locating a publisher who might be interested, please
advise me suitably.
With regards,
DP
-- Dr. D. P. Dash Associate Professor, General Management Xavier Institute of Management, Xavier Square Bhubaneswar 751013, INDIAInstitute's Homepage: http://www.ximb.ac.in A recent ranking of Indian management schools: http://www.businessworldindia.com/sep2203/coverstory_top_01.asp My Homepage: http://home.ximb.ac.in/~dpdash
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