[Interpretationandmethods] Interpretationandmethods Digest, Vol 43, Issue 1
Judy Brown
Judy.Brown at vuw.ac.nz
Mon Jul 7 18:11:24 EDT 2008
Many thanks Patrick - this is really helpful. It is indeed the ethnographic/relational aspects that are of interest - and I agree on reflection that "impact" is a (and my) bad choice of word implying a neopositivist approach. I will print all this exchange out - as the basis for some discussion when I meet the student concerned later this week. Your response strikes bang on part of the issue faced when positivist colleagues assume interpretivist work is really looking for "causal variables" (e.g. contingency theory). "Relational/interpretive horizon" rather than "impact" talk is a far more helpful way of conceptualising what is involved.
But, of course, it may also be me presupposing too much that it is really the enthnographic/relational aspects that are primary in this study because that it is the approach that I would want to take... so this reinforces for me the need to "sense-check" my understanding with the student. It is, after all, her thesis not mine!! So many thanks again...
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Today's Topics:
1. Re: Interpretationandmethods Digest, Vol 43, Issue 1 (Judy Brown)
2. Re: Interpretationandmethods Digest, Vol 43, Issue 1
(Patrick Thaddeus Jackson)
3. What is The Right Way to do Interpretive Social Science?
(wjkellpro at aol.com)
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Message: 1
Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2008 10:11:08 +1200
From: "Judy Brown" <Judy.Brown at vuw.ac.nz>
Subject: Re: [Interpretationandmethods] Interpretationandmethods
Digest, Vol 43, Issue 1
To: <interpretationandmethods at malagigi.cddc.vt.edu>
Message-ID:
<7A8436AD0EB8F4428BEC320CC109A242022E5AB3 at STAWINCOMAILCL1.staff.vuw.ac.nz>
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Hi Patrick, Dvora and Jack
Many thanks to the three of you for your prompt and generous responses. I realise now that I should have provided a bit more background information, so here goes to clarify:
1. I currently teach a course in Accounting Research Methodology: Interpretive and Critical Theory aimed at just the sorts of issues Patrick raises. Our Honours students take this course and another course focussing on positivist research, for the purposes of exploring different research possibilities and (for students going onto Masters/PhDs) to help them identify research that feels "right" to them. We now have a (growing) group of students pursuing interpretivist/critical theory work.
2. Patrick and Dvora - yes, I totally agree that the overall structure of a PhD proposal is similar for all types of research. It is in the latter area that Dvora identifies that I would really welcome examples - talking about research not based on hypothesis testing - specifically at the proposal stage. We are very short of examples here - particularly in the area of interpretive research. This would be helpful not only to students, but also to those of us supervising to help ensure quality work (not least of all to counter colleagues who still "test" proposals by positivist standards and expect to see hypotheses, statistical tests etc. etc.). While students can look at examples of published research, it is still not quite the same as having proposals to look at.
3. The student about to start will be examining the involvement of accountants in the decision-making processes surrounding information technology governance. In particular, she wishes to explore the ways in which the ideas and attitudes of accountants and IT practitioners might enable or constrain the involvement of accountants in IT governance. An interpretivist methodology will be adopted in order to explore the impact of various "ideational" aspects on IT governance design choice e.g. the ways in which IT governance is conceptualised by accountants and IT practitioners, interpretive schema and institutional 'habits', professional identity, organisational culture and politics. I am meeting her later this week, and will encourage her to join the list so she can tell you more about her interests.
4. Jack - many thanks for the lead to Hansen's work. I have already Googled it and it looks fascinating - it will be on my next book order!!
Cheers, Judy.
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Sun, 6 Jul 2008 21:39:23 -0400
From: Patrick Thaddeus Jackson <patrickthaddeusjackson at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Interpretationandmethods] Interpretationandmethods
Digest, Vol 43, Issue 1
To: interpretation and methods group
<interpretationandmethods at listserv.cddc.vt.edu>
Message-ID: <26FB774E-E865-41FE-B099-FE9FA628C88E at gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes
On Jul 6, 2008, at 6:11 PM, Judy Brown wrote:
> 3. The student about to start will be examining the involvement of
> accountants in the decision-making processes surrounding information
> technology governance. In particular, she wishes to explore the ways
> in which the ideas and attitudes of accountants and IT practitioners
> might enable or constrain the involvement of accountants in IT
> governance. An interpretivist methodology will be adopted in order
> to explore the impact of various "ideational" aspects on IT
> governance design choice e.g. the ways in which IT governance is
> conceptualised by accountants and IT practitioners, interpretive
> schema and institutional 'habits', professional identity,
> organisational culture and politics. I am meeting her later this
> week, and will encourage her to join the list so she can tell you
> more about her interests.
Judy:
One question I would ask the student is what, if anything, is
"interpretive" about this research question. "The impact of various
'ideational' aspects" sounds like pretty standard neopositivism to me:
code a variable like "professional identity" or "organizational
culture" and then test to see whether the variable is significantly
correlated with an outcome of interest across cases. I see
interpretive methods here, but no interpretive methodology. "Attitudes
cause an outcome" is not the kind of proposition one needs anything
complicated to evaluate; Mill's Methods ought to do the job just nicely.
Of course, one could also ask a research question here that *would*
require a non-neopositivist research design. But "the impact of X on
Y" wouldn't be it. For example, one could propose an ethnographic
account of accountants working in IT governance, seeking to bring to
light the interpretive horizon within which they work; that isn't
hypothesis-testing, but it also isn't causal (so such a study couldn't
be about "impact"). Or one might make a relational turn, and discuss
IT governance as emerging someplace between a variety of conflicting
parties and strategies, and hence examine the detailed transactions
that take place between (e.g.) IT practitioners and accountants in the
process of constituting "IT governance." That's causal, but it's not
"X causes Y" (or statistical-comparative) causal.
I think it's great that you have a multiple-methodology sequence for
your students; I agree, that's the best way to allow students to
experiment, and to find the right methodological approach for the
question at hand. But the flip-side of that, I think, is that if one
has a neopositivist question then one should use a neopositivist
methodology in an attempt to answer it.
PTJ
===
Patrick Thaddeus Jackson
Director, General Education Program, American University
Editor-in-Chief, Journal of International Relations and Development
http://profptj.blogspot.com <http://profptj.blogspot.com/> | http://www.kittenboo.com <http://www.kittenboo.com/>
calendar: http://ical.mac.com/onyxdr/Patrick
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