Читать книгу The Sage Handbook of Social Constructionist Practice - Группа авторов - Страница 30

As outlined in the opening chapter of this volume, the constructionist dialogues have undermined the positivist conception of scientific knowledge on which this view of research practice is based. For constructionists, scientific descriptions are not mirrors or maps of the world as it is. Rather, the act of research has its roots in a social process in which ontological assumptions, logics, and values are negotiated. Research places these assumptions into practice. Thus, differing groups of scientists may develop different paradigms of understanding and practice that guide their research and what may plausibly be said about the world. Groups of scientists working within different paradigms may pursue different ends, with different values, different research practices, facing different worlds of understanding.

Positivist researchers in the social sciences often criticize all research that is not positivist for its failing to follow their notion of what the standards of proper science are. ‘Not everything goes’, as it is said. To be sure, not everything can go within the limits of a given paradigm. However, we must not forget the paradigmatic limits of the positivist construction of science itself. For constructionists, when we expand our orientations to research, we also enrich the potentials for action in the world.