What’s piqued my interest these last few days is the design of research methodology. The current research paradigm in the West still glows with the logical empiricism of early 20th century thought, divided into qualitative and quantitative research. Very limited methods of measurement and analysis are accepted. Thus, Science is rather lopsided, as it’s only getting one part of the story.
Looking at Science, with a capital S, as an entity or person (or for this article- a system!), how research is conducted can tell what information exchange is taking place between Science and the rest of the world. The research paradigms that scientists work with are the channels, the points of contact, through which information comes through. It determines how Science knows.
On this blog and forum we discuss how we, as human individuals, communicate with other persons and our environment. We can have discussions about how societal institutions, such as Science, receives information from its environment also.
From there, we can be creative in imagining ways to develop more contact points and information channels in systems. It would be like broadening the senses of systems, enabling more wholeness in communications and interactions. Imagine what that would be like! For Science, I think it would be developing different ways of measuring. Or rethinking what measurement is (how do we branch off into the environment?). If alternative or more ways of measurement were developed these would be the additional contact points. It would be like opening more windows in a very stuffy house. Time for an afternoon breeze to blow through…