12.1 Theory and practice
I will first reflect upon the
traditional dichotomy between theory and practice (which can be illustrated by
a theoretical researcher investigating the field of practice) and discus an
alternative perspective using Nicomachean
Ethics (Aristotle 1984) as a starting point for bringing the fields of
theory and practice closer together (Ramírez 1995). Then I wish to reflect upon
active interviewing and grounded theory in a constructivist perspective, before
I discuss how I have used this in the methodology and design of my exploratory
study of the concept of shame.
Fontana and Frey (2005) argue that although
interviewing others implies asking questions and getting answers, this task is
much more difficult than it may seem at first. Russell Bishop (2005) writes
that
Much qualitative research has dismissed, marginalized, or maintained
control over the voice of others by insistence on the imposition of
researcher-determined positivist and neo-positivist evaluative criteria,
internal and external validity, reliability, and objectivity ( Fontana and Frey 2005: 129).
Such a view maintains the distance
between the objective, theory-seeking researcher (theory) and the subjective
respondent who is the source of the empirical data (practice) that can be given
to the researcher if the correct scientific methodology is used. Holstein and Gubrium (1995) say that the subjects being
studied are usually seen as passive vessels containing answers to the
experimental questions put to respondents by interviewers and that validity
results from the successful application of the traditional interviewing
procedure. Active interviewing represents an alternative perspective by being:
A form of interpretative practice involving respondent and interviewer
as they articulate ongoing interpretative structures, resources, and
orientations with what Garfinkel (1967) calls “practical reasoning” [1]
(Holstein and Gubrium 1995: 16)
Ramírez (1995) speaks of theory and
practice as two of our most common dichotomies. We spontaneously associate
theory with thinking or knowledge, and practice with doing. The first sits in
our head and the other in our hands. The question is whether one can think
without doing, or do anything without thinking. Ramírez explains that we are
responsible for our actions, because we are conscious of them. Thinking can
therefore be considered a form of action.
Knowledge, Ramírez (1995) explains,
is a problematic word, because we often use it to denote an objective result or
a product. To know something is to have something inside one’s head, but also
to manage or to cope with something. Knowing something is first and foremost an
activity and involves the competence this activity forms in the individual.
Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics) writes
about theory as a way of living. The Ancient Greek word for theory (Greek: theoria) does not mean the same thing as
the word theory means as we use it today. We most often think of knowledge as
an objective result (passive) while the Ancient Greeks were inclined to think
of it as an activity (active). In Nicomachean
Ethics, Aristotle did not see theory as the product of scientific activity,
manifested in compositions and stored in texts or other information media.
Aristotle used theory to refer to the activity that is produced when we
investigate the world around us.
Scientific knowledge must not,
according to Aristotle, be seen as the scientific product which is attained, or
the objective result, but the subjective capacity to attain such results,
through theoretical activity. Theory can thus be understood as a verb: a
productive and creative activity, a form of doing. If doing means building a
house, composing melodies, or caring for the sick, then theory is an activity
concerned with using words in different situations in order to describe, codify
and store these descriptions as knowledge which can be used by others.
[1] Aristotle explains in Nicomachean Ethics, Book IV, that
practical reasoning or wisdom (Greek: phronesis
or Latin: prudential), is about
collecting experience over time and building up a capability to act in specific
human situations.
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