Analysis Tool or Research Methodology? Is there an epistemology for patterns?
Monday, February 27, 2012
This chapter seeks to outline some of the issues and possibilities around using patterns as an epistemological construct. The main argument is that the study and use of patterns has has been successful in interventionist or normative tyipes of inquiry, namely design and action research. In these situations, due to the contextual nature of the knowledge, value judgements in relationship to their utility can be made rather than truth judgements on the nature of patterns. Based on this theoretical background, patterns can be justified as part of the process of inquiry of any type of research, but not by themselves as an ends; they are process not product.
Publication Details
Dixon, D (2012) Analysis Tool or Research Methodology? Is there an epistemology for patterns? In Berry, D. ed. Understanding Digital Humanities. (Palgrave MacMillan)
