Combining research styles of the natural and social sciences in agricultural research

Abstract

a b s t r a c tThe need for interdisciplinarity in agricultural and development-oriented research has become widely recognized. In this paper a framework is suggested to integrate research methods of the social and natural sciences. It is argued that the context-mechanism-outcome configuration, based on critical realism, allows a more comprehensive understanding of all candidate mechanisms that have a social, technical or socio-technical basis, related to a particular question. Candidate mechanisms are all possible mechanisms postulated to explain a particular phenomenon. Four research styles can be recognized in both the social and the natural sciences. These research styles help choosing the appropriate methods to test the various candidate mechanisms related to a single research question. Combining the context-mechanism-outcome configuration with the four research styles may reduce the chances of missing out important candidate mechanisms. In this way the proposed framework may help optimize the research set-up and methodology of an interdisciplinary research project. Understanding which disciplines and research styles to combine can also allow interdisciplinary research to go beyond triangulation, as it provides more clarity about the possibilities for tightly integrating research methods and/or different data sets. It is suggested that the absence of a clear methodology for interdisciplinary research holds the advantage that it helps building bridges and developing alternative paths in science.

Concepts and Strategies of Organic Plant Breeding in Light of Novel Breeding Techniques

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“…Related to different ways of thinking (hierarchical, individualistic, and egalitarian) are also different risk perceptions and different ways of managing risk [4,5]. Consequently, different scientific disciplines use different methodologies and methods [6,7]. The challenges societies worldwide currently are facing with respect to food security and climate change are complex, and no blueprint is available to solve this complexity.…”

Defining Terms for Integrated (Multi-Inter-Trans-Disciplinary) Sustainability Research

“…Harris [59] conducted a metastudy of transdisciplinary projects focused on sustainable agriculture that identified certain kinds of people involved in the projects while discussing many of the same obstacles [34]. Nuijten [81] examined the specific pragmatics of working out ways to do transdisciplinary research in agriculture. Great work on sustainable agriculture and integrated research comes from New Zealand [82][83][84].…”

Growing into Interdisciplinarity: How to Converge Biology, Economics, and Social Science in Fisheries Research?

“…The literature analyzes interdisciplinary challenges caused by, for example, the differences in disciplinary practices and paradigms, the absence of established frameworks and models to link different kinds of data, the requirements faced by the researchers to deal with more than one field, and the insufficient institutional facilities, and it proposes practical and methodological solutions (Daily and Ehrlich 1999, Golde and Gallagher 1999, Naiman 1999, Pickett et al 1999, Redman 1999, Turner and Carpenter 1999, Pavao-Zuckerman 2000, Heemskerk et al 2003, MacMynowski 2007, Strang 2009, Nuijten 2011). …”