Methodological themes Empirical research in accounting:alternative approaches and a case for“middle-range” thinking [9]
论文作者:PAT SUCHER论文属性:短文 essay登出时间:2008-06-10编辑:点击率:30074
论文字数:3600论文编号:org200806101038079925语种:英语 English地区:英国价格:免费论文
关键词:Methodological themesEmpirical researchaccountingalternative approaches
have, and continues to have, the upper hand in the epistemological battle even though the opposing Kantian forces are far from destroyed. There are four contemporary schools which can be seen to be derivable from Comtean thought as Figure 3 indicates. There is the direct “heir apparent” o positivism with its tight definition of explicans and explicandums. Realism which allows more freedom with regard to the definition of explicans (see Kea and Urry (1982, Chapter 2) for more details on this), is an outgrowth o positivism but again not an abandonment of its Comtean roots. The devian members of this group are instrumentalism and conventionalism. The forme gives away the birthright of Comtean thought by maintaining that theories are only ever instruments for prediction – they have no explanatory power Conventionalism, which normally includes the thinking of Lakotos, Kuhn and Feyerabend, with Kuhn’s scientific paradigms predominating, is the more sociological end of Comtean thought. These approaches introduce the observe or the observers’ community into the discovery process. Kuhn, for instance maintains that it is a “paradigm” which binds a community of scholars togethe and guides their “normal science” behaviour. This paradigm is subject to revolutionary change where it is seen to fail to fulfil its guiding purposes for th community of scholars. Together these are the more established and establishment approaches to th process of discovery and are well represented in the accounting studies which have their roots in economics and finance. While they arguably fail to express these roots adequately (cf. Christenson, 1983; Laughlin, 1981; Lowe et al., 1983 they nevertheless are rightly located in these Comtean derivatives enjoying the public esteem which comes with this association. While the Comtean derivatives are tightly clustered no such tightness is apparent in the Kantian alternatives. Thus, for instance, as Figure 4 indicates the Kantian/Fichtean line has a further branching through Dilthey and Weber Both can be seen to be key in providing a more objective (but still subjective dimension to Fichtean thought. However, there remains a direct route from Fichte, through key individuals such as Husserl, to ethnomethodology and the more subjective wing of symbolic interactionism (following the Chicago schoo under Blumer’s leadership), yet Dilthey’s and Weber’s wistful eye towards, bu not complete acceptance of, the objectivism of Comtean thought was significan in giving a more objective twist to Fichtean thinking. This infiltration, yet itindicates. Symbolic interactionism following Kuhn (not Thomas Kuhn (the originator of paradigms) but M.H. Kuhn) and the Iowa school with its greater emphasis on “objective” meanings can be seen to be influenced by this Weberian branch. Likewise Giddens’ structuration theory which has an emphasis on underlying structures in all actions, while maintaining the importance of the detail in particular actions, has similar influences. Even pragmatism, that “typically American” (Kolakowski, 1972, p. 182) school of thought, following the thinking of Mead, James and Pierce, with its “getting-on- with-life” approach and its heavy borrowing from all and every way of thinking if it is deemed to be “relatively attractive” (Rorty, 1982) to the inquirer, can be seen to be located in this branching with its apparent belief in both subjective and objective dimensions to knowledge. The Weberian development of Fichtean though
本论文由英语论文网提供整理,提供论文代写,英语论文代写,代写论文,代写英语论文,代写留学生论文,代写英文论文,留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。