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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Assertion And Its Many Norms, John N. Williams
Assertion And Its Many Norms, John N. Williams
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Timothy Williamson offers the ordinary practice, the lottery and the Moorean argument for the ‘knowledge account’ that assertion is the only speech-act that is governed by the single ‘knowledge rule’ or norm, that one must know its content. I show that the emptiness of the knowledge account renders mysterious why breaking the knowledge rule should be a source of criticism. I then argue that focussing exclusively on the sincerity of the speech-act of letting one know engenders a category mistake about the nature of constraints on assertion. For Williamson and those in his tradition, assertion alls under purely epistemic norms. …
Understanding Risk Governance: Introducing Sociological Neoinstitutionalism And Foucauldian Governmentality For Further Theorizing, Wee Kiat Lim
CMP Research
This article traces the career of risk across prominent theoretical approaches by highlighting their key assumptions and premises, specifically the technical approach found in the physical sciences, and economics, psychology, and sociology in the social sciences. In each discipline, the strengths and limitations of each theoretical approach are pointed out. The discussion focuses on sociology in particular because other approaches—in treating risks as dominantly technical, psychological, or economic phenomena—tend to downplay the broader historical and socio-political context that impinges on risk construction and production, and its differential impact across society. This exploration points out that institutions play an important role …
Little Understood Knowledge Trap, Hans-Dieter Evers, Solvay Gerke, Thomas Menkhoff
Little Understood Knowledge Trap, Hans-Dieter Evers, Solvay Gerke, Thomas Menkhoff
Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business
As knowledge increases, we realise how much else we do not know. Successful research always results in new questions. Any knowledge economy must be aware of such unknowns if it is to expand further through research and development. Debate on bridging the digital divide does not take this factor into account. Many of the strategies currently preached are misplaced.
Expert Knowledge And The Role Of Consultants In An Emerging Knowledge-Based Economy, Hans-Dieter Evers, Thomas Menkhoff
Expert Knowledge And The Role Of Consultants In An Emerging Knowledge-Based Economy, Hans-Dieter Evers, Thomas Menkhoff
Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business
In the emerging globalised knowledge society/economy, a group of professionals, namely experts and consultants gain in importance. The paper discusses the following issues: Who are these experts and consultants? Why is this group of knowledge workers strategically important and why is their importance - socially in terms of number of persons and economically in terms of output or turnover - growing? How can we explain the increasing professionalisation of consultants? How do they gain their expertise and which role does academic knowledge play in professional attainment? How do consultants package and apply expert knowledge? What are the challenges experts and …
Refocusing On Qualitative Methods: Problems And Prospects For Research In A Specific Asian Context, Lily Kong
Refocusing On Qualitative Methods: Problems And Prospects For Research In A Specific Asian Context, Lily Kong
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
A recent issue of Area (1996, Volume 28.2) devoted space to six papers on focus groups, attesting to their increasing importance as a means of obtaining qualitative data. The papers provided interesting insights into the use of focus groups in specific research and cultural contexts, and raised three main issues in my mind. The first is a continuing misunderstanding as to the nature of knowledge, which surfaces in discussions of, and approaches to, the use of qualitative methods such as focus groups. The second is the range of related techniques that are actually involved in the qualitative method, known as …