Reflexivity is actually a key term in the dramatic and rapid changes confronted by the human sciences (especially sociology) during the last four decades and “yet the word is used in so many different senses that it often sustains confusion rather than clarifying any underlying issues” (Holland, 1999: 463). In general, reflexivity was comprehensively defined by George Herbert Mead as “the turni...

Social scientists use many different methods, and there are often substantial disagreements about which method is appropriate for a given research question. In response to this uncertainty about the relative merits of different methods, W. E. B. Du Bois advocated for and applied “methodological triangulation”. This is to use multiple methods simultaneously in the belief that, where one is uncer...

Rather than providing a big picture about monetary policy, I appoint myself as a discussant of the two papers presented in this session, one on inflationary expectations by Galati, Poelhekke, and Zhou, and the other on the recent commodity boom by Erceg, Guerrieri, and Kamin. For each of the two papers, which I take to be the best industry practice, I will suggest an alternative methodology. My...

I wish to thank Alok Bhargava for organizing a discussion of this interesting paper by Adams et al. My discussion will focus on quite generic philosophical, statistical, and modelling issues that arise when inferring causal e0ects from complex panel and time series data. The analysis of Adams et al. appears to be driven by the following philosophical proposition: when the sample size is large a...

Neuroethics: a methodological reflection This article introduces a personal reflection on neuroethics by describing some of the technologies that led to emerging of the topic, targeted to brain stimulation and mapping.. It relates the current possibilities of using these technologies and the main ethical, legal, and social challenges connected to them. Next, it presents the main definitions of ...

Questions about the relative merits of alternative research strategies

As preceding chapters have highlighted, many examples exist of the varying ways in which Participatory Action Researchers work closely with groups to identify needs, plan action research projects, consult and then strive collectively to ‘action’ their findings. The three of us are all involved to varying degrees in such participatory activities, we would define ourselves not as just as action r...

A central concern of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) is the effect of in-vehicle devices (e.g. cell phones, navigation systems, radios) on driver performance and safety. As diverse and innovative technologies are designed and implemented for in-vehicle use, questions regarding the presence and use of these devices assume progressively greater importance. Concern for the safety of advan...

This discussion paper is about the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) one of the multilateral agreements that came out of the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. UNCCD is based on a conceptualization of international relations that transcends to a large extent the traditional notions of inter-governmental treaties. Such p...

this paper examines critically the contributions of cournot, jevons and walras as the founders of classical mathematical economics from a methodological standpoint. advances in different economic schools and doctrines in the 19th century produced an environment of multi-dimensionality in economic analysis which was regarded by the pioneers of classical mathematical economists as a chaotic state...