Theoretical and Methodological Approaches to Social Sciences and Knowledge Management

407 Pages·2016·10.14 MB·English

by  López-Varela A. (Ed.)

THEORETICAL AND
METHODOLOGICAL
APPROACHES TO
SOCIAL SCIENCES
AND
KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT
Edited by
Asunción López-Varela
THEORETICAL AND
METHODOLOGICAL
APPROACHES
TO SOCIAL SCIENCES
AND KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT

Edited by Asunción López-Varela
Theoretical and Methodological Approaches to Social Sciences and Knowledge
Management
Edited by Asunción López-Varela

Published by InTech
Janeza Trdine 9, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia

Copyright © 2012 InTech
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First published August, 2012
Printed in Croatia

A free online edition of this book is available at www.intechopen.com
Additional hard copies can be obtained from [email protected]

Theoretical and Methodological Approaches to Social Sciences and Knowledge
Management, Edited by Asunción López-Varela
p. cm.
ISBN 978-953-51-0687-6

Contents

Preface IX
Section 1 Social Research Methods 1
Chapter 1 Social Research Methods in Higher Education: A Critical
Analysis of Methodological Issues and Emerging Trends
at the Zimbabwe Open University 3
Caleb Kangai
Chapter 2 Methodology Transfers Between Social Sciences
and Humanities in Relation to Natural Sciences,
Technology and Government Policy 33
Hajime Eto and Shinichi Yamamoto
Section 2 Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches 53
Chapter 3 Causality in Social Studies Education 55
Bayram Tay
Chapter 4 The Assumption of Non-Gaussianity
in Natural and Social Sciences and Its Influence
on Detection of Causal Relationships 77
Kateřina Hlaváčková-Schindler
Chapter 5 Karl Popper and the Social Sciences 95
Sylvain K. Cibangu
Section 3 Coding and Cartographic Models 115
Chapter 6 A Simulation Approach to Validate
Models Derived from Observational Studies 117
Pierre N. Robillard and Simon Labelle
Chapter 7 Cartographic Generalization Applied
to Social Networks Maps in the City of Curitiba in Brazil 135
Renan M. Pombo, Luciene S. Delazari and Claudia R. Sluter
VI Contents

Chapter 8 Open-Source Tools for Data Mining in Social Science 151
Paško Konjevoda and Nikola Štambuk
Section 4 Knowledge Management 165
Chapter 9 Applying Social Sciences Research for Public Benefit
Using Knowledge Mobilization and Social Media 167
David J. Phipps, Krista E. Jensen and J. Gary Myers
Chapter 10 Re-Visiting Ethnographic and Orthodox
Research Methodologies: Field Research
Experiences from an African Perspective 197
Oliver Mtapuri
Section 5 Public Opinion and Citizenship 213
Chapter 11 Social Physics: An Interdisciplinary
Way to Explore the Mechanism of Public Opinion 215
Yijun Liu and Wenyuan Niu
Section 6 Enterpreneurship, Employment and Industrial Relations 233
Chapter 12 The Methodology of Formulating Iranian National
Policy of Entrepreneurship: A Conceptual Framework 235
Hassan Danaeefard and Mohammad Reza Noruzi
Chapter 13 Theoretical Approaches to Employment and Industrial
Relations: A Comparison of Subsisting Orthodoxies 251
Christopher Odogwu Chidi and Okwy Peter Okpala
Chapter 14 Human Capital Resourcing Practices
and Organisational Performance: A Study
of Selected Organisations in Lagos State, Nigeria 267
Christopher Odogwu Chidi and Okwy Peter Okpala
Section 7 Lean Behaviour and Sustainability 281
Chapter 15 Enhancing Productivity Through Lean Behavior 283
A. Perumal Puvanasvaran
Chapter 16 Organizational Sustainability:
The Case of Handcrafts Micro-Business
in Southern San Sebastian, Jalisco, México 307
José G. Vargas-Hernández
Chapter 17 Strengthening Institutional Capacity
for Science, Technology and Innovation in Uganda 319
Muriisa R. Kabeba
Contents VII

Chapter 18 A Didactic and Methodological Lesson of the Study
of Economics and the Skill Development of Students 329
Maria Covadonga De la Iglesia Villasol
Section 8 Reforms and Responses to the Global Crisis 353
Chapter 19 New Public Management and Reforms in Iran:
Analysis of Government Downsizing 355
Hassan Danaee fard, Tayebeh Abbasi and Mohammad Reza Noruzi
Chapter 20 Media of Exchange and Liquid Assets of Political
and Market Enterprises: A New Monetary Perspective
on Medieval French Monetary Mutations 375
Thomas Marmefelt

Preface

The umbrella term Social Sciences and Humanities refers to a plurality of fields
outside the Natural or Physical Sciences. Disciplines as different as anthropology,
archeology, architecture, art, cultural studies, economics, education, geography and
environmental studies, history, law, languages and linguistics, political science,
philosophy, psychology, sociology or translation studies, all share the concern for
human relations and socio-cultural practices.
In the ancient world, the alliance between political and religious power had
guaranteed the interdisciplinary dialogue between the Natural Sciences, the Social
Sciences and the Humanities, all closely associated to institutional control. The move
towards anthropocentric approaches took place at different times in different regions
of the world, alongside the socio-cultural, political, economical and technological
forces that shaped each territory, from the establishment of the first learning centers
and universities, to the discovery of new ways of looking at worlds beyond our own
by means of the telescope. But our world not only changed at the pace humans
marked through their changing practices and innovations. Environmental issues, such
as the fact that papyrus could not be used in the wet climates of Northern Europe,
shaped the way human technologies were used and where. From Chinese paper and
the printing press, to contemporary digital communication and networked society, the
complexity of human life is such that knowledge divisions are there to set the
foundations for groundbreaking innovations across all fields. To say that the growth of
the Social Sciences took place mostly in the 18th-century, coinciding with political and
economic reforms, sometimes in the form of violent revolutions, that sought national
and territorial cohesion in Europe, would be to cast aside similar changes in other
parts of the world.
There are many difficulties involved in writing an introduction to a series of volumes
that seek to provide an overall picture of human society and cultural habits across
differing disciplines, various nations, distinct methodologies and, in some cases,
diverse time spans. The volumes oscillate between ‘positive’ approaches to
knowledge, based sense experience and statistical analysis, focused on deduction and
description, and interpretative positions, more inductive and prescriptive.
Specialization and interdisciplinarity walk hand in hand in a dialogue that seeks to
speak across the bio-physical, the socio-cultural and the artistic, under the common
X Preface

desire to understand humanity more clearly and direct our actions in more effective
ways by means of theoretical discussions, innovative ideas, the encouragement of
public debates, and interaction across societal structures.
InTech collection on Social Sciences and Humanities is unique and groundbreaking in
its combination of questions and answers from very diverse fields and disciplines. It is
also a point of connection between East and West, North and South, developed and
less developed countries. It includes chapters compiled by institutional research
agencies, established scholars, alongside work by younger researches, all of which
point to fruitful alternative routes for further exploration and good practice, seeking to
identify current impasses in times of crisis, and to create opportunities and avenues
for future change. Key underlying principles are the support innovation and
sustainability across the world, the fostering of collaboration amidst the Sciences (both
Natural and Social) and the Humanities, and the private and the public sectors of
society. The chapters collected address societal challenges across diverse cultures and
environments.
Oftentimes the pathways to discovery are laid on shaky ground in order to open up
possibilities despite the risks involved. InTech collection Social Sciences and
Humanities: Theories and Application is doing just that.
The first volume of InTech collection is entitled Theoretical and Methodological
Approaches to Social Sciences and Knowledge Management and includes chapters that
move from theoretical and methodological issues and the analysis of quantitative and
qualitative tools, to more concrete applications of these.
Prof. Caleb Kangai’s (Zimbabwe Open University) contribution “Social Research
Methods: a critical analysis of methodological issues and emerging trends” opens the
volume because it offers an excellent introduction which helps identify current issues
and trends in the application of methods for social science research. His discussion
provides a forum for social scientists to reflect on the contemporary issues affecting
the Social Sciences. This is followed by a review of the three most widely used
theoretical approaches in the Social Sciences. Prof. Hajime Eto (Professor emeritus,
University of Tsukuba, Japan) and Prof. Shinichi Yamamoto (Director Research
Institute for Higher Education, Hiroshima University) draw the connection between
“Methodology transfers between Social Sciences and Humanities in relation to Natural
Sciences, Technology and Government policy”. Their chapter describes the paradigms
that disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences have followed in the West, and
their influence on Eastern countries, particularly in the case of Japan. The authors
make a claim for the need to incorporate knowledge from the East in the collective
memory of a global world. Japanese cultural input in this article remains relatively
low, almost a symptom of the need for greater participation of Eastern and Southern
cultures in the construction of global paradigms.