Open III: Call for Papers

Abstract

Research methods is a developing area of interest in the built environment and OPEN to discussion. The concept of research encompasses ontology, epistemology, methodology, and methods. Methodological choice often relates to the philosophical position of the researcher and the analyzed phenomenon. This is to say, closer consideration tells us that methods can be distinct from the products and aims of the research, such as knowledge and prediction. Methods are also different from the epistemic regimes that inform the values and justifications of the research aims, such as reproducibility or objectivity used to rationalize the use of a specific method or its method of evaluation. Methods cannot be derived from the places, problems, phenomena, disciplines, technologies, or conventions and professional habits associated with research. Recognizing there is a specific, rather than general, integrity of methods destabilizes the historically singular theories of methodological approach and suggests we can develop methods of applied research in design and the built environment without compromising the reliability of known methodological structures.