Does ERA spell the end to the era of IS methodological pluralism?

Methodological pluralism has been slowly developing in Information Systems. However, this development is fragile and only interpretivism has made any inroads into the major journals. Further, the form of interpretivism that has made inroads is informed by grounded theory and we suggest largely based on CAQDAS. We argue that the new Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) initiative and other pressures to publish will stymie this budding but fragile methodological and research pluralism. The pressure to publish and the list of ranked journals will lead to greater conformity in methodology and in research areas and we conclude that pluralism will be under threat. We suggest some ways that journals and conference organisers may respond, to increase or maintain pluralism and how we will research pluralism further.

Local governance and the challenge of religious pluralism in liberal democracies : an Australian perspective

Multiculturalism has gradually retreated as a meaningful concept for Australian identity and has, instead, been replaced by principles of equal citizenship and a commitment to the core values of Australian national identity. This paper firstly locates these shifts in broader theoretical debates underpinning democratic governance and equal citizenship. Secondly, and given that local government is a key constituent of Australia's democratic system, the paper seeks to explore the attitudes of local government representatives towards multicultural services and cultural citizenship in contemporary Australia. The empirical findings of this study show that a minority of local government representatives hold a negative outlook on cultural diversity and multicultural policies. The paper argues that it is important to ensure opportunities for intercultural understanding at the local level are optimised as a way of enhancing full and equal citizenship for all and thus creating greater possibilities for successful integration among religious and cultural minorities

NGOs, pluralism and advisory services—Timor Leste

Purpose: 

Epistemological pluralism in research synthesis methods

The purpose of research synthesis is to produce new knowledge by making explicit connections and tensions between individual study reports that were not visible before. Every effort of synthesizing research is inevitably premised on certain epistemological assumptions. It is crucial that research synthesists reflect critically on how their epistemological positioning enables them to pursue certain purposes while preventing them from pursuing other purposes. The literature on research synthesis methods is dominated by publications premised on positivist assumptions. The rhetoric of systematic reviews, best-evidence synthesis and What Works Clearinghouse privileges syntheses with positivist orientations. Contesting the hegemony of positivist research syntheses, this paper makes a case for research syntheses that are informed by diverse epistemological orientations. It illuminates how research syntheses with distinct epistemological orientations can serve complementary, equally worthwhile, purposes.

Legal pluralism and progressive constitutionalism: An introduction to the South African challenge for post-national governace

The aim of this article is to contribute to the current academic debate on pluralistmechanisms of post-national governance as a particular type of ‘stateless law’. Moreprecisely, this article is conceived as an introduction to aid further research on the shape(and extent) that post-national governance may eventually assume (and reach) in SouthAfrica. Attention is, therefore, paid to legal pluralism as a key factor of pluralist settings ofpost-national government. An overview of the essence and features of post-nationalgovernance is provided, and a brief comparison is made between hard hierarchical andsoft-networked forms of governance. In pursuing the suggested roadmap, reference is madeto the current European landscape on post-national governance, which is ontologicallyinevitable in discussing the essence, structure, aims, challenges and limitations ofpost-national governance. Moreover, the necessity of adopting a comparative modusinvestigandi is due to the circumstance that although South Africa and the EuropeanUnion (EU) share important elements (e.g., legal pluralism, financial instability andfuture common challenges), South Africa has an extremely progressive constitution — aresult that the EU has been unable to achieve formally. Thus, while explaining whySouth Africa may represent fertile ground for such an architecture of governance, this articlediscusses why the South African Constitution may be a ‘value add’ that may help post-national governance avoid the difficulties thus far encountered on the Europeancontinent.

Pluralism in economics: from epistemology to hermeneutics

The objective of this paper is to bring elements from the philosophical movement of hermeneutics and pragmatism to the discussion on methodology in economics, with a specific concern on the theory of truth. Our aim is to present the concept of the hermeneutic space, developed by the philosopher Richard Rorty, as a rational justification for pluralism in economics. We consider the hermeneutic space an interesting concept which should allow us to overcome the void left by the incapacity of epistemological theories to explain the evolution of sciences. It defends the idea that our culture, values and ways of interpreting things are what build the sciences, not any closed epistemological method. In this sense, pluralism is nothing more than letting the hermeneutic space work, without epistemological barriers, and understanding that this is desirable for the future development of economics as a science. This approach differs from all other methodological justifications for pluralism because it does not rely on any epistemological method, but assumes that the hermeneutic space can entirely fulfill the gap created by them

Global law in pieces fragmentation, regimes and pluralism

The idea that life undergoes a process of functional differentiation, and that, as a consequence, law becomes increasingly specialized – and maybe even transforms in its very nature – is now widespread. The specialized clusters of law or regulation are very often called regimes, in the international arena, international or transnational regimes. This paper deals, first, with three strong representations of international regimes and discusses some of their problems. It argues that, in order to make a good use of the category, it is necessary to keep in mind the differentiation between law and non-law in the wider context of governance. It then turns, firstly, to the notion of regimes as fragments of a unified and coherent public international law order and, secondly, as meeting points of regulations emerging from different legal orders as well as from other non-legal sources. Within public international law, regimes are seen as related to what is called the double fragmentation of that legal order. As clusters of regulation within a wider global regulatory order, regimes are put in relation to two types of legal or regulatory pluralism.

From Elitism through Corporatism to Pluralism? The Role of Elites in the Political Transition of Ukraine

The group set out to analyse the dynamics of elite groups in Ukraine today, both internal and inter-group, and their ideas on major socio-economic, political and foreign policies, in order to identify the degree of competitiveness between groups, methods of elite recruitment and the degree of elite response, which influence both the political agenda and the results of political activity. Having observed the contemporary debate and identified the pre-eminence of various elite groups in the decision-making process at the regional and state levels, they also sought to determine the type and degree of elite consensus which might be achieved in contemporary Ukraine. They also considered the extent of concealed power, in terms of covert interaction more characteristic of corporate societies, which might allow for the abuse of authority within a technically democratic system. The group then went on to consider the stages of counter-elite transformation and the continuing importance of the communist elite, as well as the issue of rivalry versus consensus. They see their findings as relevant not only to the Central and Eastern European context but also to the situation in Latin America today.