[Air-l] Definitions

[Mary-Helen Ward]

There are many established ways of knowing and ways of thinking and  
researching that go beyond 'creative opinion', but are not science as  
most people understand it. Nancy listed some of them, but your reply  
would indicate to me that you are simply dismissing all of them  
without understanding what they add to the sum of human  
understanding. They may seem to be 'creative opinion', but they can  
in fact be rigorous methods of investigation.

I would suggest that you get hold of a copy of an edition of the  
Handbook of Qualitative Research (Denzin & Lincoln) or some other  
'bible' of qualitative inquiry. It will take you a while to work  
through it (I'm still dipping into it a year after I first got my  
second-hand copy from Amazon) but even the early chapters will help  
to understand  some of the issues you profess to be confused about.

M-H


On 19/10/2006, at 5:30 AM, Sam Tilden wrote:

> Nancy,
>
>   Could you help me here.
>
>   Given your argument, I find it hard to determine what might be  
> "off topic", if it is something that occurs on the internet.
>
>   I also can't seem to grasp the boundary between creative opinion  
> and scholarship.
>
>   Also, where does an elementalist definition of the Internet  
> square with the goals of the organization?
>
>   Pax electronica.
>
>   Sam
>