A good article; and the avivekis must learn :" what research is—a definition that hopefully applies across disciplines and concerns:
- *Research begins with a desire to ask and answer questions, thereby contributing to the greater sum of human knowledge and culture*. Research often involves some hypothesis, question, or avenue of inquiry. Why is this plant a particular color? Why is this plant species a different color in different soil conditions or ecosystems? How is this color understood aesthetically and linguistically across different cultures? How can this color be recreated with artificial or natural ingredients? Does exposure to this color produce particular affective or psychological experiences for people? - *Research requires commitment to evidence, broadly defined.* In the sciences, this might involve running experiments and quantitatively analyzing the results; in the humanities, this might involve translating or transcribing primary sources and qualitatively interrogating them. (But this is oversimplifying things: the “sciences” and the “humanities” can overlap considerably; scientists may use qualitative analysis; humanists may use quantitative analysis.) The important thing is that there’s a commitment to some concept of *truth* and *accuracy*; there’s also a recognition of how partial and circumscribed truth and accuracy can be. That’s why scientists include error bars and qualify their results - *Research requires understanding the history, theory, and practices of the discipline(s) you work within*. Each discipline has its own particular history, and contemporary researchers are often elaborating upon, responding to, and reacting against that history. Anthropologists today, for example, are often trying to address the harms caused by earlier anthropologists, who contributed to European colonial and imperial projects, including the depiction of non-white, non-European cultures as racially lesser and intellectually inferior. There are also particular theoretical ideas, prior art, and specific practices that researchers need a working knowledge of. Concretely: researchers need to do a literature review that is simultaneously comprehensive and specific, that helps situate them in existing bodies of knowledge. - *Research culminates in some output*. Research isn’t just about collecting references and evidence and the ideas of other people. It isn’t even about synthesizing them in an interesting way. Research is about *advancing* new arguments and ideas in some form—typically a conference presentation, paper, book, etc. - *Research ideally has contemporary relevance, but should not exclusively be devoted to contemporary concerns*. This might be the most controversial item on the list. I’m convinced that research should respond in some way to matters of urgent concern today (How should AI affect labor rights and economic policy? What does a world that addresses racial inequality look like? What are we going to do about the climate crisis?)…but at the same time, it shouldn’t be *so* narrowly instrumentalized in solving problems. There’s value in basic research that seems to have no *immediate* relevance to society, but can be useful later. A useful example is Katalin Karikó’s research into mRNA vaccines, which was considered useless for decades before suddenly becoming useful for COVID19 vaccine development. (For more, read *Wired*’s article “How mRNA went from a scientific backwater to a pandemic crusher <https://www.wired.com/story/mrna-coronavirus-vaccine-pfizer-biontech/> .”) - *Research is strengthened by a social and intellectual community*. It typically requires mentors, peers, and mentees whose ideas and perspectives bring new energy and perspectives into the research project." K R IRS 3724 On Wed, 3 Jul 2024 at 00:08, Rangarajan T.N.C. <[email protected]> wrote: > research as leisure activity > <https://www.personalcanon.com/p/research-as-leisure-activity?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email> > > research as leisure activity > > Celine Nguyen > > my favorite form of entertainment is downloading PDFs ✦ plus favorite > Fluxus artists and early programs > > <https://www.personalcanon.com/p/research-as-leisure-activity?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email> > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/CAL5XZopAVxzw7zzb7kXkiX47Csie_ghZk3o-DOR0MYPGoaUB7g%40mail.gmail.com.
