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Not only of epistemological debates the researcher in administration lives: some notes about disputes between paradigms and scientific field

The discussion about paradigmatic approaches in the field of Administration may be fruitful when it induces researchers to think through premises, practices, and values shared by a scientific community. However, at the extreme, it becomes a dispute that prevents the search for other approaches to deal with the complexity of social phenomena. In this sense, it is worth understanding that, when producing scientific knowledge, researchers are not faced only with choices about epistemology, logic, or linguistic theory, but also political problems. This essay aims to contribute with reflections on the researcher and the epistemological and political challenges with which he is faced when conducting research, arguing that it is not only a choice between kinds of positivism and interpretivism, but it also involves power struggles within a scientific field. For this, we intentionally selected texts with key concepts, such as paradigms and scientific field. As a response to the general objective of this essay, we think that the making of science constitutes a human activity that has an inseparable link with space and time and it imbricates with power games. We also think that the scientific field of Administration in Brazil is a space of competitiveness and political struggles where we are parties, either as oppressing or privileged individuals, but never as mere spectators. In this arena, not only of epistemological debates the researcher in Administration lives.

Epistemology of science; Paradigm; Scientific field; Research in administration


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