<p>'In a world in which ideological boundaries are increasingly impermeable and cross-political debates mere shouting matches, pragmatism offers not just an escape but entry into a world of mutual respect, justice, and democracy. This book is a contribution to hope at a time when despair seems unavoidable.'<br />Robert A. Beauregard, Professor Emeritus, Columbia University<br /><br /><i>'The Power of Pragmatism</i> is so much more than just a model of pragmatist scholarship, old and new. It offers a timely message about how a living tradition of thought can embrace a world of uncertainty and competing truths without itself seeking guarantees. Genuinely multidisciplinary, the collection champions a political stance as much as a philosophical one: the pressing need to create shared, collective responses to the social, political and environmental challenges that confront us today.'<br />John Allen, Professor Emeritus, Open University<br /><br />'This excellent book offers a vital approach to knowledge as a collective and participatory process of experiment and action for an unstable and complex world. A diverse set of outstanding authors contribute innovative insights on a wide range of fields including geography, politics, environmental studies, economic development and urban planning. This impressive and hugely encouraging text convincingly shows how intelligence, conversation, and collaboration can produce useful knowledge that provides ways to cope with emerging problems and threats of change.'<br />Peter Sunley, Professor of Economic Geography, University of Southampton</p>

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This book makes the case for a pragmatist approach to the practice of social inquiry and knowledge production. Through diverse examples from multiple disciplines, contributors explore the power of pragmatism to inform a practice of inquiry that is democratic, community-centred, problem-oriented and experimental. Drawing from both classical and neo-pragmatist perspectives, the book advances a pragmatist sensibility in which truth and knowledge are contingent rather than universal, made rather than found, provisional rather than dogmatic, subject to continuous experimentation rather than ultimate proof, and verified in their application in action rather than in the accuracy of their representation of an antecedent reality. The Power of Pragmatism offers a path forward for mobilizing the practice of inquiry and knowledge production on behalf of achieving what Dewey called a sense for the better kind of life to be led.
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Making the case for a pragmatist approach to social inquiry and knowledge production, sixteen contributors illustrate the power of pragmatism to inform democratic, community-centred, action-oriented research.
Les mer
Part I: The power of pragmatism1 Introduction: The power of pragmatism – Jane Wills and Robert W. LakePart II: Key thinkers, core ideas and their application to social research2 Habits of social inquiry and reconstruction: A Deweyan vision of democracy and social research – Malcolm Cutchin3 Appreciating the situation: Dewey’s pragmatism and its implications for the spatialisation of social science – Gary Bridge4 Mead, subjectivity and urban politics – Crispian Fuller5 Rorty, conversation and the power of maps – Trevor BarnesPart III: ‘Truth’, epistemic injustice and academic practice6 Embodied inequalities: Can we go beyond epistemologies of ignorance in pragmatic knowledge projects? – Susan Saegert7 Truth and academia in times of fake news, alternative facts, and filter bubbles: A pragmatist notion of critique as mediation – Klaus Geiselhart8 Learning from experience: Pragmatism and politics in place – Alice Huff9 Reflections on an experiment in pragmatic social research and knowledge production – Liam Harney and Jane WillsPart IV: Disciplinary applications in pragmatic research10 Ecological crisis, action and pragmatic humanism – Meg Holden11 Pragmatism, anti-representational theory and local methods for critical-creative ecological action – Owain Jones12 Pragmatism and contemporary planning theory: Going beyond a communicative approach – Ihnji Jon13 Exploring possibilities for a pragmatic orientation in development studies – Alireza F. Farahani and Azadeh Hadizadeh EsfahaniPart V: Conclusion and postscript14 The quest for uncertainty: Pragmatism between rationalism and sentimentality – Robert W. Lake15 Postscript: Who’s afraid of pragmatism? – Clive Barnett
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This book advances a pragmatist sensibility for social inquiry in which truth and knowledge are contingent rather than universal, made rather than found, provisional rather than dogmatic, subject to continuous experimentation rather than ultimate proof, and verified through their application in action rather than in the accuracy of their representation of an antecedent reality.The contributors explore the power of pragmatist approaches to inform a practice of social inquiry and knowledge production that is problem-oriented, community-centred, democratic and experimental. The Power of Pragmatism offers a way to address contemporary challenges and mobilise the practice of inquiry and knowledge production to discern what John Dewey referred to as “a sense for the better kind of life to be led.”
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Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781526167194
Publisert
2023-02-14
Utgiver
Vendor
Manchester University Press
Vekt
426 gr
Høyde
234 mm
Bredde
156 mm
Dybde
16 mm
AldersnivĂĽ
G, U, P, 01, 05, 06
SprĂĽk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
304

Redaktør

Om bidragsyterne

Jane Wills is Professor of Geography at the Centre for Geography and Environmental Science and the Environment and Sustainability Institute at the University of Exeter

Robert W. Lake is Professor in the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy and a member of the Graduate Faculties in Geography and Urban Planning at Rutgers University