Pragmatism and post-qualitative futures

Abstract

This paper notes that there has been a relatively recent revision of the pragmatist philosophy canon, one that moves beyond a focus on epistemic and pedagogical theories, and locates pragmatism in a tradition of radical ontological theorizing and political action. This essay examines this revision for its relevance to the emerging materialist turn in qualitative research methodology. The essay focuses on two themes within contemporary and classical pragmatist philosophy: a reflexive realism and an ontology of the future. The methodological implications of these features are explored in detail. These implications are compared to post-structuralist conceptions of reflexivity that informed the last wave of qualitative research innovation and to the new materialism theories that are inspiring a new wave of methodological innovation. The most significant methodological implications of pragmatic philosophy are located in its ideas about the ontologically co-constituting relationship between inquiry practice and future possibilities.

Keywords:

• post
• qualitative
• research

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Scott Pratt, Colin Koopman, Lisa Mazzei, and Gerald Berk for their insightful and sustained dialogue about the ideas developed in this paper. I also extend thanks to Patti Lather for her incisive editorial feedback that improved this paper and advanced my thinking on a number of fronts in the process.

Notes

1. Peirce developed his theory of semiotics independently of and approximately 10 years before Saussure developed his “semiology” (Sherriff, 1989; Sorrell, 2004).

2. A third logical process that is distinct from and often precedes induction and deduction (Peirce, 1935, pp. 452–485).

3. I include practices associated with both quantitative and qualitative research in this list because pragmatism does not distinguish between these where its theory of inquiry is considered.

4. I have referred to this as a prometheutic analysis (Rosiek, forthcoming).

5. Given that Saussure’s semiotics played such a central role in the methodological application of poststructuralist theory in the social sciences, Peirce’s more materialist semiotic theories would seem potentially useful to a new wave of “post-qualitative” research innovation.