Philosophy of Science & Case Studies: An Exploratory Workshop with a Focus on Critical Realism and the Capability Approach

In practice-oriented research, there is a frequent focus on case studies that introduces a tension between the “solution” of particular problems in a specific context and likely with specific partners or stakeholders on the one hand, and on the other hand the traditional goals of science, i.e. objectively valid knowledge of laws and mechanisms, their confirmation, verification or falsification. Resolving this tension in favor of practical problem-solving threatens to cut the connection to science; resolving the tension in favor of science as traditionally understood threatens to produce “brilliant but irrelevant” science. 

This workshop assumes that we can get a better understanding of this tension - and even make it fruitful - if we turn to more specific ways of framing this tension and discuss it explicitly. The workshop will take its central cases and examples from one field among many that exemplifies this tension: research on social innovation, entrepreneurship and design as solutions for societal challenges (perspectives from other thematic areas also are welcome)

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