Desarrollo del lenguaje

For the thirty-two cases as a whole, the following observations have emerged from this analysis. There are significant problems with con- ceptualisation processes, and the kind of conceptualisation that should be going on is largely not. The concepts of management and intention- ality were identified as being the most common, while management stood out as the dominant concept. In terms of theorising, descriptive, essentially a-theoretical practices were the norm, followed by theory- testing designs at varying levels of complexity. Engagement with theo- ries of human behaviour/self was rare (with 3 cases) and there was only one case of engagement with theories of human-nature inter- relationships. In research design, synchronic, extensive designs (of type large ‘n’, observational), deploying questionnaires, using statistical analysis (with concepts considered as largely normative and theory considered as largely irrelevant) were the most common. Further, prob- lematic questions have been raised over the adequacy of epistemologi- cal-practice inter-links across numerous of the cases and potentially stretching to a significant number of them. Ontologically, the cases were generally objectivist, determinist and informational. Epistemologi- cally, they were dualist and linear. Axiologically, they were (remnant-) positivist and foundationalist. This general statement is built from many cases that evidence this or very similar outcomes. In other words, a great deal of the case literature lacks diversity. It can be considered

Chapter 3: Epistemic analysis

across the cases, and a little simplistically, as representing a single epistemic framework (made up of the components largely listed above). In terms of laudable research amongst the case studies, conceptu- ally four cases stand out: Bliss and Martin (1989); Egan, et al. (1995); Karppinen (1998); and, Rickenbach, et al. (1998). In terms of theory use, four studies stand out: Young and Reichenbach (1987); Lönnstedt (1997); Karppinen (1998); Kline, Alig and Johnson (2000a). In terms of research design (where critique was essentially restricted to practice), seven cases appear to have matched the epistemological-practice interlink at least tolerably well: Kurtz and Lewis 1981; Greene and Blat- ner 1986; Young and Reichenbach 1987; Wilson 1992; Karppinen 1998; Kline, Alig and Johnson 2000a; Sinclair and Knuth 2000. Also a small number of papers have attempted reform of the remnant-positivist frame (at least partly by using other frameworks in research), a benefi- cial and laudable action: Bliss and Martin (1989); Bliss (1992); Bourke and Luloff 1994; Egan and Jones (1993); Egan, et al., (1995). In the end, across concepts, theory and research design, only one case comes to the fore: Karppinen 1998. It should be noted that the few de- signs which may lie outside a remnant-positivist frame have not been assessed directly on this important issue (in essence, this effectively comes down to Bliss and Martin 1989; Bliss 1992).

This account now arrives at a turning point where it is necessary to reframe around the concept of ideology before moving into the next chapter regarding normative analysis and before making a case for an irrational rationality22. Once normative and ideological issues are dis- cussed in Chapter 4, the epistemic, normative and ideological will be brought together in Chapter 5 through the concepts of rationality and worldview.

22

Ideology as broadly used herein, is largely a discursive and rhetorical process that has a real transformative force: “[i]t represents the points where power impacts upon utterances and inscribes itself tacitly within them [and] aims to disclose some- thing of the relation between an utterance and its material conditions of possibility, when those conditions of possibility are viewed in the light of certain power- struggles central to the reproduction…of a whole form of social life” (Eagleton 1991: 223). A more particular definition will be given in the next chapter.

As noted in Chapter 1, this thesis draws upon science studies as well as (eco-)feminist perspectives in order to further strengthen the as- sertion of an irrational rationality. An important aspect discussed in Chapter 1 was the idea that scientific knowledge is social and this can be drawn out, specifically, in the idea of embodiment. Aspects notewor- thy towards informing embodiment and the justification of knowledge/s include:

...the locatedness or situatedness of the knower, the interde- pendence of knowers, and the ontological parity of subject and object of knowledge (p. 331)…[b]odies are in particular places, in particular times, orientated in particular ways to environments. This places limitations on aspirations to universality, but the par- ticular locations of subjects afford them particular advantages” (Longino 1991: 333).

In this, context is vital in three ways as it calls attention to the:

1) theoretical and value-laden assumptions held by individuals entwine with the way data are dealt with and with their evidential practices; 2) shared systems and rules surrounding research design and epis-

temic standpoints across a knowledge (scientific) community that set which structure might or might not be acceptable; and,

3) circumstances of the contexts people find themselves as tensioned by the way that a community signifies what knowledge should be dealt with in these contexts, and in such a way that these knowl- edges can be challenged if required (Longino 1991).

Continuing to draw on Longino (1991), the epistemic frameworks evi- dent in the case literature are seen by this author as part of a process of claim and justification that are socio-cultural in form (not denying ma- terial realities either) and in which embodiment and context play an im- portant role. A way in which socio-cultural influences on truth claims and legitimation of epistemic justification can be explored is through the concept of ideology and this will be drawn out across the next two chapters. Further, aspects of the forestry milieu are also explored and the ways landowners are known are problematised.