The power of pragmatism: Knowledge production and social inquiry - Paperback

by Jane Wills (Editor), Robert Lake (Editor)

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.

Back Jacket

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."

Author Biography

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