A discipline...
Food for through in this quote, which I came across in an article by Ken Friedman:

“conceptions of the structure and scope of a discipline are social constructs that include certain objects within that domain and exclude others. Depending on the level of articulation, the outline of a discipline dictates what the central objects of inquiry are, how they should be conceptualized, what the most important problems are and how they should be studied. It also suggests what kind of solutions are fruitful. Although articulation is usually general, it shapes the solutions to specific research projects. This general frame is the toolbox from which researchers pick solutions without necessarily knowing they are doing so” (Vakkari 1996: 169).

I like it that the quote ends by stating that researchers perform discplinary science without "necessarily knowing that they are doing so". Sometimes we tend to forget that even though our domaine is science, our daily practices are often shaped by intuition, rather than rational thought.


Friedman, Ken. 1997. “Design Science and Design Education.” in The Challenge of Complexity. Peter McGrory, ed. Helsinki: University of Art and Design Helsinki UIAH. 54-72.

Vakkari, Pertti. 1996 “Library and Information Science: Content and Scope,” in Information Science: From the Development of the Discipline to Social Interaction. Johan Olaisen, Erland Munch-Pedersen and Patrick Wilson, editors. Oslo: Scandinavian University Press, pp. 169-231.

# posted by Lisbeth at: 13:37