Pre-Scientific (Pre-Academic) Modes of Activity

• Passive registration of experience; searching of memory
• Taking a more active interest in specific "real world" issues with different degrees of complexity at different geographic scales
• Development of "hunches", intuitive ideas, speculations, informal, implicit, vague propositions for explanations

Stage 1: Towards more Academic Modes of Activity

• Taking Economic Geography classes (such as this) [Welcome & Congratulations!]
  • Resources: Being exposed to a relatively wide range of introductory (text) literature; Library exploration stage; Enjoy!
  • Acquiring the basic knowledge of concepts, perspectives and approaches which make up the discipline.
    • What is a "Concept"?: a term (word) or group of terms which summarizes or classifies (thereby delineates) certain phenomena (or more specific concepts) into one category (e.g. apples -- fruit -- food)

  • Acquiring of the basic knowledge of established explanatory theories related to this field.

    
    

• Developing a "Concentration", "Field of Specialization" or particular "Perspective", which permits a more focussed acquisition of knowledge and skills appropriate for future research activities or developing career plans. Developing such a (still relatively) general area of interest involves various tasks, including
  • Establishing a stage 1 - type knowledge base for a more specialized sub-discipline or area of focus
  • Moving from individual concepts and conceptual constructs to "conceptual frameworks"
    • developing the requisite skills and ultimately the ability to apply theoretical principles to varying and changed (new) situations. These skills include conceptualization skills, i.e. skills to develop & "cultivate" a "conceptual framework" in search of understanding and explanation:
      • What do we mean by "conceptualization"?: a process of thinking and organizing ideas that grows from the learning of facts and events to concepts to theory development (i.e. the development of explanation)
      • Framework: a structure that serves to hold parts together. The conceptual framework for your geographic studies, research and professional practice will represent the (organized) ideas which will give structure to your learning, student research and other geographic undertakings. [In the context of our class (Geog.450), the conceptual framework serves as a stepping stone for the formulation of the "theoretical framework" which comprises established explanations, theoretical principles and suggested theoretical relations in preparation of a more specific inquiry].
  Any one research project (which may involve the testing of one theory) will provide only limited new information. While our primary objective (in this upper-level survey class) is to acquire a comparative overview of locational theorizing (papers 1 & 2) and to learn about the role of theory in the research process (and not about one specialized theory), we never want to foreclose the possibility of discovering truly new (or re-discovering relatively new or forgotten, but now again important) insights. Only by having a theoretical frame of reference will we be able to gather and organize the results and arrive at larger generalizations and conclusions. This framework therefore should include the "points of departure", i.e. evidence as to where we are already in the process of advancing knowledge. Thus, it is your responsibility to review library and Internet documents in order not just to acquaint yourself with the present state of knowledge in your area (Resource Stage #2), but also to be able to position your own research effort and findings into an appropriate context (Resource Stage #3), even if, at the undergraduate student level (as different from the Ph.D.level) there does not have to be a guarantee that you have searched all the relevant source materials (globally, across all disciplines or even just in geography). Examples for the use of the "Conceptual Framework":
  • Restorative Justice: A conceptual framework
  • The International Year of the Older Person: Conceptual Framework
  • Conceptual Framework for: The History of the Book In Canada Project
  • Conceptual Framework for "U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Assessment"
  • A digital terrain model for mapping shallow landslide potential
  • Conceptual Framework for a School of Education
  • A Conceptual Framework For Conservation Hatchery Strategies for Pacific Salmonids
  • Conceptual Framework for Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature
  • Tourism: A Conceptual Framework
  • A Conceptual Framework for the Analysis of a state system of higher education.
  • Building and Maintaining Internet Information Services | Chapter 2: Conceptual Framework and Related Research
  • A Conceptual Framework for Profitable Electronic Commerce

  Other important functions of this stage of the literature review are related to subsequent stages of the research process. You hope to discover early on where the pitfalls and barriers may be, and what kinds of methodological and analytical skills you may need for tackling more specific empirical research questions later on.

Stage 3: Investigative and Research Phase: Designing The Research Plan

1. What shall be studied? How do you come up with a research idea? Defining issues, problems, questions and/or formulating hypotheses embedded in your theoretical framework (see above)
   • identifying and clarifying questions and issues
   • Resource Stage #??: searching the literature (again) and the established body of theory for explanations [We have thus conceptualized three kinds of resource & library work and literature review, namely
     1. All library work needed to gain research skills (see above)
     2. the one which familiarizes you with the general context and background which lead you to your research topic.
     3. Once your research topic is selected, you need to review the literature again for the more focused search for explanations, tentative answers and methodologies related to your research problem.]
   • developing and justifying one or more hyptheses as conjectural statements or tentative propositions as to expected relationships in search of explanations of the specific circumstances at hand (tentative explanations of similarities, differences, correlations, interactions and /or processes of change)

2. Understanding the Purpose of the Research

3. Resources: The Second Visit to the Library: Review of Literature in Preparation of the Theoretical Framework
   • Theoretical Framework: The first step toward theory formation. When we develop a new theory, we do so in a theoretical context which, if formalized, would amount to a theoretical framework. In this framework, we relate variables to eachother in a causal manner; these variables are based on concepts which were already part of our implicit or explicit conceptualization process and had become part of our foundational conceptualframework. Conceptual and theoretical frameworks are essential if our research shall make a contribution to theoretical advances in our discipline, since we want to communicate our ideas through agreed-upon concepts and conceptual relations, and we wish to link our new theoretical ideas to a specified, already existing body of theoretical ideas. For your own student research, the most important role of a conceptual --> theoretical framework is likely to be your own individual frame of reference which helps you to place your findings and insights into your own larger learning context.

     Examples for the Role of Theory in Different Disciplines:

     • Geography:
       • David M. Mark et al., Formal Models of Commonsense Geographic Worlds Report on the Specialist Meeting of Research, Initiative 21 Discussions at the (NCGIA) Specialist Meeting October 30-November 3, 1996 San Marcos, Texas [National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis]
       • Models and Theories in Geography [www.pavilion.co.uk/dwakefield/AIB/Models.htm]
     • Nursing: Theories of Nursing | Nursing Theories
4. Who or What should be studied and how does this (to be delineated) population of people, firms or other phenomena relate to the issues...

5. Evaluating and selecting methods of investigation,
   • Resource Stage #????
     • Searching for and evaluating sources of data (appropriate for stated hyptheses and selected methodology)

Stage 4: Research Proposal: Before we are actually starting with any empirical research, you want to be sure that you are "on the right track". If your framework and methodology are accepted and you do everything you are proposing, you should be free and clear. Often, the remainder seems anti-climatic. You have almost answered all of the questions already which had originally bothered you through simple logic and literature searches. Now it may just be a matter of looking at the specific hypotheses which remained unresolved after all this thinking, researching and organizing.

• Gathering and organizing data [in the field or with some librarian(s) in the library]

• Data Analysis Stage
  • Processing Data
  • Interpreting and analysing data
  • Evaluating evidence in light of stated hypotheses

• Generalization and Application Stage
  • Reaching generalizations
  • Drawing conclusions
  • Making value judgements and formulating business strategies or public policies

• Re-evaluating the investigation and research process in light of intermittant developments (changes in issues, research skills and capabilities, values and insights)

Research and Writing Guides (References)