Locating and Extending Livelihoods Research
33 Pages Posted: 18 Jun 2008
Date Written: April 2008
Abstract
Much poverty and development research is not explicit about its methodology or philosophical foundations. Based on the extended case method of Burawoy and the epistemological standpoint of critical realism, this paper discusses a methodological approach for reflexive inductive livelihoods research that overcomes the unproductive social science dualism of positivism and social constructivism. The approach is linked to a conceptual framework and a menu of research methods that can be sequenced and iterated in light of research questions.
Keywords: livelihoods, methodology, ontology, epistemology, cross-disciplinary research, research methods, poverty
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation