Social Science Research and Public Action: A Preface

Abstract

This paper is a systematic analysis of the internal tension between theory and practice. In the first part of the paper an attempt is made to unravel the gap between academia and practice. The underlying structure to this gap lies in the epistemology (theory of knowledge) of social research. The paper argues for alternative mode of knowledge production – knowledge that is capable of triggering action in the form of practical wisdom. The core argument of the paper is that social science needs to relook epistemology in a different way than natural science, if relevance to practice has to be reinstituted. Rationality principles of ancient Greece and India (though in contrasting manner) provides light to find answers in redefining epistemology, which is examined in depth in the second part of the paper.