THE PRAGMATIC DIMENSION

Arguments are delivered against the proposition that choosing a qualitative or a quantitative research method is completely paradigmatically determined and that these methods cannot be justifiably triangulated or combined because of the incompatibility of their associated paradigms. Social scientific paradigms (such as the empirical-analytical, interpretative and critical paradigms) do not appear logically compelling incompatible with respect to ontological or epistemological aspects as is often stated. In addition, paradigms and methods are mutually underdetermined. This is so, because the linkages of paradigms with methods are partly based on a kind of 'Wahlverwandtschaft' and because these linkages seem partly to be of a psychological and sociological nature. Both paradigms and methods can be conceived as perspectives. Moreover, perspectivism does not necessarily imply a common (positivistic) reality, but may be conceived otherwise, for instance, as a pluralistic constructivism. Besides paradigmatic and general methodological factors there is room for several pragmatic factors which influence the choice of a research method. This pragmatic room can be structured by eight dimensions, viz.: the researcher, the concrete object of study, the research situation, the research question, the research goal, relevant audiences, conditions and circumstances, and the time-dimension.