Convergence approach is viewed evermore as an approach to be adopted in scientific research. The life sciences, physical sciences, Engineering, culture & media studies seem to have made major advances with convergence approach. What need the social sciences to do to get out of their departmental ghettos and work in partnership with others? Produce research papers with co-authorship, or use citations from other areas in one's research? In historiography would be necessary to work more along the view of connected histories?
Dear,
I understand that none of perspectives can be put aside and historical aspects should be carefully reviewed. Greetings!
I'm not much of a social scientist, although much interested in it. Among other meanings " convergence" also means - different propositions directed to the same result -. If we consider a social phenomenon, for instance, the econoimic difficulties of families in slums, different points of view may be considered depending on ideological or ethical positions. Whilst dealing with this problema a socialist perspective may diverge from that of social democracy, and religeous ethics may not coincide with social ethics. But the theory of Convergence, can certainly make possible the realization of a project wherin a productive solution may be found to solve the issue of poverty concerning the families in the slum área, and elsewhere.
Thr problem, however arises due to stubborness and/or the irrealistic lack of will to find the converging point or result.As such one must fight against this tendency.
Dear Osman and Antonio, I appreciate your reflections about convergent approach in Social Sciences. If you wish to try your hand at it, here is a challenge.
http://bit.ly/2ei7X4q
The biggest blockade to much of this is the fealty we have to our academic disciplines or subdiscplines. For example, I am an Organizational Communication Scholar. I found myself "stuck," looking for ways to expand what I study into other areas. It wasn't until I started working people from other fields that my research really started taking off.
In the past couple of years, I've worked with rhetoricians, educational technology scholars, narrative scholars, journalists, autoethnographers, and media/pop culture scholars. We all have different backgrounds, different styles of writing, and differing research methods. However, this has been very productive.
Through these collaborations, I've been able to put together two edited collections, a special journal issue, and two academic articles since 2014. The first book was about the concept of polymediated communication. That has branched out to include polymediation and fan conventions/cultures, and polymediated narratives in television series. We are currently working on another article and a few big grants. And I have a contract for another edited collection on personal stories/autoethnographies in organizational contexts.
I now work via the following premises:
I will keep studying my field.
I will keep writing about my field.
I will always extend a hand to others by which we can collaborate together.
In effect, there's both fragmentation (we all work in our own fields) and convergence (where we collaborate on projects).
Dear Andrew
I like your observations and appreciate your efforts and "convergent" practice. But I feel that problems result from the fact that we implicitly follow still a condescential approach, of giving a hand! It is about joining hands. The important is not what I and you can do, but what our target subject / object needs.
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