ABSTRACT
Epistemology, methodology, method and ethical issues are all interrelated. However, they all mean slightly different things. A common distinction between epistemology and methodology is that the former deals with criteria for what constitutes scientifi c and scholarly knowledge, while the latter focuses on rules, principles and procedures for the production of knowledge. Distinct from methodology, methods relates to the concrete approaches chosen to carry out a particular piece of research. Since the process and the product of research-and issues concerning choice of approaches, methodological underpinnings of this choice and criteria for how a desirable outcome of the research can be reached-are so closely related, these issues are often discussed together. By contrast, the question of ethics (how to conduct research in ethically sustainable and morally responsible ways) is often treated separately from the issues of epistemology, methodology and methods. However, in this book I have chosen to proceed somewhat differently. Following on from the previous chapter’s discussion of epistemologies, in this chapter I shall link the discussion of methodologies, methods and ethics.
