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methods
ACROSS FAMILIES/ Philosophy

Pragmatism

Choose enquiry for its consequences

Pragmatism treats knowledge as developing through enquiry into practical problems and attention to the consequences of beliefs and actions. It supports methodological pluralism when choices are justified by the question and their contribution. It is often used with mixed methods, but neither mixing data types nor choosing a convenient technique is sufficient to make research pragmatic.

WHEN IT FITS

Use when a practical problem requires several kinds of evidence and the study can explain how each contributes to decisions, learning or useful understanding for its intended users.

Strengths

  • Supports coherent combination of evidence types
  • Connects methodological decisions to practical consequences

Limitations

  • Can be reduced misleadingly to whatever is convenient
  • Different stakeholders may disagree about what counts as useful

Know the boundary

Pragmatism is not permission to ignore philosophical assumptions or weak methods.

USED ACROSS
Banking & financeBusiness & MBAPsychologyComputer scienceEducation
CONNECTED METHODS