Document Type : Promotional scientific article
Authors
1
Associate Prof., Faculty of Management, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran
2
Department of Business management, Faculty of Management, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Post-qualitative inquiry, as an emerging orientation in the methodology of the human sciences, advances a radical critique of the humanist and method-centered assumptions of conventional qualitative research. This approach, most prominently associated with the work of Elizabeth St. Pierre, does not seek to refine existing qualitative methods; rather, it aims to challenge their ontological and epistemological foundations. The present article seeks to elucidate the philosophical underpinnings, principal critiques, and distinctive features of post-qualitative inquiry.Theoretically, this approach is grounded in poststructuralism and draws on the thought of Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Gilles Deleuze, and Félix Guattari. Within this framework, the human subject is understood as a discursive construction; language is not viewed as a transparent representation of reality but as constitutive of it; and being is conceived as a process of becoming and immanence. Consequently, concepts such as “voice,” “narrative,” “coding,” and the distinction between observer and observed are subjected to critical reconsideration.Rather than selecting and implementing a predetermined method, post-qualitative inquiry emphasizes the emergence of method within the research process itself and foregrounds the primacy of ontological questions. The findings of this article suggest that post-qualitative inquiry cannot be defined as a method alongside other methods; instead, it should be understood as a philosophical stance that problematizes the very idea of “method.” Despite challenges such as difficulties in evaluation and pedagogy, this approach opens new horizons for rethinking the relationship among research, thought, and knowledge in the human sciences.
Keywords
)