Four contexts of knowing framework based on regulativeness and constitutiveness of knowledge and community¶

Theory · All theories
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

The paper articulates a heuristic framework, developed by Silverman (1993), that differentiates areas of study by substantive and communal variation rather than standard divisions such as natural versus social science. As the abstract states, "Papers were placed into four contexts of knowing, based on variations of the concepts of regulativeness and constitutiveness of both the knowledge base and of the community." The framework posits that regulative knowledge is paradigm-like while constitutive knowledge lets objects of study speak for themselves, and that constitutive communities are organic and evolving whereas regulative communities follow the logic of relations within an existing discipline. The four intersections label the rhetorical logics of journal comment-and-reply exchanges.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• The framework is applied to published comments and replies in research and scholarly journals, requiring journals that periodically publish such exchanges

Constraints¶

• The paper explicitly does not look at journals structured on a comment and reply format, focusing instead on journals publishing such work periodically

Target Learners¶

• scholars and academic authors participating in disciplinary discourse

Target Learning Objectives¶

• understanding how knowledge claims are articulated, critiqued, and validated within a field

Claims¶

Related Theories¶

• Onto-Epistemic Heterogeneity

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Silverman, Robert J. (1993). Comments and Replies: Academic Conversations. ASHE Annual Meeting Paper. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED365173