‘Thinking About How We Think’: Using Bourdieu’s Epistemic Reflexivity to Reduce Bias in International Business Research

Abstract

The paper advances epistemic reflexivity as a methodological process for dealing with knowledge biases in International Business research. By drawing upon Bourdieu’s (Sociological Theory, 7:26–63, 1989) reflexive sociology, the paper develops an epistemic form of reflexivity that moves beyond the limiting focus on the researcher’s social background and interpersonal relations with the researched, towards the conditions of knowledge production contained in the researcher’s subjective role as well as intellectual bias and positioning. Such an approach enhances trustworthiness and credibility in all research processes (qualitative, quantitative, mixed and multimethod), through a systematic exploration of social scientific claims. This can be achieved by the IB researcher scrutinising their own Self, cultural practices, biases and ‘unthought categories of thought’, which, if not problematised, may limit our understanding of other peoples’ ‘social reality’ and the IB phenomena that we investigate. The paper contributes to IB research methods literature by developing an epistemic theoretical foundation for reflexivity in addition to devising a methodological process for researchers to intellectually engage with, comprising of six reflexive, self-interrogating ‘thinking tasks’.

Situating implementation science (IS) in res(IS)tance: a conceptual frame toward the integration of scholarship from the black radical tradition

“…To generate the essential friction required for this resistance, we propose engagement with scholarship of the Black radical tradition and critical social theories as powerful candidates. Such scholarship could serve as a catalyst for questioning established norms of racial hierarchy and their intersectionalities, fostering a dynamic environment that encourages critical reflection and innovative thinking within implementation science ( 69 , 70 ).”…”