The role you’re in

Abstract

As you can see from the preceding chapter, project work is based on assumptions which differ substantially from those which underlie scientific research. Unfortunately, there is a tendency for many informal discussions between tutors and students, and most formal accounts in the textbooks to which you will be referred, to adhere to the hypotheticodeductive model, if only implicitly. This is particularly true of the role ascribed to you. This results in a vagueness about how you are to be seen: are you an academic taking concepts and techniques into the field of practice (see Figure 6.1); a scientist about to investigate a hypothesis which seems to apply to the practitioner field; a practitioner/employee puzzling out the relevance of academic ideas to his or her own situation; or simply someone doing their best in an underspecified role?