A REVIEW OF SOME RESEARCH PARADIGMS AND PROBLEMS IN SOCIAL-SCIENCE RESEARCH OF INTEREST TO CONTEMPORARY GEOGRAPHY

The purpose of this paper is to contrast research methods in use in the Biological and Physical Sciences with those in use in the Social Sciences, and to do so in a manner which emphasizes aspects of these methods of interest to Geographers. Attention is directed to the strengths and weaknesses of different research paradigms with respect to problems which are characteristic of social science subject matter. Many of these problems take a different form or are absent in the older disciplines in which most of the research types reviewed have their origins.