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Concepts And Nature Of The Geographical Research Essay

Decent Essays

contrast between the use of actual physical space and the processes occurring in the space, creating differentiation between researches.
Divides also arise over theory, methods and the nature of the geographical research. According to Del Casino et al. (2000: 253), ‘methodology requires the translation of epistemological and ontological precepts and assumptions into ‘data’ that can be analyzed’. Through researchers’ precepts, different methods are adopted from which mixed results are drawn, thus dividing the research. Geographic research can also adopt either deductive or inductive approaches. Deductive involves first thinking up a theory about our topic of interest, then developing it into hypotheses which are either confirmed or not confirmed by the observation and data collection process. Inductive approaches work the opposite way, with the observation process helping to identify any patterns and to pose tentative hypotheses, which then lead to the development of theories. These two approaches identify a clear division amongst geographic research.
Methodological approaches in the sciences are usually divided between quantitative and qualitative methods. Whilst some research papers demonstrated the use of qualitative data through interviews and diaries, others used quantitative data by using numerical data collection and statistical analysis. By simply understanding the different data collection methods in both qualitative research and in quantitative research, there is a

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