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Lived fictions: moving from pharmacology to ethnography
Author(s) -
FITZGERALD JOHN L.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
drug and alcohol review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.018
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1465-3362
pISSN - 0959-5236
DOI - 10.1080/09595239300185521
Subject(s) - positivism , multidisciplinary approach , ecstasy , mdma , frame (networking) , psychology , epistemology , engineering ethics , medicine , sociology , social science , psychiatry , computer science , engineering , philosophy , telecommunications
While positivist science dominates the drug and alcohol research sector, alternative constructivist paradigms of inquiry into drug and alcohol use are also present. The passage of individual researchers through paradigm shifts is often difficult, and rarely documented. Different paradigms of inquiry produce different types of information. The use of the psychoactive drug methylenedioxymetham‐phetamine (MDMA or “Ecstasy”) is discussed in light of a multidisciplinary investigation into the pharmacology and use of MDMA. The role of the author in interpreting data from both positivist and constructivist paradigms is highlighted by documenting a researchers' changes in epistemology whilst undertaking multidisciplinary research. It is concluded that multidisciplinary research into drug and alcohol use could benefit from evaluation of the processes that frame how information from both research paradigms is interpreted and integrated.