On the Primacy of Understanding Over Method

Volume |Issue 30| Summer 2019 |Articles

Abstract

An analytical approach based on theory is a worthy methodology in the social sciences and humanities. The problem of research in our cultural context is not in the discussion of technicalities, such as technology, statistics, mathematics, etc., tools that can be used and developed in any context. Theoretical interest in the socio-economic and cultural context of the societies studied is necessary for methodological development. Most social sciences and humanities theories have developed in different stages of time, places, cultural contexts and in light of studies of other societies. Undoubtedly it is useful to utilize these studies, but with objective criticism. But most discussion around methodology revolves around the subject external to the context that it is supposed to address. The overlap of disciplines in fact is an overlap of methodology, i.e. different approaches to the interpretation of the phenomenon, because the perspectives of different disciplines produce different approaches of the subject under discussion. Theories in the structure of reality in a specific area establish a method or approach in the study of these areas.

The challenge is clear for theoretical production through research. This is the achievement of useful analytical approaches and methods for understanding societies and relationships between humans and their cultural and spiritual world in the specific context in question.

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General Director of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies (ACRPS) and Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies (DI). Bishara is a leading Arab researcher and intellectual with numerous books and academic publications on political thought, social theory and philosophy. He was named by Le Nouveau Magazine Littéraire as one of the world's most influential thinkers. His publications in Arabic, some of which have become key references within their respective field, include Civil Society: A Critical Study (1996); From the Jewishness of the State to Sharon (2004); On The Arab Question: An Introduction to an Arab Democratic Manifesto (2007); To Be an Arab in Our Times (2009); On Revolution and Susceptibility to Revolution (2012); Religion and Secularism in Historical Context (in 3 vols., 2013, 2015); The Army and Political Power in the Arab Context: Theoretical Problems (2017); The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Daesh): A General Framework and Critical Contribution to Understanding the Phenomenon (2018); What is Populism? (2019); Democratic Transition and its Problems: Theoretical Lessons from Arab Experiences (2020); and The Question of the State: Philosophy, Theory, and Context (2023) with a second volume titled The Arab State: Beginnings and Evolution (2024).

His latest publication in Arabic titled Palestine: Matters of Truth and Justice (2024), is translated from English, originally published in 2022 by Hurst Publishers in London. Bishara's English publications also include On Salafism: Concepts and Contexts (Stanford University Press, 2022); Sectarianism without Sects (Oxford University Press, 2021); and his trilogy on the Arab revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and Syria, published by I.B. Tauris, Understanding Revolutions: Opening Acts in Tunisia (2021); Egypt: Revolution, Failed Transition and Counter-Revolution (2022); and Syria 2011-2013: Revolution and Tyranny before the Mayhem (2023), in which he provides a rich theoretical analysis in addition to a comprehensive and lucid assessment of the revolutions in three Arab countries. 


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