Objective but not detached: Partisanship in industrial relations research’

Darlington, RR and Dobson, JR 2013, 'Objective but not detached: Partisanship in industrial relations research’' , Capital and Class, 37 (2) , pp. 285-297.

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Abstract

This article considers whether industrial relations (IR) research is objective, impartial or value-free, and argues that many IR academics in Britain have tended to start from a social-democratic premise which makes them relatively more sympathetic to the interests and objectives of workers and their trade unions than to the business needs of employers and managers. Focusing attention on the partisanship of those who have made a distinctive ‘radical/critical’ contribution to IR scholarship, it advances the argument that IR can, at one and the same time, be both partisan and objective. Acknowledging the real potential dangers of bias in adopting a methodological approach that states, in the words of C. Wright Mills, ‘I have tried to be objective, but I do not claim to be detached’, it provides a defence of the potential merits of partisanship, provided it is underpinned by rigorous scholarly research.

Item Type:	Article
Schools:	Schools > Salford Business School Schools > Salford Business School > Salford Business School Research Centre
Journal or Publication Title:	Capital and Class
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Refereed:	Yes
ISSN:	0309-8168
Related URLs:	Publication
Funders:	Non funded research
Depositing User:	RR Darlington
Date Deposited:	04 Apr 2014 17:44
Last Modified:	16 Feb 2022 15:20
URI:	https://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/31004

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