IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-03775021.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

What to write about? The parable of Diogenes

Author

Listed:
  • Jerzy Kociatkiewicz

    (IMT-BS - MMS - Département Management, Marketing et Stratégie - TEM - Télécom Ecole de Management - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris] - IMT-BS - Institut Mines-Télécom Business School - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris], LITEM - Laboratoire en Innovation, Technologies, Economie et Management (EA 7363) - UEVE - Université d'Évry-Val-d'Essonne - Université Paris-Saclay - IMT-BS - Institut Mines-Télécom Business School - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris])

Abstract

In this short chapter, I ponder the question of choosing appropriate topics for social science writing. Taking inspiration from Diogenes the Cynic and C. Wright Mills, I argue for viewing social science as an ongoing and undirected conversation where no topics are ever conclusively settled, and all discussions are liable to be re-opened and continued. I briefly wonder at the staggering variety of different ways of framing the same research experience, and the possibilities this opens up for writing social science differently. I argue against prescriptive determination of appropriate research tropics, and for the research and expressive freedom offered by the search for resonances with past texts, own experiences, and current contexts. I praise the example of Diogenes in resisting the seduction of aligning one's research with the currently dominant power structures, and in being able to find one's purpose and enjoyment outside the formal reward systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Jerzy Kociatkiewicz, 2022. "What to write about? The parable of Diogenes," Post-Print hal-03775021, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03775021
    DOI: 10.4337/9781800887732.00008
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03775021. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.