Mapping the aliran of the academic discipline of entrepreneurship: A ...

in ‘horses for courses’ or, to put it more academically, a need to “get on with t he business
of attacking our problems with the widest array of conceptual and methodological tools
that we possess and they demand (Trow 1957)” [cited in Niglas, 2000, p1].
3.1.1.10 The perceived academic fixation with qualitative and quantitative does limit
possibilities to generate other ways of look ing at knowledge. “This back and forth banter
among qualitative and quantitative researchers is ‘essentially unproductive’ according to
Miles and Huberman” [cited by Barnes et al, 2005]. “A number of authors have criticized
the rigid distinctions made between quantitative and qualitative research approaches, and
argue instead for scholars to think of the range of research methods as a continuum”
[Clark, 2000, p5].
3.1.1.11 It is this concept of the continuum that has most compatibility with my own
approaches to epistemology as well as methodo logy. The next section discusses the
problems I faced, as an academic researcher, in using terms such as Foucauldian discourse
analysis, with the subsequent section discussing the concept of a lineage of knowledge as
part of the concept of a continuum.
3.1.2 Foucauldian discourse analysis ?
3.1.2.01 The initial methodological approach considered for this research was a
Foucauldian based discourse analysis. However, as the literature review progressed the use
of the term ‘discourse analysis’ became problematic, as indeed did the term ‘Foucauldian’.
The methodology became emergent, evolving as the literature review uncovered further
aspects. The issues that became part of the emergent methodology are discussed as
follows.
3.1.2.02 The first issues relate to the terminology of ‘discourse analysis’ and
‘Foucauldian’. The term ‘discourse analysis’ rendered itself redundant with the evolving
definitions as outlined in Part Two. Discourse became defined as the larger entity whereas
my focus was on the discipline, which, by my definition, was a smaller entity within the
discourse. To apply a form of ‘discourse analysis’ to the discourse as defined in Part Two
114