Alternative Approaches in the Study of Complex Situations

There seems to be a continuing debate concerning two alternative approaches to the study of complex situations. The debate occurs explicitly or implicitly in discussions of the proper way to study any number of problems; e.g., the proper way to examine the nature of higher educationo,1 ommunity action programs,2 the phenomena of poverty. Sometimes the issue is phrased in terms of the relative merits of quantitative as opposed to qualitative work, sometimes in terms of the relative advisability of developing preliminary hypotheses a; opposed to assuming a more exploratory stance. Certain merits are claimed for each approach: reliability, precision, the possibility of prediction and control, for the one; and validity, evocativeness, the possibility of sympathetic understanding, for the other. Underlying the debates on appropriate research strategy there is often disagreement on a more fundamental matter, the conceptual framework for understanding complex situations.