Theoretical Perspectives

Prior to the discussion about the research methodology employed in this thesis (discussed in section 5.3), the theoretical perspective that informs the methodology selected will be discussed. Crotty (1998, p. 3) defined theoretical perspective as “the philosophical stance informing the methodology and thus providing a context for the process and grounding its logic and criteria”. In social research, there are a number of theoretical approaches which are relevant to social science. These include positivism, interpretivism, Marxism, critical theory, feminism and postmodernism. The perspectives outlined by these theoretical approaches are discussed in this section. The information

about the social theoretical perspectives described below come from Bessant & Watts (2002), Crotty (1998) and Drislane & Parkinson (2006):

Positivism

Positivist perspective is a way to gain understanding of phenomena and their connections to the natural and social sciences. It contends that all objects have inherent meanings in themselves. Therefore, positivism does not ascribe subjective meanings to objects. The positivist view point focuses on clearness and accuracy of the social knowledge and the use of scientific approach to gain an understanding of human and social development. It is based on the view that accuracy and truth come from the objective measurement of a situation (Crotty 1998).

Interpretivism

Distinct from positivism, interpretivism looks for meaning of human subjective behaviour. While positivism emphasizes measurement of how people act, the interpretivist perspective says that knowledge comes from how people think about and report their actions. Hence, interpretivists obtain social knowledge by studying cultures and histories of the societies, and by taking meaning from the interpretations of people (Crotty 1998).

Marxism

Marxist ideas have been widely used in philosophy, politics, economy and sociology. The key idea is that in different periods of time, societies have had a distinct mode of production and distinct social relationships in the economy. Marxism promotes the belief that in every historical period, societies are unequal and the majority of people are subordinated by a powerful minority. Marxists, therefore, agree that human action can be understood by learning about the class structures of a society (Bessant & Watts 2002).

Critical theory

Critical theory represents the convergences of different intellectual ideas, such as Marxism and psychoanalysis. It agrees with some ideas of other theoretical perspectives but disputes others. The main task of critical theorists is providing criticism; they emphasize making judgments of human actions, rather than just describing them (Bessant & Watts 2002; Drislane & Parkinson 2006).

Feminism

Feminism is known as an intellectual movement primarily developed by women, though it has influenced both genders. Feminists suggest that the social world has been dominated by men, leading to the exclusion of women in the societies, and causing women to be marginalized in social organization and culture. The aim of feminism is to revise the social world, to find a way to criticize, re-evaluate and transform women’s place in their societies (Bessant & Watts 2002; Drislane & Parkinson 2006).

Postmodernism

In social theory, postmodernism is the term used to refer to a rejection of the assumptions of the modern world or of the enlightenment. Unlike modernism that searches for disinterested knowledge, universal truth and social progress, postmodernism abandons entire ways of claiming truth. Instead of clarify things, postmodernists prefer to leave things ambiguous. This perspective suggests that we live in a fragmented world with multiple realities, and science or other approaches can not create universal principles of the social world because there is no unitary reality waiting to be found (Crotty 1998).

These diverse perspectives provide opportunities for the way any research could be conducted. However, the theoretical perspective that lies behind the methodology

proposed for this thesis is interpretivism, which suggests that the social world can be understood by investigating the subjective meaning of human action. The interpretivists learn by taking meaning from the interpretations of people (Crotty 1998). The overall aim of this research is to identify the most environmentally preferable option for the use of rice husk. To achieve this aim, there are some specific objectives to be dealt with initially. It is important to identify the different uses of rice husk in the Thai context, to investigate how rice husk has been treated in different manners and to analyse the environmental impacts of the selected major and potential uses of rice husk in Thailand (stated in section 1.2). To achieve the overall aim of this research, it needs to rely on the information provided by others, and from a range of data sources. In these situations, it needs to assume that the data obtained from the various sources are accurate. As discussed in the section on the limitations of LCA (see section 4.6), LCA application requires a lot of assumptions, value judgments and trade-offs to help in analysing the environmental impacts. To perform an LCA study, it needs to assume that the data derived from the assumptions made are validated. Thus, the interpretivist perspective is considered appropriated to inform the research methodology employed for this thesis. Within this research framework, the data collected will be analysed using a standard LCA method and software package (discussed in Chapter 7). It is important to note that the theoretical perspective that lies behind the LCA method is positivism. Therefore, the positivism perspective is used to imform the methodology of analysis of environmental impacts of alternative rice husk uses discussed in Chapter 7. While having a general relationship to a positivist philosophy, this method relies heavily on interpretations of human and physical system interconnections.