A Human Science for the Study of Movement: An Integration of Multiple Ways of Knowing

Abstract

Although the physical science approach to the study of movement was originally adopted as sufficient for the study of humans, the limitations of this approach are increasingly being recognized. This recognition of limitations has led to the widespread use of an often confusing variety of research methodologies. The variety of research methods can be readily understood when differentiated in two ways: first, according to the level of reality to which they refer and, second, according to the specific interest in the inquiry—whether the interest is technical manipulation, the understanding of meaning, or emancipation. The necessity for this realities-based framework is grounded in the recognition that the human world of movement, in addition to relating to the material realm, also includes meaning. This framework then provides an integration of ways of knowing and methodologies for one of the most profound scientific potentials necessary for a human science—understanding meaning.