AHMAD SOHAIL LODHI
Lecturer at University of the Punjab, Pakistan
PhD candidate, University of Leeds, UK
ahamd.ier@pu.edu.pk ; edasl@leeds.ac.uk
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About the project
Journey to find Archer’s morphogenetic
approach
My experiences of understanding the
approach
The guiding role of the morphogenetic
approach in this study
Lessons learnt
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The University:
 Regulated by the Higher Education
Commission (HEC) of Pakistan but
autonomous in articulating internal policies
and practices
 Teaching as a dominant element
 Striving to promote research under the
influence and support of HEC
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The focus of my project was to examine factors
influencing the development of research
cultures in two social sciences faculties in a
Pakistani public university.
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Organisational culture
 Committed to shared norms, values and
assumptions
Do universities have an organisational culture?
Archer ‘s conception of culture
 Heterogeneous ideas
 Interplay between the ‘parts’ and the
‘people’
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Difficult language and vocabulary
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Interconnected concepts
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Few empirical studies that used the
morphogenetic approach
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Conceptualizing the notion of research
culture
Ideational aspects of the model
Choosing and developing instruments for
data collection
Informed by the stages of the
morphogenetic cycle
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Interview questions
People’s views and perceptions about research
e.g. it should be applied or pure etc.
What, why and how questions
Questionnaire item
I have adequate time to conduct research (e.g.,
writing articles, books and presenting conference
papers etc.)…................................ SD D N A SA
Conceptualizing the notion of research
culture
Choosing and developing instruments for
data collection
Analyzing empirical data
the morphogenetic framework as template
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Periodisation to indicate the stages of
the morphogenetic cycle
 Relatively straightforward task
 T1
 T2 (when new leadership took over
the university)
 T3 (when data was collected)
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Articulation of Cultural and Structural
emergent properties
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Sometimes difficult to sustain analytical
distinction between culture and structure
e.g. teaching-research
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Difficult task to maintain ‘analytical
dualism’ while analysing interviews,
especially, in case of cultural emergent
properties
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Necessary and contingent relations
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Mostly unproblematic to identify
Influences of regulatory body (HEC)
Discipline-specific influences on research
practices
Complementary and contradictory relations
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Easy to identify but difficult to handle
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Time-consuming process
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Availability of literature about the context
in relation to the problem
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Long time span (T2-T3) is preferable
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Knowledge about the context
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