Generative Relational Economics - Chapter 6: Research Praxis of Generative Relational Theory

This chapter develops research praxis for Generative Relational Theory and Generative Relational Economics by connecting ontology and epistemology with the practical organization of inquiry. Research is treated as a situated and revisable praxis involving judgment, attention, methodological choice, institutional relations, interpretation, responsibility, and interaction with changing fields of evidence. The chapter distinguishes research-dominant and application-dominant praxis, examines contingent encounter and aesthetic judgment in the formation of research orientation, and develops a plural account of formal, quantitative, qualitative, historical, interpretive, ethnographic, legal, institutional, and computational inquiry. It further considers methodological translation, reflexivity, historical change in methods and evaluative standards, preservation and re-epistemization, epistemic power and justice, AI-assisted research, collective knowledge production, theory evolution, failure and negative results, open and cumulative research practice, and the limits of inquiry. Particular attention is given to the growing importance of orientation, verification, provenance, contingent encounter, and responsible judgment under conditions of AI-mediated research abundance. The chapter concludes by translating these praxis-level commitments into methodological requirements, thereby preparing the transition to relational methodology in the following chapter.