Theory-based or Practice-based Research - What is the Difference?

Abstract

This paper debates what makes practice-based research sound research from the assumption that what qualifies research is how it is carried out in accordance with a code of conduct characterising work as research. This is indifferent to the field of research, whether it is in arts, humanities, or natural sciences as they are all subject to the same set of rules. Whether the practice can be acknowledged as research is a matter of exercising these rules. Hence, it is suggested to talk about virtues of doing research as a matter of demonstrating how one master and respects rules in research shared by all members of a specific research community. The virtues relate to the necessity of following and displaying ones ability to work by them which is, in the case of a PhD, what one is expected to demonstrate explicitly. Talking about virtues in research, furthermore
points to how the specific research community defines the specific character of research within this community. Architecture and design have a knowledge tradition of their own, and when this meets research the task is to unite the knowledge tradition with the rules of research rather than importing theories from other fields.