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Johann Mouton
Johann Mouton

Author of books on the methodology of the Social Sciences
Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Stellenbosch

Prof. Johann Mouton
Director
Centre for Research on Science and Technology
University of Stellenbosch
Stellenbosch 7600
Tel: 021 808-3708
Fax: 021 808-2023

Career: Johann Mouton is Director of the Centre for Research on Science and Technology and professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Stellenbosch. He received his Doctorate in Philosophy at the Rand Afrikaans University in 1983 with a thesis on the philosophy of science. He taught in Philosophy at Potchefstroom University (1976-1977) and Rand Afrikaans University (1978 - 1982), after which he joined the Human Sciences Research Council. Here he was appointed as Head of the Centre for Research Methodology (1983 - 1990), Director of the Group for Information Dynamics (1990 - 1993) and Executive Director of the Centre for Science Development (1993 - 1994). He joined the University of Stellenbosch in 1994.
He is married to Maria Mouton (neê Nieman) and they have three daughters; the twins, Charline and Sanet, and Marike.

Professional Experience: Johann Mouton has extensive research and research management experience. In the areas of research, he has been project manager for the past 15 years of more than 10 large scale surveys including the South African Values Survey, HSRC Information Update surveys and the Survey on Scholarship, Research and Development. He has also undertaken numerous programme evaluation studies including the national evaluation of the Thousand Schools Project of the Independent Development Trust, Technology 2005, and projects funded by the Desmond Tutu Educational Trust. He is currently involved in educational evaluation projects in the fields of service learning and multigrade schooling.

In the area of research management, he was Director of the HSRC Investigation into Research Methodology (1983 - 1994). More recently, he has served as a member of the US Research Committee, the Research Ethics Committee and the Senate Committee on Academic Development. He is a past member of the South African Programme Committee of the South Africa Netherlands Research Programme. He was also Chairman of the Board of the South African Data Archive. He is member of a number of South African editorial Boards, as well as two international journals: Sociological Research Online and the International Journal of Research Methodology.

He is currently project leader for various research programmes in Science and Technology including a programme on knowledge utilisation funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, a project on changing modes of knowledge production in the Higher Education Sector and funded by SANPAD; a study on the state of women in SET in South Africa commissioned by the Department of Science and Technology as well as a project on indigenous knowledge systems funded by the National Research Foundation. In addition, he is Course Director of the first specialized Masters programme in Social Science Methods, which he started at Stellenbosch University in 1996; and the Study of Science and Technology Studies in 1998. He is supervisor for more than 60 Masters and Doctoral students in these two programmes.
He received Merit Awards HSRC (1987,88) and was awarded the Stals Prize for his contributions to trans- and inter-disciplinary research in 2001 and the Stals Prize for General Science Education and General Research Methodology in 2007.
He is a member of the SA Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns, the Academy of Science of South Africa as well as the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology and several other national societies.

Areas of specialisation: Philosophy and methodology of the social sciences; research design and programme evaluation; research management and research ethics; research evaluation and science policy.

He is currently a member of the DST's Reference Group on the bi-ennial R&D Survey, Vice-President for Research Management of the South African Research and Innovation Management Association and a member of the NRF's Assessment Panel for the Social Sciences and its Panel for Indigenous Knowledge Systems.

Publications, report and conferences:Author or co-author of 8 books and editor or co-editor of 7 books in the methodology of the social sciences. He has also contributed 26 chapters to anthologies and published 26 articles in accredited journals. He has produced more than 30 contract reports and presented 70 papers at international and local conferences. He was Series Editor of the HSRC Studies in Methodology which produced more than 40 titles. He has also organised more than 30 national workshops on research management and research methodology and 12 conferences in the areas of the philosophy and methodology of social research.

Books :
Basiese begrippe in die metodologie van die geesteswetenskappe (Senior author), HSRC, 1985
Social sciences, society and power [Editor], HSRC, 1986
Philosophy in South Africa (Co-editor with CS de Beer), RGN, 1987
Basic concepts in the methodology of the social sciences (Senior author), HSRC, 1988
The methodology and philosophy of the social sciences: A selective bibliography of anthologies 1950--1985, HSRC, 1988
Paradigms and progress in theology (Co-editor), HSRC, 1988
Knowledge and method in the human sciences (Co-editor), HSRC, 1990
The relevance of theology for the 1990s (Co-editor), HSRC, 1994
Understanding social research, Van Schaik Publishers, 1996
Knowledge, method and the public good (with Muller, J), HSRC, 1997
Theory and method in South African human sciences research: Advances and innovations. (Co-editor with Muller, J, Franks, P and Sono, T), HSRC, 1998
How to succeed in your master's and doctoral studies, Van Schaik Publishers, 2001
The practice of social research (with E Babbie), Oxford University Press, 2001


Text by Johann Mouton, July 2004

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