A Pathological Study of Knowledge Creation in Humanities Research Centers

The main objective of this research is to pathologically study knowledge creation in humanities research centers affiliated to the universities. In the pursuit of this goal, grounded theory was employed. The study group constituted of eleven humanities research centers in one of the universities of Iran. Fourteen members of the research centers were interviewed. The garnered data were analyzed during the two stages of open and pivotal codifications. On the basis of the analysis of interviews, nine categories were extracted, which are most important problems of humanities research centers of the universities. These problems include weak motivation, weak structure, isolation of research, weak university support, education-oriented approach of university, lack of a total knowledge management system, weak morale for cooperation in research, research centers as black boxes and limitation of funds. Moreover, the findings also show that focus of research centers on meeting the demands of the society is through research projects, while half of the centers are semi-active and the other half are non-active.