Exploring reality through new lenses. The informal essay as an academic genre

Abstract

Can the essay genre used in education and reserarch provide new options for describing reality? This genre has already obtained a strong position in philosophy, in which it has proven to be appraopriate when dealing with "the far too big and the far too small questions". But what about the essay as a supplement to - or even a replacement for - traditonal descriptions within social science in higher education?