Social Science and Systematic Inquiry in Africana Studies PDF

Sage Reference Handbook of Black Studies For the most optimal reading experience we recommend using our website. A free-to-view version of this content is available here, which includes an easy to navigate and search entry, and may also include videos, embedded datasets, downloadable datasets, inter...

Sage Reference Handbook of Black Studies For the most optimal reading experience we recommend using our website. A free-to-view version of this content is available here, which includes an easy to navigate and search entry, and may also include videos, embedded datasets, downloadable datasets, interactive questions, audio content and downloadable tables and resources. Author: James B. Stewart Pub. Date: 2010 Product: Sage Reference DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412982696 Keywords: jazz, black studies, negro, Asante, social science, social science research, black culture Disciplines: Race & Ethnicity, Race, Ethnicity & Migration, Black Studies, Sociology Access Date: August 1, 2023 Publishing Company: SAGE Publications, Inc. City: Thousand Oaks Online ISBN: 9781412982696 © 2010 SAGE Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. Social Science and Systematic Inquiry in Africana Studies: Challenges for the 21st Century James B.Stewart Theories, methods, and research findings anchored in the social sciences have played, and continue to play, an important role in contemporary Africana Studies. This symbiosis reflects a shared dedication to systematic scrutiny as a means of understanding complex social phenomena. However, several critical differences between Africana Studies and the traditional social sciences necessitate that temptations be avoided to embrace social science approaches to knowledge generation as a singular developmental objective. Many Africana Studies proponents have insisted that it is a multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary enterprise. Although the prevalence of interdisciplinary social science initiatives is increasing, discipline-specific research remains the norm. This high level of compartmentalization reinforces tendencies to produce studies yielding only minor incremental additions to knowledge about highly specialized topics, and there are few incentives to develop the type of comprehensive analyses envisioned by Africana Studies theorists. Africana Studies advocates endorse a unified social science approach that synthesizes perspectives from various disciplines to identify as many factors as are feasible that affect a particular phenomenon and decipher how these various influences interact. The high value placed on artistic and humanistic modes of understanding and describing reality in Africana Studies is a second reason for constraining the influence of the social sciences. Overcommitment to social science-based research artificially delimits the range of information available to Africana Studies researchers for exploring important issues. Consequently, a knowledge generation strategy focused on increasing crossdialogue between artistic/humanistic and social scientific modes of investigation would seem to be preferable to a unidimensional emphasis on enhancing perceptions of scientific rigor. A third reason that Africana Studies cannot simply imitate the social sciences is that many adherents prioritize liberatory and instrumental knowledge over less utilitarian explorations. Allen (1974) has described these preferences as reflecting an ideological conception positioning Africana Studies as an instrument of cultural nationalism and an instrumental conception mandating that Africana Studies serve as a vehicle for empowering communities. Obviously, these operating principles are diametrically opposed to the conventional wisdom that scientific research should be uncontaminated by political considerations and that theoretical research is supe- Page 2 of 29 Handbook of Black Studies Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. rior to applied research because it requires more intellectual acumen. As a result, counterclaims by Africana Studies scholar-activists have been largely dismissed, and the potential benefits from experimentation with the alternative approaches to knowledge generation that reflect the field's multiple missions have not been explored aggressively. This investigation revisits these issues through in-depth exploration of the historical precedents for the type of knowledge generation approach advocated by Africana Studies theorists and the examination of contemporary efforts to develop alternatives to traditional social science research protocols. The contributions of W. E. B. Du Bois and E. Franklin Frazier to exploring the strengths and weaknesses of social science as a viable means of researching the Black experience are examined in the first section. Their attempts to adapt and modify social science values, theories, and methods, as well as their experimentation in bridging the social science-artistic/humanistic divide, are interpreted as precursors to contemporary efforts by Africana Studies researchers. The social science establishment largely ignored the issues posed by Du Bois, Frazier, and others and institutionalized a racist social science research program that would come under attack in the 1960s. The movement to create a “Black social science” in the early 1970s was one important response to racist social science research that provided a precedent for the nationalist research orientation in Africana Studies research. This movement and early efforts to incorporate social science research within Africana Studies are discussed in the second section. Selected contemporary efforts to revisit the challenges posed by Du Bois and Frazier and develop a libera-tory social science research tradition within Africana Studies are reviewed in the third section. The conclusion offers suggestions for further development of distinctive Africana Studies approaches to systematic inquiry. Du Bois, Frazier, and the Vision of a Unified and Progressive Social Science W. E. B. Du Bois and his colleague, philosopher Rushton Coulburn, insisted that the simultaneous use of three modes of cognition was necessary to comprehend the complexity of human behavior and the functioning of societies. Declaring “No human mind can think in terms of ideation, which is to say, intuition or belief, alone; to attain, develop, and defend the belief there must be some sense-perception and some reasoning,” they then assert, “the mind must employ—in systematic relation with one another—all three methods of cog- Page 3 of 29 Handbook of Black Studies Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. nition” (Coulburn & Du Bois, 1942, p. 519). Advocacy of such a multipronged approach to inquiry reflected Coulburn's and Du Bois's endorsement of Pitrim Sorokin's claim that social dynamics and the unfolding of the historical process are products of the growth and decline of social and cultural systems (Sorokin, 1937–1941). Sorokin classified social systems, such as the family or the state, as real systems, whereas language, science, religion, fine arts, and ethics are designated as the main cultural systems. Derivative cultural systems exist as combinations of the main systems. Du Bois and Coulburn treat the state as a “specialized” social system and refer to some social systems—such as the family and the university—as “encyclopaedic,” because they integrate elements of several cultural systems (Coulburn & Du Bois, 1942, p. 513). Du Bois insisted that scientific study of societies employ a systems framework and that interactions between subsystems be taken into account in specialized studies of subsystems: “Scientific work must be sub-divided, but conclusions that affect the whole subject must be based on study of the whole” (Du Bois, 1898, p. 12). In applying this dictum to examine the experiences of Blacks in the United States he proposed a century-long research program in which 10 topics would be studied in succession, one annually, for 10 cycles (Du Bois, 1904). This proposed methodology can be described as a macrolevel panel design that Du Bois (1904) believed would produce “a continuous record on the condition and development of a group of 10 to 20 millions of men—a body of sociological material unsurpassed in human annals” (p. 85). This project would have, in essence, extended the approaches used in conducting The Atlanta Studies (1897–1911). The design of these individual studies employed the holistic methodology exhibited in The Philadelphia Negro (Du Bois, 1899). The methods developed by Du Bois in producing that classic study reflected his belief that the student of the social problems affecting ethnic minorities must go beyond the group itself … [and] must specially notice the environment: the physical environment of city, sections and house, the far mightier social environment—the surrounding world of custom, wish, whim, and thought which envelops this group and powerfully influences its social development. (p. 5) Central to Du Bois's approach was insistence that the research design focus on in-depth analysis of the Black experience rather than on comparative research: “The careful exhaustive study of the isolated group, then, is the ideal of the sociologist of the 20th century—from that may come … at last careful, cautious generalization and formulation” (Du Bois, 1904, p. 88). In Du Bois's (1904) view, this approach was warranted because the relative isolation of Black Americans necessitated the examination of unique adaptive patterns and detailed Page 4 of 29 Handbook of Black Studies Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. characteristics of the linkage among subsystems: Never in the history of the modern world has there been presented … so rare an opportunity to observe and measure and study the evolution of a great branch of the human race as is given to Americans in the study of the American Negro…. By reason of color and color prejudice the group is isolated—by reason of incentive to change, the changes are rapid and kaleidoscopic, by reason of the peculiar environment, the action and reaction of social forces are seen and can be measured with more than usual ease (pp. 86, 89) E. Franklin Frazier is best known for his celebrated, but controversial, research examining Black families in the United States. However, this interest was functionally related to his broader concern with race relations: My work in sociology falls into two major fields of interest: Race and Culture Contacts and The Family. This has been owing partly to the fact that I have felt that the most fruitful approach to the study of Race and Culture Contacts, especially those aspects as regards acculturation and assimilation, was through the study of the family. (Frazier quoted in Odum, 1951, p. 238) Frazier used this point to offer guidelines for the pursuit of sociological research examining peoples of African descent: The first task in sociological study is to define or formulate a problem in terms of the concepts of the discipline. Then the problem of methods and techniques resolves itself into one of utilizing the appropriate methods and tools…. The conceptual tools of sociological research—whether labeled by old or new verbal symbols—will become more precise as they are utilized to reveal significant relationships between social phenomena. (Frazier, 1968b, pp. 27–28) The method of historical cultural analysis was advocated by Frazier as one of the most useful analytical frameworks for studying African Americans. He claims, in fact, “Any study of the Negro family which possesses value must study it historically and apply the method of cultural analysis” (Frazier, 1927, p. 165). According to Frazier (1927), the method of cultural analysis “takes into account all the factors, psychological, social and economic, which determine the character of any group” (pp. 165–166). Frazier grounded his approach to inquiry in a modified application of the human ecology model developed by the Chicago Sociological School. Frazier's (1968b) goal was to test the general hypothesis that “the problem of family disorganization and reorganization of Negro family life are part of the processes of selection and segregation of those elements in the Negro population which have become emancipated from the traditional Page 5 of 29 Handbook of Black Studies Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. status of the masses” (p. 21). The context in which this theory was tested focused on the urban landscape, paralleling the work of Du Bois. Frazier believed the process of urban expansion could be measured by rates of change in poverty, home ownership, and other variables for areas along the main thoroughfares radiating from the center of the city. Testing this model required segmentation of a geographical space into zones with differing physical characteristics. Frazier used this empirical approach to produce cross-sectional case studies of Black communities in Chicago and New York. Interpretations of the empirical data collected and analyzed in these studies were later integrated with quotations from personal documents from earlier periods to produce largely narrative treatises on Black families and the “Negro” in the United States. Frazier's descriptions, like those of Du Bois, subordinated the presentation of empirical data to a supporting role in clarifying the interpretative narrative. Despite Du Bois's and Frazier's important contributions to establishing workable guidelines for social scientific studies of the Black experience, both expressed strong reservations about excessive commitment to quantification at the expense of conceptual clarity. Coulburn and Du Bois (1942) issued the challenge, If sociology describes and classifies more fully, realistically, and accurately than the other social sciences, let it describe only that which is susceptible of full and realistic classification…. Change and movement have to be further explained, but the sociologist, even the sociologist who has conceived a meaningful-causal system, dare not be too clear that it is man who causes movement and change. (pp. 511–512) At a later point in his career, Frazier (1968a) not only reassessed his earlier fascination with the ecological model, per se, but he also declared serious misgivings about the general conduct of sociological research. He cautioned that “the relations which are revealed between phenomena in ecological studies are not explanations of social phenomena but indicate the selection and segregation of certain elements in the population” (p. 137). The implication of Frazier's caveat is that ecological studies are not a substitute for sociological studies but supplement studies of human social life. For a complete understanding of social phenomena it is necessary to investigate the social organization and culture of a community and the attitudes of the people who constitute the community. (pp. 137–138) Frazier (1968b) insisted further, The question of methods and techniques in sociological research just as in other fields of scientific Page 6 of 29 Handbook of Black Studies Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. inquiry is inseparable from the conceptual organization of the discipline…. In so many so-called sociological studies this simple fact is forgotten and virtuosity in the use of methods and techniques becomes an end in itself…. Many statistical studies lack sociological significance because they fail to show any organic relationship among the elements which they utilize for analysis. (pp. 27–28) Despite his continuing commitment to the type of systematic inquiry presumably reflected in social scientific inquiry, by the first decade of the 20th century, Du Bois had already recognized that social science studies were insufficient to alter broader patterns of social construction of race and patterns of political and economic domination. This realization led him to seek ways of integrating political advocacy and systematic inquiry through his position as editor of the NAACP's organ, The Crisis. Writing in 1944, Du Bois recalled: I realized that evidently the social scientist could not sit apart and study in vacuo, neither on the other hand, could he work fast and furiously simply by intuition and emotion, without seeking in the midst of action, the ordered knowledge which research and tireless observation might give him. I tried therefore in my new work not to pause when remedy was needed, on the other hand I sought to make each incident and item in my program of social uplift, part of a wider and vaster structure of real scientific knowledge of the race problem in America. (Du Bois, 1944a, pp. 56–57) This same search for synergy between systematic inquiry and political advocacy characterized Du Bois's brief tenure at Atlanta University in the early 1940s. Here, he attempted to resurrect his idea of a 100-year research program, organizing the First Conference of Negro Land-Grant Colleges in 1943 as a possible vehicle for its implementation. The philosophical underpinnings of Phylon, which Du Bois founded in 1940, clearly reflected the continuation of his earlier commitments. In the introductory issue, Du Bois described the immigration of Blacks to America from the 15th through the 19th centuries as “the greatest social event of modern history” leading, in his view, to the foundation of modern capitalism and the evolution of democracy in the United States and providing the basis for “the greatest laboratory test of the science of human action in the world” (Du Bois, 1944b, p. 7). Near the end of his professional career, Frazier came to subscribe to views regarding the linkage between political advocacy and systematic inquiry that were very similar to those of Du Bois. In 1962, Frazier lamented that The African intellectual recognizes what colonialism has done to the African and he sets as his first task the mental, moral, and spiritual rehabilitation of the African…. But the American Negro intellec- Page 7 of 29 Handbook of Black Studies Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. tual, seduced by dreams of final assimilation, has never regarded this as his primary task…. I am referring to his failure to dig down into the experience of the Negro and bring about a transvaluation of that experience so that the Negro could have a new self-image or new conception of himself…. But this can be achieved only if the Negro intellectual and artist frees himself from his desire to conform and only if he overcomes his inferiority complex. (pp. 35–36) In many respects, this declaration represents a remarkable departure from Frazier's earlier views. In the 1920s, in using the method of cultural analysis to examine the Black experience in America, Frazier had concluded that Blacks don't have a culture, arguing, Generally when two different cultures come into contact, each modifies the other. But in the case of the Negro in America it meant the total destruction of the African social heritage. Therefore in the case of the family group the Negro has not introduced new patterns of behavior, but has failed to conform to the patterns about him. (Frazier, 1927, p. 166) Frazier's views about deficiencies in Black culture were welcomed by the sociological establishment, and he would become the most highly celebrated African American sociologist. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (1965) and his protégés resurrected Frazier's analysis of the Black family in the 1960s, as part of a body of scholarship emphasizing negative characteristics of Black culture that subsequent cohorts of Black social scientists and Africana Studies proponents are still attempting to neutralize. Frazier's conversion to a different understanding of Black culture and the role of the Black intellectual also embodied a greater appreciation for the role of other modes of inquiry and expression in promoting social uplift. In this vein, Frazier (1962) argues, it was the responsibility of the Negro intellectual to provide a positive identification through history, literature, art, music and the drama, and that he lambastes most Negro intellectuals for promoting an opposing imagery that contributes to the emptying of… life of meaningful content and eventual assimilation [in ways ultimately leading to] … the annihilation of the Negro—physically, culturally, and spiritually. (pp. 28–29) Du Bois's similar appreciation for the role of the arts and humanities in contributing to a comprehensive understanding of the Black experience inspired him to go even further than Frazier and experiment with ways to integrate scientific and humanistic modes of understanding into a unified mode of inquiry and representation. As observed by Aptheker (1971), Du Bois's works exhibited a “literary tendency … which took the form of Page 8 of 29 Handbook of Black Studies Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. rather exaggerated assertions or a kind of symbolism that in the interest of effect might sacrifice precision” (p. 65). As an example, Du Bois (1968) characterizes the book, The World and Africa, as history even though he admitted that “the weight of history and science supports me only in part and in some cases appears violently to contradict me” (p. viii). Du Bois's relaxation of the traditional guidelines governing historical and scientific research enabled him to explore potential complementarities between historical research and fiction in the analysis and portrayal of the experiences of people of African descent. In the postscript to the first volume of his fictional trilogy, The Black Flame (1957, 1959, 1961), Du Bois laments that the work was not history in the strict disciplinary sense and cites limitations in terms of time and money as factors forcing him to abandon pure historical research in favor of the method of historical fiction “to complete the cycle of history which for a half century engaged my thought, research and action” (Du Bois, 1976, p. 316). At the same time, he insists that the foundation of the book was “documented and verifiable fact,” although he freely admits that in some cases he had resorted “to pure imagination in order to make unknown and unknowable history relate an ordered tale to the reader” (p. 315), and in other cases small changes had been made in the exact sequence of historical events. Du Bois claims this methodology was superior to the tendency of historians to “pretend we know far more than we do” (p. 315), provided that the methodology was explicitly acknowledged beforehand. The characters in Du Bois's novels provided him with a means for developing a correspondence system between participant observation methodologies and representative depictions of the everyday life of Black people. Du Bois's unconventional approach obviously represents a frontal assault on some of the key assumptions underlying traditional social science research. His techniques challenge conventional notions of theory construction and testing, rules of evidence, and modes of presenting research results. Unfortunately, these innovations failed to receive a hearing during his professional career because the quantification drive in the social sciences accelerated at the same time that Black social scientists were forced to confront Frazier's ideological legacy in sociological and historical studies of Black Americans. Africana Studies' Challenges to Traditional Social Science Wallerstein (2000) reports that before 1945 sociologists could be classified into two camps. One explicitly justified the concept of White superiority, whereas the other “sought to describe the underprivileged of the large urban centers and explain the ‘deviance’ of their denizens” (para. 50). The thrust of much of the social science Page 9 of 29 Handbook of Black Studies Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. research between the end of World War II and the late 1960s could be similarly classified and treated Black behavior as deviant and in need of “fixing” to comply with middle-class norms. As noted previously, social scientists writing in this tradition drew their inspiration from the work of Frazier, and his approach to the study of Black culture influenced not only sociological scholarship but historical research as well. Thus, Marable (1990) notes that the “Sambo” thesis advanced by historian Stanley Elkins (1959) that portrayed enslaved Blacks as docile and infantile subjects “was derived to a degree from the sociology of Frazier, and in turn was a major intellectual factor in the works of Moynihan”(p. 169). Marable (1990) also describes how Black historians began to challenge the Sambo thesis during the early 1960s. A group of Black social scientists would take up this same battle with the social science establishment in the early 1970s, calling for the creation of a “Black social science” (see Alkalimat, 1973; Staples, 1973; Walters, 1973). Within the proposed Black social science, terminology employed in research investigations was to be structured in ways that rejected sanitized descriptions and brought oppressive relationships into sharp relief. This transformative linguistic convention would reinforce political commitments to undertake social sciencebased research to counter racism and discrimination and improve the life circumstances of people of African descent. In the words of Alkalimat (1973), “The conceptual approach of white social science is only useful on the analytical level of classification since for each term the social content must be specified” (p. 32). In contrast, Alkalimat (1973) argues, “The concepts presented for a Black social science clearly suggest a specific sociopolitical content to be understood as the race problem” (p. 32). One of the challenges faced by such a thrust is the fact, as articulated by Stanfield (1993) that “writing in the discourse style of the racially oppressed is viewed as unprofessional, as popular literature” (p. 11). Although the movement to create a Black social science lost momentum, it provided a blueprint for the anticipated role of social science-based research within the field of Africana Studies, per se. Wilcox (1970) insists, for example, that generating a bona fide Black Studies knowledge base requires “the development of new definitions of old perspectives, an increasing reliance on Black self-accreditation and the planful use of institutional understanding” (p. 780). The types of theoretical research consistent with this Black social science vision include development of new theoretical concepts, critique and deconstruction of theories used in traditional disciplines, and introduction of innovative observational languages to guide applied research. Explicit criteria were to be employed to identify authentic “Africana Studies” research. To illustrate, McClendon (1974) declares, “The relevance of each body of knowledge to black liberation can be determined only through obtaining an understanding of the substantive content” (p. 18). Page 10 of 29 Handbook of Black Studies Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. It was clear to early Africana Studies advocates that not all research would be applied in nature, but it was anticipated that theorists would provide guidance regarding potential applications. This would require “a close relationship between pure and applied roles of science, with a greater stress on application of knowledge” (Jackson, 1970, p. 135). In the vision of early Black social science advocates, producing comparable research requires engaged analysts who have organic ties to the community to be studied. Harris and McCullough (1973) suggest, Black communities must be studied by black people for our own self-interest [because] we cannot afford to be misled by the interpretations and conclusions of statistical studies done by whites who are interested in preserving the status quo. We must gather the data, analyze and interpret them for our own needs and purposes. (p. 336) Harris and McCulloughs implicit prioritization of inductive, qualitative research approaches over statistical studies is consistent with the approaches of Du Bois and Frazier described previously. In the early 1980s, Karenga (1982) offered a general statement about the social science component of Africana Studies that captures much of the essence of the earlier proposals: “Black Studies, as both an investigative and applied social science, poses the paradigm of theory and practice merging into active self-knowledge which leads to positive social change” (p. 32). Karenga (1982) further insists that Africana Studies “is a discipline dedicated not only to understanding self, society and the world but also [dedicated] to them in a positive developmental way in the interest of human history and advancement” (p. 32). The self-knowledge to which Karenga refers is the in-depth investigation of the experiences of people of African descent, but in this case conducted by Africana Studies specialists. Although this definition incorporates some of the dimensions of the proposals advanced to create a Black social science and the instrumental orientation of the Africana Studies advocates cited previously, it is also sufficiently general to support a more reformist view of the relationship between Africana Studies social science and traditional social science. Some early Africana Studies proponents conceived of the enterprise largely as a complement to traditional disciplines (see Ford, 1974; Russell, 1975). Scholars operating from this mind-set attempted to make the case for the existence of a distinct Africana Studies enterprise using what has been characterized as a “value-added rationale” linked to a “weak conception of multi/ inter-disciplinarity” (Stewart, 1992). In this view, Africana Studies adds value by extending the explanatory power of traditional disciplines. Proponents of a weak multi/interdisciplinary model of Africana Studies take existing disciplinary demarcations as given and assume that because the subject matter is examined by specialists trained in several disciplines, Page 11 of 29 Handbook of Black Studies Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. the collective product qualifies as multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary. As a consequence, virtually no attention is devoted to the comparative study of the underlying characteristics of research studies across disciplines. Karenga (1982) attempted to address the issue of interdisciplinarity by defining Africana Studies as “an interdisciplinary discipline [with] seven basic subject areas,” insisting that these intradisciplinary foci which at first seem to be disciplines themselves are, in fact, separate disciplines when they are outside the discipline of Black Studies, but inside, they become and are essentially subject areas which contribute to a [holistic] picture and approach to the Black experience. Moreover, the qualifier Black, attached to each area in an explicit or implicit way, suggests a more specialized and delimited focus which of necessity transforms a broad discipline into a particular subject area. The seven basic subject areas of Black Studies then are: Black History; Black Religion; Black Social Organization; Black Politics; Black Economics; Black Creative Production (Black Art, Music and Literature); and Black Psychology. (pp. 35–36) The critical question raised by Karenga's assertions is, of course, “What exactly does the transformation from discipline to subject area involve and what are the implications for conducting research?” There is good reason to expect significant unevenness in the transformative process because of extensive variation across disciplines with respect to their interface with Africana Studies. The specific character of disciplinary interfaces also affects both how, and the extent to which, Africana Studies specialists are able to transform or translate discipline-generated constructs into forms appropriate to Africana Studies. One consequence of these difficulties is that most subject matter investigations claiming multi- or interdisciplinary status are actually only loosely connected collections of studies performed by specialists in different disciplines. Such anthologies typically fail to present theoretical or empirical syntheses that unequivocally differentiate the product from discipline-based research. The volume Black Families: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Cheatham & Stewart, 1990) provides an interesting case study, given the central role that Frazier's research on Black families played in creating the research program challenged by Africana Studies. The edited collection begins with an examination of historical approaches to the study of Black families that identifies approaches consistent with the values of Africana Studies, and the second section of the book explores ecological perspectives, in the spirit of Du Bois and Frazier. The authors of the individual chapters represent various disciplines, including child development and family relations, counselor education, education, economics, psychology, religious studies, social welfare/social work, and sociology. The studies provide wide geographical coverage, including not only the United States but Page 12 of 29 Handbook of Black Studies Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. also parts of Africa and the Caribbean. Consistent with the instrumental mission of Africana Studies, the last section addresses policy and social service delivery implications. However, although this work would seem to qualify as bona fide Africana Studies research, it fails the test of authentic interdisciplinarity. Only three of the studies are coauthored, and only one of these is by coauthors in different disciplines. In addition, the volume includes no attempt to produce the type of interdisciplinary theoretical or empirical synthesis described above. The preceding self-criticism is designed to emphasize the difficulties associated with attempting to undertake interdisciplinary social science research. The problem can be stated in more formal terms. Consider the following potential description of social science-based research in Africana Studies: The social science component of Africana Studies consists of the collection of social science-based studies generated by a distinct subset of analysts identified with various traditional disciplines that use standard theories and observational languages to examine various aspects of the experiences of people of African descent. In this model, the knowledge base of Africana Studies is determined by forces internal to individual traditional disciplines, although a limited means exists based on authorship for identifying a set of studies that presumably could make up the “core” of Africana Studies. However, there is no procedure by which evidence is used to evaluate the distinct Africana Studies explanatory power of research studies as opposed to the value to traditional disciplines. There is also no provision for reconciling differences in the theoretical and observational vocabularies across different disciplines. Resolving these issues involves developing decision rules regarding (a) what constitutes evidence for assessing theoretical coherence and (b) what characteristics a theory must embody to make it a candidate for acceptance on the basis of the available evidence. In cases where conceptual change is involved, problems associated with the modification of the meanings of terms used to formulate theories also emerge. These issues cannot be resolved in this model, in part, because there is no vehicle for systematic collaboration among scholars from different disciplines. Even though analysts involved in conducting studies may interact at conferences and discuss strategies for moving toward a consensus in defining the scope and boundaries of Africana Studies, there is no process whereby a unique body of knowledge or interdisciplinary methodology emerges. A very different conception of multi/interdisciplinarity that rejects or ignores traditional disciplinary demarcations is required to address the dilemmas highlighted previously. In the spirit of Du Bois, this may require wholesale rejection of some of the core elements of existing social science research paradigms. This possibility represents a formidable task to those committed to developing a truly progressive Africana Studies social science that can contribute significantly to the collective survival and empowerment of people of African descent. Page 13 of 29 Handbook of Black Studies Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. Toward a Progressive Africana Studies Social Science The growing prevalence of a new wave of post-Civil Rights era scholarship that promotes dubious explanations of the persistence of racial inequality introduces a degree of urgency into the process of reassessing current approaches to social science research within Africana Studies. Thomas (2000) describes this general pattern as the “Social Science Retreat from Racism” and observes that in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement, theories assigning blame for continuing inequality to Blacks themselves rather than contemporary racism have become increasingly popular. He describes these as “anything but race” perspectives, and various sources of Black disadvantage are trumpeted, including “social class, cognitive ability, lack of work ethic or morality, human capital deficits, spatial mismatch, and family structure” (para. 1). Tucker (1996) offers a more ominous perspective, warning, Whenever scientists have concluded some group to be genetically inferior, some of the investigators have wound up in either organizational or informal alliance with right-wing political groups, often fascists or racists who have been more than pleased to use scientific authority as a source of prestige for their own doctrines. (pp. 7–8) Stanfield (1993) offers a similar perspective on how the contemporary social science establishment is approaching issues of racial inequity while also issuing a manifesto for defensive action: Research in the social sciences is one of the last areas in U.S. society in which social inequality is taken as a given. It is assumed that researchers have expertise that is beyond the comprehension of those they study…. Unless we find adequate ways of liberating the research process in the social sciences, there will be mounting questioning of the relevance of scientific inquiry, especially from the empowering institutions and communities of people of color in the United States and abroad. No longer can social scientists hide behind the ivy-covered walls of academia and their research laboratories, assuming they can study whomever they want to, whenever they please. (pp. 32–33) Scholar-activists committed to developing progressive Africana Studies social science must mount two related but different types of challenges to the neoconserv-ative intellectual assault. The first involves updating and extending research strategies used by Du Bois and Frazier—namely, adapting new methodological techniques to develop alternative studies that refute “anything but race” findings. Geographic information systems and grounded theory are, respectively, quantitative and qualitative methods that should be explored for their Page 14 of 29 Handbook of Black Studies Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. potential in supporting liberatory social science scholarship. The second challenge involves defying assumptions that undergird social science and its role as a privileged source of information in shaping social policy and interpreting social reality. Asante's (1988) construct of Afrocentricity and Stewart's (2004a) “jazz” model of Africana Studies are discussed as examples of alternative theories of systematic knowledge production consistent with the vision of Africana Studies. Harnessing New Research Strategies in Africana Studies Social Science Geographic information systems (GIS) are specialized computer systems for the storage, retrieval, analysis, and display of large volumes of spatial or map type data that allow researchers to integrate data and methods in ways that enable new types of analysis and modeling. With GIS, it is possible to map, model, query, and analyze large quantities of data all merged within a single database. This technology and associated research methods allow refinement of both Frazier's ecological approach to Black community research as well as a cross-sectional version of Du Bois's multipanel design. The key, in the spirit of Du Bois and Frazier, is to avoid allowing the data and methods to drive the narrative components of the inquiry, as is the case in much contemporary empirical social science research. GIS methods could also allow the development of interdisciplinary models and multidimensional outcome predictions that span several disciplinary boundaries. This can be accomplished through the sequential or simultaneous layering of maps exhibiting the distribution of different variables for a given geographical space, such as information about transportation networks, population characteristics, economic activity, political jurisdictions, and other characteristics of the natural and social environments. Individuals approaching the data from different disciplinary orientations would each generate an interpretation of the observed patterns. This type of research design would represent a specific operationalization of Karenga's subject matter approach to defining Africana Studies' interdisciplinarity (Karenga, 1982, 2002). Because GIS also enables the development of new measures, the overlapping map distributions could provide the content for new interdisciplinary metrics and new terminologies, consistent with the perspective of the advocates of a Black social science. These metrics could then be used to develop and test interdisciplinary theories exploring how the various factors interact to produce the observed outcomes. Page 15 of 29 Handbook of Black Studies Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. This type of collaborative cross-disciplinary research would also enable experimentation in developing new approaches to multiple authorship of research studies. Specifically, experimentation with online simultaneous multiple authorship strategies could be conducted to force researchers to write across disciplines rather than simply having authors from different disciplines write separate sections of joint research reports. This approach would address the issues raised in the previous critique of the book Black Families: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Cheatham & Stewart, 1990). Grounded theory, first introduced in the 1960s (Glaser, 1978; Glaser & Strauss, 1967) was developed as a non-discipline-specific approach to conducting qualitative research. As described by Haig (1995), Grounded theory research begins by focusing on an area of study and gathers data from a variety of sources, including interviews and field observations. Data are analyzed using coding and theoretical sampling procedures. When this is done, theories are generated, with the help of interpretive procedures, before being finally written up and presented. (p. 1) Experimental grounded theory-based research involving multidisciplinary teams could be undertaken as part of an effort to foster consensus about definitions and descriptions of interdisciplinary observational categories. Such research could also play an important role in assisting Africana Studies researchers explore syntheses of quantitative and qualitative information. Increased use of grounded theory techniques in Africana Studies is consistent with the concerns of some proponents of Black social science—for example, Harris and McCullough (1973)—that qualitative research be emphasized. As noted previously, both Du Bois and Frazier insisted on the importance of qualitative information for providing both a context and interpretative framework for using quantitative information to describe social systems. Mastery of these techniques can be especially helpful in overcoming traditional gender biases in social science research, including Africana Studies social science research. Aldridge (1992) has highlighted the continuing marginalization of Africana women's issues within the overall enterprise of Africana Studies. With respect to the social sciences, per se, there is, surprisingly, relatively little social science-based research that explores racial oppression from the vantage point of Africana women. The need for a more focused social science-inspired research effort in Africana Studies is suggested by the comments of Hill Collins (1991) who observes, On certain dimensions Black Women may more closely resemble Black men; on others, white Page 16 of 29 Handbook of Black Studies Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. women; and on still others Black women may stand apart from both groups. Black women's both/ and conceptual orientation, the act of being simultaneously a member of a group and yet standing apart from it, forms an integral part of Black women's consciousness. (p. 207) Black psychologists, for example, have been largely silent on the issue of whether gender differences in socialization create variations in developing self-efficacy, cultivating racial identity, or both. Jenkins (1995) admits, as a case in point, “Except at certain explicit points I do not distinguish between psychological issues affecting Black women as distinct from those affecting Black men” (p. xi). In a similar vein, Cross (1991) acknowledges the possibility that there are gender-specific differences in the processes by which racial identity develops and changes but fails to address this issue systematically. Well-designed qualitative research using grounded theory techniques can support quantitative research attempting to reinterpret the role of Africana women in a variety of settings, including the economy, paid employment, and the professions (Aldridge, 1989; Jones, 1986; Simms & Malveaux, 1986) and politics (Collier-Thomas & Franklin, 2001; Olson, 2001). Efforts to address the research lacuna in the study of Africana women must focus not only on the United States but also address the concerns of women of African descent outside metropolitan capitalist countries. As Vaz (1993) opines, “Alternative methods of carrying out research [are needed] that are not heavily dependent on technology, [so that] our information about women in developing countries [does not] become [simply] the study of women's behavior in the developed world” (p. 96). Vaz's comments emphasize the need to extend the scope of inquiry beyond the experiences of people of African descent in the United States and introduce an important caveat that new technological research possibilities should not shape or constrain efforts to create a liberatory Africana Studies social science. Challenging the Assumptions and Domination of Conventional Social Science In addition to mounting an aggressive internal challenge to the social science establishment, there is an equally pressing need to resurrect Du Bois's efforts to develop alternative theories of knowledge and associated methods of inquiry that simultaneously employ all modes of cognition. This effort requires a two-pronged approach involving (a) experimental pilot studies that synthesize multiple research and expressional modes and (b) theoretical exploration of alternative ways of conceptualizing multidimensional modes of inquiry. Page 17 of 29 Handbook of Black Studies Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. Synthesizing Modes of Research and Presentation As described previously, Du Bois experimented with the integration of fiction and social science. In exploring the potential for such a synthesis, he constructed historical narratives covering long periods of time, consistent with his proposed century-long research program. Characters in these historical novels were archetypes reflecting various psychological, ideological, and behavioral profiles. Each can be thought of as a type of median representation of persons actually observed by Du Bois at some point in time, and the fate of each character constitutes a prediction about the difficulties each type is likely to experience in attempting to navigate everyday life. In many respects, this approach is similar to that pursued by contemporary psychologists who investigate African American identity dynamics. Stewart (2004b) uses Du Bois's representations of the psychological conflicts of characters in his novels to compare the efficacy of three contemporary psychological approaches with the analysis of African American identity dynamics. Du Bois's fictional “cases” are used as analogs to qualitative data collected through traditional research methodologies, thereby dislodging the study of character development from traditional literary criticism. This approach also disconnects psychological discourse from its standard disciplinary moorings by ignoring the highly formal research protocols used in racial identity research. The methodology also disregards conventional conceptions of temporal boundaries on knowledge validity, because the formal models of identity dynamics examined were developed to explore contemporary issues and historical data are used to assess their relative efficacy. Discourse theory provides a theoretical underpinning for efforts to dismantle disabling conceptions of differences between social scientific and artistic/humanistic investigations. Discourse analysis, according to Van Dijk (1993), has a double aim: a systematic theoretical and descriptive account of (a) the structures and strategies, at various levels, of written and spoken discourse, seen both as a textual “object” and as a form of sociocultural practice and interaction, and (b) the relationships of these properties of text and talk with the relevant structures of their cognitive, social, cultural, and historical “contexts.” In sum, discourse analysis studies texts in context. (p. 96) Van Dijk (1993) argues that “discourse plays a central role not only in the ‘text’ studies of the humanities, but also in the social sciences” and that “the now fashionable ‘postmodern’ uses of the concept of ‘discourse’ Page 18 of 29 Handbook of Black Studies Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. have not always contributed to our understanding of the complex structures, strategies, mechanisms or processes of text talk in their socio-cultural or political contexts” (pp. 94–95). From the standpoint of discourse analysis, a literary text or work of art can be treated as embodying information analogous to quantitative or qualitative data examined by social scientists. Conversely, a social science research report is a form of discourse with some characteristics similar to those of literary/artistic texts. The key is to develop a correspondence system that allows comparisons and cross-translation—that is, a type of multimodal triangulation approach to information verification. A key principle that can guide such translation efforts is that social science standards that define appropriate sample sizes in qualitative studies must be applied stringently to literary/artistic works. Thus, an individual character or aggregate character constitutes one observation or case, and defensible generalizations can be generated only from comparative studies of a sufficient number of artistic/ literary works to satisfy social science guidelines. The growing digitization of artistic/ literary works can enable the type of comparison of literary and artistic works necessary to satisfy traditional sample size guidelines. The increasing availability of both social science and literary texts in digital online formats enables more intense exploration of similarities across modes of inquiry through various types of string searches. Such searches can facilitate identification of common themes and enable new modes of structuring and disseminating research studies. Relaxing artificially imposed strictures on research designs and methods and making effective use of new information analysis techniques can promote the instrumental goals of Africana Studies by speeding up the process of getting information into policy development and implementation channels. The type of syntheses between social science and other modes of inquiry should not be restricted to formalized modes of inquiry. To illustrate, Stewart (1980) offers an example of a synthesis involving a qualitative social science study (Scott, 1976) and songs performed by Rhythm and Blues singer, Millie Jackson. The subject matter was male-sharing relationships (romantic triangles), and Stewart (1980) concludes that Millie Jackson's treatment of the sharing phenomenon embodies a nuanced and complex description comparable to that presented in Scott's (1976) social science study. The content and structure of the interviews included in the social science study displayed significant parallels to the narrative discourse in Jackson's songs. Stewart (1980) argues that these parallels allow the treatment of the two sets of information as parallels and that in concert they provide a richer understanding of the phenomenon than either approach achieves separately. This particular example is also a useful reminder about the need to recognize the gendered character of Page 19 of 29 Handbook of Black Studies Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. discourse and differences in the sites of discourses produced by Africana men and women. Collier-Thomas (1998), for example, has documented the distinctive approaches to sermons developed and delivered by Black women preachers. In a similar vein, Johnson (1999) examines the distinctive use of narrative and authorial voice in the works of selected historical and contemporary Black female authors. Developing New Africana Studies Theories of Systematic Inquiry The most familiar attempt within Africana Studies to escape the confines of traditional social science paradigms (and artistic and humanistic canons) is the concept of Afrocentricity popularized by Molefi Asante (1987, 1990, 1998). Asante proposes a theory of inquiry for the discipline of Africalogy built on this concept. Africalogy is defined as “the Afrocentric study of African concepts, issues, and behaviors” (Asante, 1987, p. 16). Asante (1990) asserts, in the spirit of Karenga (1982, 2002), that “Africalogy is a separate and distinct field of study from the composite sum of its initial founding disciplines” (p. 141)—that is, subject fields comparable to those specified by Karenga (Asante, 1990, p. 12). The concerns of advocates of a Black social science emphasizing that people of African descent are best positioned to undertake the desired research is reflected in Asante's conceptualization of “centrism.” Asante (1990) asserts that “centrism, the groundedness of observation and behavior in one's own historical experiences, shapes the concepts, paradigms, theories, and methods of Africalogy” (p. 12). Asante prioritizes language in a manner consistent with discourse theory, discussed previously. This focus on language undergirds a notion of social dynamics whereby “social or political change is nothing more than the transmitting of information as an act of power” (Asante, 1987, p. 35). Some critics have insisted that the radical nature of the ontological, epistemo-logical, and theoretical challenges to traditional modes of inquiry reflected by Afrocentricity needs to be articulated in a more coherent fashion. This would, critics claim, facilitate the development of methodological guidelines and reduce the confusion that continues to cloud discussions of the concept. Stanfield (1993) insists, “It is important to keep in mind that the major inroads Afrocentric reasoning has made in academic circles have been more in the humanities and history than in the social sciences,” in part because “such inquiries do not need to be subjected to rigorous tests of empirical relevance to be acceptable in professional humanistic communities” (p. 28). Linking Afrocentric research more closely to an Africana Studies social science research agenda can be guided by Champagne's (1993) suggestion that it is necessary to study “group processes of institutional change within their transocietal and historical contexts” so that empirical knowledge can be accumulated “about spePage 20 of 29 Handbook of Black Studies Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. cific processes of social change” (pp. 252–253). Based on this evidence, Champagne (1993) argues, “Theory can be generated by inductive means, through comparisons of results from accumulated historical and comparative studies” (p. 253). Stewart's (2004a) jazz model of Africana Studies represents a more recent attempt to develop another theory of systematic inquiry. This model treats a musical composition performed by a jazz ensemble as the analog of an interdisciplinary investigation by a team of Africana Studies specialists. This model extends the approach to interpreting Black music introduced by Black poets involved in the Black arts movement. Individual instruments are the counterparts to individual academic disciplines, with the unique sound produced by each corresponding to the specific emphasis of each academic discipline. The combined voice of the instruments tells a story in the same way as a narrative account produced by a research team. Although one instrument (discipline) may be showcased through solos, the basic model of the ensemble is democratic. Polyrhythms in jazz compositions are the analogs of complex explanations of phenomena. And the role of history in Africana Studies is reflected in jazz in the privileged role assigned to the drums and in the technique of “quoting”—that is, playing portions of other pieces in a jazz composition. This practice obviously correlates to the standard practice of citing previous works in research studies. Improvisation in the jazz model can be interpreted as the exploration of new ideas, building on an established body of knowledge. The different types of jazz—for example, be-bop, hard bop, free jazz—are the equivalent of the different schools of thought or paradigms within Africana Studies. From time to time, paradigm shifts have occurred as is the case in academic disciplines. And as in scientific revolutions (see Kuhn, 1970), paradigm shifts in jazz have involved radical changes in style, content, and technique. When radical new styles emerge, traditional evaluative criteria become irrelevant, just as in the case of scientific revolutions. Revolutionary jazz forms—for example, free jazz—are more representative of the type of Africana Studies enterprise outlined in this analysis than more “mainstreamed” jazz genres. The combination of the various characteristics discussed above enables jazz ensembles to create the equivalent of an interdisciplinary Africana Studies analysis that is more than simply the sum of the individual performances. The composition is transformed into a collective statement that is irreducible to the contribution of individual instruments. Jazz performers face a tripartite level of scrutiny from peers, audiences, and formal critics. The analogs for Africana Studies specialists are academic peers, students, constituencies served through outreach, and academic administrators. Page 21 of 29 Handbook of Black Studies Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc.