Class 10 - Methodological Debates.pdf

CLASS 10 / Part III: Methodological Debates: Positivism, Interpretivism and Critique Ø SUMMARY: Ø Positivism: Ø Qualitative research methods Ø Example of qualitative based research Ø Foundations of qualitative positivist research Ø Common methodological foundation of qualitative and quantitative pos...

CLASS 10 / Part III: Methodological Debates: Positivism, Interpretivism and Critique Ø SUMMARY: Ø Positivism: Ø Qualitative research methods Ø Example of qualitative based research Ø Foundations of qualitative positivist research Ø Common methodological foundation of qualitative and quantitative positivist research CLASS 10: Positivism / Qualitative research methods Ø Interpretative sociology: Ø Social action can be fully understood only by interpreting the motives, cultural meanings and purposes that guide individuals’ actions Ø Informal interviews: Ø Qualitative research method resembling a conversation or dialogue Ø Provides for greater detail and depth; allows for insight into how individuals understand and narrate aspects of their lives CLASS 10: Positivism / Qualitative research methods Ø Structured (informal) interviews: Ø the interview schedule (or the design of questions) is followed rigidly – interviewer has little scope for varying the way the questions are presented or followed up Ø Semi-structured (informal) interviews: Ø Allows for more scope in the way the interview schedule is executed Ø Starts with a brief guide regarding the general content of the interview Ø can include closed questions of a factual nature, followed up by broad subject headings CLASS 10: Positivism / Qualitative research methods Ø In-depth (informal) interviews: Ø Interviewer allows interviewees to talk at length in their answers to “prompt questions”. Ø Provides rich and detailed information about people’s motivations, beliefs, meanings, feelings and practices. CLASS 10: Positivism / Qualitative research methods Ø In-depth (informal) interviews: Ø Allison Pugh (2013): in-depth interviews disclose information (verbal or non-verbal) about the following aspects: Ø what counts as honorable behaviour for the interviewees; Ø how the interviewees see the world; Ø their emotional landscape of desire; Ø their meta-feelings, or how they feel about what they feel CLASS 10: Positivism / Qualitative research methods Ø Field research: Ø Based on the observation of behaviour as it takes place in a natural setting, as opposed to the use of quantitative data or observation of behaviour through experiments Ø Field researchers select a location and a field site and then spend time observing: Ø participant observation or non-participant observation Ø Raises important issues regarding consent and research ethics CLASS 10: Positivism / Qualitative research methods Ø Non-participant observation: Ø Qualitative research method aimed to observe a social group from a distance or hidden from view, so as not to disturb the normal functioning of the group Ø you avoid the “Hawthorne effect” Ø Participant observation: Ø the researcher is involved in the activities of those being observed; he / she decides whether the subjects of the research are informed that they are being studied or not CLASS 10: Positivism / Qualitative research methods Ø Ethnography: Ø Ø Ø Ø Ø Ethnography is an example of field research Originally developed in anthropology for the analysis of nonEuropean small-scale societies; goes back to the beginnings of anthropology in the 19th century Research method that involves immersing one-self in a natural setting in order to develop an understanding of the people, culture, and society being studied Sociology took technique over as “participatory observation” Provides researchers with “thick descriptions” about implicit rules and traditions that shape a culture and motivate the actions of its members CLASS 10: Positivism / Qualitative research methods Ø Ethnography: outside positivism and inside interpretivism: Ø Clifford Geertz: “Thick description: toward an interpretive theory of culture” (1973): Ø Was supposed to move ethnographic research away from the objectification of the research “material” Ø Culture can never be fully understood or observed; culture is dynamic and symbolic; doubtful towards universal scientific truth claims Ø Getting the context right is paramount: understanding how participants recognize their actions in relation to each other and to the overall structure of society Ø Records the subjective meanings and explanations provided by the people engaged in their actions CLASS 10: Positivism / Qualitative research methods Ø Ethnography – advantages: Ø ideally, it should avoid theoretical distortion and bias: Ø Concepts and theory to be retrieved in “dialogue” with the research on the ground (inductively), and not by superimposition of pre-fabricated ideas Ø sensitive to context – it has good grasp of the group nature of social behaviour Ø how behaviours and meanings depend on interaction with others, rather than being independent from others CLASS 10: Positivism / Qualitative research methods Ø Ethnography – disadvantages Ø Laborious and time-consuming Problems with reliability – raises the question of the quality of research; Ø Problems with replication – research is hard to replicate and “verify” or “falsify” Ø Problems of representativity: in how far is the result of ethnographic research apt for generalization Ø Ø But the term anthropology goes back to “anthropos” – the human being – generalization possible and necessary? CLASS 10: Positivism / Qualitative research methods Ø Participant observation – examples: Ned Polsky’s (1967) study of poolroom hustlers: direct observation; informal talks, participant observation Ø William F. Whyte’s Street Corner Society (1943): study of an Italian American street gang; lived in a house with the group and joined them in most of their activities Ø CLASS 10: Positivism / Qualitative research methods Ø Example of qualitative based research: Ø Jerry Jacobs’s study on “The Use of Religion in Constructing the Moral Justification of Suicide” (1970), in Deviance and Respectability: The Social Construction of Moral Meanings by J.D. Douglas (ed.) CLASS 10: Positivism / Qualitative research methods Ø Example of qualitative based research: J. Jacobs’s study on suicide and religion (1970) Ø Method: Ø Examined suicide notes to find the reasoning used by would-be suicides in overcoming the moral prohibitions against suicide found in each of the three religions Ø Goal: reconstruction of the typical processes of reasoning that make it possible to put forward general explanations Ø Comparing the beliefs taught by Christianity and Judaism to understand and interpret these suicide notes CLASS 10: Positivism / Qualitative research methods Ø Example of qualitative based research: J. Jacobs’s study on suicide and religion (1970): Ø Theory: Ø Differences among the religious groups in their moral evaluation of suicide Ø Christianity promises rewards in the hereafter; Christians represent their deaths as going to heaven Ø Judaism does not promise such rewards; Jews do not represent their deaths as going to heaven CLASS 10: Positivism / Qualitative research methods Ø Example of qualitative based research: J. Jacobs’s study on suicide and religion (1970): Ø Theory: Ø What encourages Christian suicides is their ability to convince themselves to end their intolerable life on earth and exchange it for a better one in the beyond. CLASS 10: Positivism / Qualitative research methods Ø Example of qualitative based research: J. Jacobs’s study on suicide and religion (1970): Ø Results: Ø Jews will have lower suicide rates than Christians Ø Catholics will have lower suicide rates than Protestants: Ø Catholics are more constrained by the dogmatic prohibition of suicide, whereas Protestants are more rationalistic and individualistic CLASS 10: Positivism / Qualitative research methods Ø Foundations of qualitative positivist research (as implied in Jacobs’s study on religion and suicide): Ø 1. Explanation by understanding: Ø Sociological theories are far below the level of precision and objectivity typical of the natural sciences Ø “social integration” – not objective and visible, but elusive and indistinct, personal and experienced CLASS 10: Positivism / Qualitative research methods Ø Foundations of qualitative positivist research (as implied in Jacobs’s study on religion and suicide): Ø 1. Explanation by understanding: Ø Human beings follow rules in deciding on and carrying out their actions, they do not respond mechanically to external, objective, scientific laws Ø Order and regularity in social life stem from the sharing of common beliefs, values and purposes Ø Behaviour becomes understandable only if we find out why certain actions are being performed CLASS 10: Positivism / Qualitative research methods Ø Foundations of qualitative positivist research (as implied in Jacobs’s study on religion and suicide): Ø 2. typification: Ø Jacobs constructed schemes of motives for suicide that could be shown to typify the different religious groups Ø Durkheim’s explanation was deliberately free of any terms regarding purposes and motives Ø He reconstructed typical processes of reasoning that make it possible to propose general explanations (as opposed to those specific to an individual) CLASS 10: Positivism / Qualitative research methods Ø Foundations of qualitative positivist research (as implied in Jacobs’s study on religion and suicide): Ø 2. typification: Ø Remote causes (such as social integration) and effects (suicide rates) are linked by an understandable / intelligible scheme of emotional motives/inner feelings and cultural meanings Ø This scheme acts as an ‘intermediary, subsidiary theory’ (between cause as ‘low social integration’ and effects as ‘individual suicide’) CLASS 10: Positivism / Qualitative research methods Ø Foundations of qualitative positivist research (as implied in Jacobs’s study on religion and suicide): Ø 3. Evidence of meaning: Ø Ascertaining the purposes, meanings and motives of individuals and groups require qualitative research methods, such as informal interviews, participant observation, documentary research (written, audio, image) Ø Culture and meanings become necessary parts of the sociological theory in question CLASS 10: Positivism / Qualitative research methods Ø Common foundation of quantitative and qualitative positivist research: The object of study essentially remains an object – the experience and consciousness of the researcher himself remain largely un-problematized Ø truth claims are based not on the idea of reflexivity but on empirical observation of whatever kind, with the desideratum of value neutrality in the elaboration of theory Ø Non-participatory ontology: ultimately, the researcher claims / occupies the “outsider position” to the studied reality or even to reality as such Ø CLASS 10 – Positivism Ø Bibliography: Ø “Chapter 2” Ø “A Contemporary Introduction to Sociology. Culture and Society in Transition.; 3rd Edition; Routledge (2018), by Jeffrey C. Alexander, Kenneth Thompson, Laura Desfor Edles, Moshoula Capous-Desyllas (eds.)