doccuments

What are documents?

• Any written text

• Tells us about the society we live in

• Examine the values, priorities concerns of a society

What are the three different types of documents?

• Public (created by organisations)

• Personal (diaries)

• Historical (study evolution of social structures/cultural norms)

John Scott analysing a document

• Meaning

• Authenticity (any missing pages/original)

• Representiveness (typical)

• Credibility (accurate)

Contents interpreted in different ways

Polysemic

Practical analysis of documents

• Readily available, esp historical/diaries

• But difficult to access, esp private/classified records

Ethical analysis of documents

• Contain sensitive or personal information, require careful handing

Reliability analysis of documents

• Content analysis can be carried out, quantifying qualitative data within documents

• Hard to replicate bc of polysemic

Validity analysis documents

• Rich qualitative insights into thoughts, experiences and social contexts

Example of documents

• Aries - paintings for his study of childhood

Representativeness analysis documents

• Can offer detailed perspectives on specific groups

• Unrepresentative- micro scale

Which theoretical perspective likes documents?

• Interpretivists- allow researchers to explore meanings and motivations in depth

• Positivists- lack objectify, hard to quantify