theory and methods 9-14

Positivism view on that sociology is a science

• Comte - ‘Queen of sciences’ as its the only science that can apply the logic of science todocs everyday society which allows for true objective and measurable facts about society

• Durkheim- science is objective and through this able to identify social facts. these social facts can be studied through inductive reasoning which is coming to conclusions through careful observations

• Durkheim- Study of suicide: through OS he concluded the Protestants were more likely to commit suicide than catholics as catholics are more intergrated within society

popper - sociology is not a science

• Fallacy of Induction : verification- argued that we can never prove something to be true and that it would take one thing to prove the whole theory wrong. by this sociology should not base many of the their theories on verification

• falsification: science is open to falsification and can be tested very easily . it also withstands any attemot to disprove it

• truth- theories dont claim to have an absolute truth and socio cannot be scientific as many are mettanarratives

• open society - science thrives in liberal society as its open to be challenge accepted ideas - open system- socio is a closed system

A02/A03 for popper

• Galilea

• eval- popper argues that although socio is not scientific it has the potential to be if it can produce a hypothesis which can be falsified

• Ford: hypothesized that comprehensive schooling will produce social mixing of pupils from different classes. she was able to test and falsify this through empirical testing.

Kuhn- sociology is not a science

Paradigms

• ideas shared by the members of the scientific society and is the norms and values of scientific study

• argues that sociology is pre- paradigmatic

• in science non conformity to the paradigm leads to unpublished work and dismissal e.g LGM1 and LGM2

scientific revolutions lead to a paradigm shift

eval: PM suggests that paradigms are metanarratives

Realism - Sayer, Keat and Urry

• they reject positivist viewpoint that science is only concerned with observable things as they study that of the big bang and the black hole

• rejects interpretivist view that sociology cannot be scientific because it concerns itself with unobservable things as science also concerns itself with unobservable things

therefore sociology is a science as both natural science and social science attempt to explain the cause of events in terms of underlying structures which are unobservable

Durkheim study of suicide in the science debate

+it is a science as patterns and trends are determined form quantitative data source

+his findings are open to falsification and aims to identify a cause and effect relationshi

- not a science as there is determinism rather than true reasoning behind the stats

fallacy of induction means that he has no absolute proof that the factors directly cause suicide

Possible and desirable for sociology to be value free

Early thinkers ( positivists)

• comte- ‘ Queen of sciences’ to which socio was able to use scientific methods to discover facts about society as a whole which science has not been able to.

• Durkeheim - using effect value free methods to develop society positively through the use of social facts

• Marx- tried to prove cause and effect between capitalism and exploitation and as such they attempt to establish an overarching them for society as a whole

impossible to be value free

Weber : argues for value neutrality

• values are used as a guide to research as it provides a focus for the research and judges what provides relevance for society

• data collection and hypothesis testing- removes values from the research which allows for objective and accurate data collation

• values are in the interpretaion of data and therefore researcher should spell out values to make position clear on certain issues

• sociologists must not hide behind objectivity and take responsibility for the harm that researchers may create

A03 for sociolofy being value free

Marsland

• ‘ sociology is the enemy within… they are neglecting their responsibility for accurate, objective description and biasing their analyses of contemporary Britain to an enormous extent’

Feminism

• Heidensohn- sociology is malestream as its history is concerned with the study of male interests and male participants

• Oakley : ‘ sociology reduces women to a side issue from the start’

Gouldner

A03

• argues that in the 1950s positivist sociologists had deliberately left out their values out of research for

  1. the desire to appear scientific to gain more fundin g

  2. employment by government business and military as sociological theory creates problems for society to solve

Committed sociology - Sociology is not and should not be value free

• Gomm: a value free sociology is impossible and the very idea is unsociological as the the aim is to improve society through using the inevitability of values to help individuals

• Gouldner: ‘ those who claim to be value free are merely gutless non academics with few moral scruples who have sold out to the establishment

• Becker underdog theory : sociology takes the view of those in power and argues that sociologists should take the view o the underdog as seen through his study of the ideal pupil to which he directly went against teachers to apply pressure

A03 for the values debate

Postmodernism

lyotard- the sociolgoical value debate is a metanarrative

baudrillard- Relativism: truth is relative and the value freedom debate has no monopoly of truth or special access therefore value freedom and value laden is equally true

Durkheim sucide study in the values debate

-shows sociology is value free as it used a detached researcher and secondary data sources

+sociolgy is value laden as to interpret data he had to impart his own values

Background of Durkheim’s suicide study

• research on three countries Denmark, England and France to identify social links (social facts) in the countries which influence the rate of suicide

• to compare the ROS between countries it was based on three social factors

  • level of solidarity in society

  • individual standing within society

  • religious, social and occupational group

findings of Durkheim’s suicide study

argued that sucicide was a result of :

• the level of integration of individuals in society

• religion as protestants had a higher rate of committing suicide comparing to Jews and Catholics

• marriage-unmarried higher rates

• military- soildiers higher rate

• economy- unstable economy higher rates

A03 of Durkheim’s study of suicide

analysis

• men commit more suicide that women and as of 2004, France had a much higher rate of suicide than the UK

• Greece mexico and Italy are catholic countries and have the lowest suicide rates amongst the OECD countries

eval

• operationalism

douglas

• durkheim did not give enough consideration into how OS on suicide are collected as they contain gross inaccuracies

• in each death an official agency interprets the death to decide the cause and therefor the OS as a suicide is the end result of a process of interpretation and decision making

atkinson

The role of coroner’s definitions

1. tended to be an over reliance on OS

2. the coroner problems

3. indicators of suicidal intent

   • suicide notes

     • study of suicide notes suggests that genuine notes are rational

   • mode of death

     • certain deaths are more likely to be interpreted as a suicide than others

     • some methods are less clear cut

   • location and circumstances of death

   • life history and mental conditioon

Atkinson, kessel and dalgaard

found that the danes were more likely to pronounce a suicide verdict as in Denmark the verdict can be used on the balance of probabilities to which suicide seems likely whereas in ENgland coroners have to find evidence of definate suicidal intent

• the higher rate in suicide in Denmark is due to the different rules for reaching a verdict rather than differences in suicidal behaviour

Burr

• knowledge is not a product of objective observation but socially constructed through discourse and therefore statistics are socially constructed

Foucalt

case study on the history of mental illness

• found that in the Middle ages madness and mental illness were seen as harmless

• in 20th century mental illness needs to be labelled and diagnosed through a discourse of medicine

case study on the history of gender

• pre colonialism in India there was a 3rd gender called Hijras

Marxists view on OS

• argues that they are objected and instead they are created by the bourgeoise to reflect the view of the elite

• they serve the objectives of capitalism and the ruling class

  • e.g increased life expectancy justifies the increase of retirement age

  • hides the failing of capitalism in prison stats and unemployment stas

• althusser: stats are a type of ideological state apparatus

A02/A03 on Marxists view of OS

A02

• Hall: unemployment stats are hidden within prisons

• downes- 40% of unemployment is soaked up by priosn pop

A03 :

• not all OS show the successes of capitalism

• Joseph rowuntree foundation : exposes the failings of capitalism

• e.g after housing costs 30% of children are in relative poverty and 22% of all people are in poverty

feminist methodology

• Government stats conceal real issues of patriarchy and a re a form of patriarchal ideology

  • e.g no stats on housework or unpaid labour

• definitions of stats are constantly changing

  • the class of a woman was tied to husband career but since the 2001 classification changed to who pays the rent now whoever earns the most and this now ties women to their job and ignores their contributions in private sphere

• it aims to avoid gender bias and reveal the true experiences of women

• offers a critical stance towards positivism and non feminist research as it combines women experiences to their husbands

Reinharz

proposes a number of features

• feminist research uses a range of methods and gives an ongoing criticsm of non feminist research

• research is guided by feminist theory and aims to create social change

• frequently includes the researcher as a person and attempts to develop a special relationship with the people studied

Oakely - background

• used 178 unstructured interviews

• looked in to issues returning to work after birth and postnatal depression

• spenton average 9hrs a week on interviews

• she gave advice to improve her results by provideing more information and valid data

• ‘ feminists should collaborate with their participants to gain information’

A03 of oakley

+highllights

Giddens - role of sociology in social policies

role of sociology in social policies

• sociology has an important role in the creation of social policy as they can inform policy makers on cultural differences

• ‘third way- sociology can provide insight into the effectiveness of policy on individuals

the economics and social research council

funds research

• Middleton et al - looked at policies to increase participation in post 16 education which caused the introduction of EMA which caused an increase uptake

role of social policy according to marxists

• Benefits the r/c interest

• EMA produces fmore workers so they are better educated and spend 2 years learning bourgeois norms and values

• EBACC: skills are profitable glo

role of social policy according to feminsts

• rad fems believe that they oppress women through things like maternity leave and care in community increases women’s role in the family as it leads to sandwich generations

• Lib fems tak

role of social policy according to functionalism

social policy is beneficial for society as

role of social policy according to NR

helps reduce the amount of perverse

role of social policy according to PM

• PM’s dont offer a solution in how society should work but rather they offer observation

• argues that sociologists should not be involved with social policy as its seen as a mettanarrative

• any research that has influenced social policy only reflects the views of that sociologists

Townsend

Social Democratic Perspective

• hired by Lab party in 1977 to research poverty in UK and coined the term ‘relative deprivation’

• he argued that 23% of the country was in poverty but Gov argued that it was 7%

• Ta

Frankfurt school

argues that research like this take out the expertise of sociologist interpretation

sociologists are experts in their field so they should not just rely on facts and figures as society cannot be rationally understood

Simmel

Factors that affected social policy

• electoral popularity

• interest groups

• critical sociology

  • those who are critical of state and powerful groups are regarded as too extreme and therefore unlikely to influence policy

• funding sources

  • sociologists may tone down their findings and policy recommendatiosn so as to fit in with their paymasters wishes

• ideolgoical and policy preferences of the government

  • if researchers value is similar to the political ideology of the government they may stand more chance in influencing its policies, e.g left rebellion and New Labour

Giddens - ways in which social policy relates to sociology

1. sociology can inform policy makers

2. research can assess the results of policy initiatives

3. may generate greater self understanding which can lead to the formation of pressure and protest groups

Giddens work influencing social policy

• work on 3rd way politics was seen in the manifesto for NL

  • education, education, education

  • removal of clause 4

• he therefore argues that theoretical ideas can be seen as setting the political agenda for policy making

Giddens- 9 ways socio can improve lives

• providing an awareness of cultural differences and of others

• providing self awareness and understanding

• Mcneil- challenging assumptions

• provides a thor

Gregg et all

Used a group of 6k children born in and aroudn Bristol in 1991 and 1992 to which the research considered categories of developement like school performance, IQ and self estee m

found that by 7 children in w/c families were doing worse in education, had low self esteen and were at risk of obesity

• research proposed that policy interventions must recognise that the impact of income operates