Soc 110 Midterm

What are historical methods?

Techniques for researching what people did and thought in the past

Includes techniques for finding and evaluating sources

•Documentary research, etc.

Also includes techniques for analyzing and synthesizing information

•Narratives, etc.

Goals of Historical Research

1.Accurate description of "what happened" - oriented towards facts

2.Accurate description of people's views and experiences - can go with goal #1, but potentially some tension between them

3.Explanation of specific historical outcomes - a.k.a. "interpretation of history"

4.Explanation of general patterns - can go with goal #3, but potentially some tension between them

5.Testing or refining existing theories

6.Developing new theories

Who uses Historical Methods?

Used by historians, some sociologists, etc.

Historians and historical sociologists differ some in their goals and techniques

Differences in Goals of Historians and Sociologists

Historians focus somewhat more on descriptive goals (#1 and #2)

When seeking to explain, more often stick to specific outcome (goal #3)

Historical sociologists focus more on explanatory and theoretical goals (#3-#6)

Theory and Research

Social theory: a clearly formulated description or explanation of some part of social life

How are theories related to research?

1) Theory provides claims/hypotheses that are 'tested'

2) Theory provides conceptual framework

3) Research is used to generate theory

4) No explicit use of theory

History vs. Sociology

Theories used more frequently by sociologists than historians

Historical Methods: Collecting and Evaluating Sources

Mostly limited to drawing on already existing sources

Documentary research: the collection, assessment, and utilization of written materials

•Includes books, newspapers, official documents

Primary and Secondary Sources

Variation in using primary vs secondary sources

History vs. historical sociology

•Primary used more within history than in sociology

Also variation within historical sociology

•Some rely more on primary, some rely more on secondary

McAdam's (1982) Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency

"Insurgency" = a social movement challenging a government

"Black insurgency" = the civil rights movement and other Black activism of the 1960s

McAdam's goals:

•Explain the origins of the civil rights movement

•Assess the fit between different theories and the origins of the civil rights movement

Social Movement Theories/Models

The Classical Model- A strain in the social structure changes people's states of mind, leading them to form a movement.

Resource Mobilization Theory- social movements emerge when resources, such as money and labor, are available

McAdam's Political Process Model

McAdam's Political Process Model

three sets of factors that explain when social movements emerge:

•structure of political opportunities

•organizational strength

•collective perceptions ("cognitive liberation")

Evaluating Primary (written) Sources

Authenticity - the source is what it appears to be

Authorship

Authenticity of text - complete and author's own words

Credibility/trustworthiness - the source is a sincere attempt to present an accurate account, and is an accurate account

•Motives of author

•Accuracy of information

•Firsthand vs secondhand accounts

Representativeness - the source is typical of some set of people, or some set of documents

•Social variation in production of written materials

•Variation in survival of sources

•Variation in availability of sources

Evaluating Secondary (written) Sources

Credibility/trustworthiness

•Expertise

•Reputation

•Bias

Other considerations:

•Authenticity

•Representativeness - extent to which it resembles other secondary sources

Roy's (1997) Socializing Capital

"tests" (and rejects) efficiency theory

Presents alternative theory and uses it to explain rise of corporations

Excerpts from Introduction, Chapter 3, and Conclusion

•Chapter 3 is focused on the origins of private corporations in U.S.

Historical Analysis

Analysis (in general): breaking a thing into its constituent parts and viewing them in relation to the whole

In historical research, process of analysis not strictly separate from data collection

Causal Reasoning

Causal order

•cause comes before outcome in time

Identifying a causal process/mechanism

Contiguity (closeness in space and time)

•But not always

Inferring Causation - Necessity and Sufficiency

Necessity - it had to be present in order for the outcome to occur

•if not X, then not Y

Sufficiency - it inevitably led to an outcome

•if X, then Y

Necessary and sufficient cause

the factor had to be present for the outcome, and by itself led to the outcome

Necessary but not sufficient cause

the factor had to be present for the outcome to occur, but only led to the outcome in combination with other factors

•relative importance

Sufficient but not necessary cause

a factor that by itself led to an outcome, but the outcome could have been produced by other factors

I (Insufficient) N (Necessary) U (Unnecessary) S (Sufficient) condition

insufficient but necessary part of a set of conditions that is itself unnecessary but sufficient for an outcome to occur

Example: Lightning strike AND dry wood à fire at a house

•lightning strike and dry wood are INUS conditions

Example: (Drinking Alcohol AND Not Drinking Enough Water) OR (Drinking Alcohol AND Not Eating Dinner) à Hangover the Next Day

•Drinking alcohol is a necessary cause

•not drinking enough water and not eating dinner are INUS conditions

What are Comparative Methods?

Comparative Methods - Nonexperimental, non-statistical methods for selecting and comparing cases

Comparative methods must be paired with some method for collecting data

Cases

Case: a fundamental unit that is the object of research, thought of as belonging to a set of comparable phenomena

•Cases can be countries, organizations, events, individuals, etc.

Sometimes term refers to spatial and temporal units

Sometimes term refers (instead) to outcomes

Overlap in Use of Historical and Comparative Methods

Historical Methods - Historical case

studies

Comparative Methods - Comparison of

contemporary cases

Both - Historical AND comparative research