Unit 4Experience as knowledge

Data-oriented methods and structure

Four paradigms

Empiricism

Interpretative theory

Critical theory Postmodernism

4paradigms

• Empiricism: a theory of knowledge that says knowledge is gained through experience

• Interpretative theory: a theory of knowledge which aims at understanding rather than fact gathering

• Critical theory: theories aimed at both understanding (knowledge)and critiquing society

• Postmodernism: postmodern thinkers question the idea of a single truth

Last week

• Theory-ladenness• demarcation• Confirmation• Falsification• Paradigms• Non-scientific factors influencing science

Theory-ladenness of data

• Data is infected with theory• Your worldview influences your theory• So your worldview affects results

From theory to data

August Comte (1798-1857): Positivism

Positivism

• Understanding the laws that control social reality

• Empirical approach, confirming theory with data

Structural functionalism

Structural functionalism

• Society is a whole, a structure• All parts of the structure are interrelated e.g.

everything has a function• Dysfunction leads to disequilibrium and therefore

to change• macro-level research

Émile Durkheim (1858-1917)

Social facts:

• are external to the actor• are to be studied empirically, not

philosophically• Invisible, only discernable by induction

Example:

• Crime • is part of the social structure • releases social tensions• Is functional

analogies

• The human body as analogy for the state• The human body as analogy for a company

Criticism

• Tautological• Deterministic• Without context (historical, cultural etc.)• Uncritical of society

Tautological character of structural functionalism

• Every part of a structure has a function• The function of every part is being part of the

structure

Determinism

Determinism

• There is no agency• Individuals are seen from a distance and have

no free will

Uncritical and without context

• If poverty, racism, sexism etc. exist, they must have a function

• This supports the status quo

Countering criticismKarl Popper revisited

Combining functionalism with falsification

• Base theory on empirical research• Make conjectures• Falsify theory

From data to theory

Grounded theory

• From data to theory• Qualitative• Generalisable results

Data Coding Concepts Categories Theory

criticism

• Naïve, it is impossible to free yourself from pre-conceptions