Theory and Methods for A Level

Sociology: The Basic

1.  Positivism and Interpretivism

 Positivist approaches to social research are quantitative, ‘scientific’, objective.

 Durkhiem’s suicide is an example of a positivist study
 Interpretivists criticise Positivist’s reliance on statistics (they are socially
constructed)
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 Interpretivist approaches to social research = qualitative, empathetic, micro
 Key example = Douglas’ study of the multiple meanings of suicide.
 Positivists criticise Interpretivist research because it’s too subjective, not
authoritative.

2. Is Sociology a science?

 Key features of the scientific method = the experiment, objectivity, cause and effect

relationships, making predictions.
 Positivism = a scientific approach applied to society – Durkheim’s suicide as an
example.
 Interpretivist criticisms of the scientific method applied to society – humans are
conscious actors, they cannot be understood using detached, quantitative methods
 Criticisms of the ‘objectivity’ of science and the scientific method – Kuhn’s
paradigm critique is especially important.
 Realism – we can still usefully study society as an open system, rather than just
focussing on individuals – for example we can still make general predictions about social
behaviour based on statistical trends, even if we can’t predict exactly what that action will be or
who, specifically will do what.
 Postmodern views of science – the idea that ‘truth’ is no longer possible.

3. Can Sociology be value free?

 Values = people’s own subjective beliefs and opinions. If social research is value

free then it means that it is free of the personal biases of the researcher.
 Positivism – Claimed that sociology could be value free using scientific methods
which meant the researcher was as detached as possible.
 Interpretivists criticise this – values creep into the quantitative research process –
through the social construction of statistics for example.
 Moreover – Interpretivists say we need to understand people’s values to
understand how they act! However, it is harder to remain value free when doing qualitative
research.
 Weber argued that we could collect objective date on people’s values but we needed to
be explicit about our own values all the way through the research process.
 Some sociologists criticise ‘institutional sociology’ for being limited in scope, and
argue we need a political, explicitly value laden sociology to counter-balance this.
 For example Howard Becker argued sociologists should take the side of the
underdog and give them a voice – this is an explicitly value-laden sociology
 Marxist and Feminist sociology is also value laden in its choice of research topic –
Sociology should be aimed at achieving political
 Postmodernists believe objective knowledge is not possible, so all we can do
is deconstruct knowledge, and criticise people who claim to have value-free, objective
knowledge.
 Late Modernists such as Giddens criticise at least one aspect of postmodernism –
there are still objective social problems, such as global warming, migration, global
inequality, which sociology needs to focus on.
 However, constructing objective knowledge is a problem in contemporary
sociology because knowledge is reflexive – it is part of the society it comes from – thus we
need to careful to make our own value and opinions clear throughout the research process so
that others can make an informed judgement about the usefulness of our research. That’s just
the way it is!

4. Late Modernism

 Economy/ Politics  = Post-Industrial, service sector, portfolio workers and

consumption is central; Declining power of the Nation State; Disorganised Capitalism/
Liquid Capitalism (Bauman)
 Society/ Culture – Culture is free from structure – it is more Diverse and
Fragmented ; Relationships more diverse; More Individual Freedom to shape identities;
Media – more global, two- way, hyperreality (Baudrillard)
 Knowledge – Critique of the Enlightenment; Incredulity towards Metanarratives
(Lyotard)
 Sociology – Narrative histories; Deconstruction (Lyotard) and Destabilising
Theory.

5. Sociology and social policy

 Intro – Social policy = things the government does to steer society in some
way. Examples include taxation which affects wealth distribution, various education policies
and policies about how to tackle crime
 There are several reasons why governments may ignore certain findings of
research – e.g. lack of money; Marxists and Feminists believe governments generally have an
ideological bias which mean they ignore certain research findings.
 Positivists believe researchers should collect objective knowledge to assess the
impact of social policies and to help introduce new policies
 Social Democratic Perspectives generally agree with the above.
 The New Right and Neoliberals – have had most influence on social
policy recently – e.g. The education system/ crime policy and in International Development
 Marxist approaches to social policy – prefer policies which favour
the redistribution of wealth and promote equality of opportunity, such as the abolition
of private schools.
 Feminist approaches to social policy – prefer policies which emphasis gender
equality, such as the Paternity Act.
 Postmodernists focus on deconstruction rather than social policies
 Late Modernists emphasise the importance and challenges of developing and
evaluating social policies in an age of globalisation.