The meaning of methodology

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The meaning of methodology

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Title: The meaning of methodology

1
The meaning of methodology

How do researchers conduct research

Where is science in social science?
Research methodology makes social science
scientific
Social researches choose from alternative
approaches to science
Each approach has its own set of philosophical
assumptions and principles and its own stance on
how to do research
It is rarely declared yet play an important role

Until 1800s philosophers and religious scholars
engaged in armchair speculation about human
behaviour.
They contended that rigorous, systematic
observation of the social world combine with
careful, logical thinking will provide new and
valuable knowledge about human relation.
In modern times science is accepted way to gain
knowledge
So some social researchers accepted the natural
sciences approach.

However, there are certain difficulties
scientific method is a loose set of abstract,
vague principle and provide little guidanceso
much so to do scientific research one has to use
several methods human being is different from
object of study in natural science (rock, plants,
chemical etc.), human has awareness, motives and
reasons.
Thus researchers used techniques deviated from
philosophers ideal model of good science.

These approaches begun in 1960s
They are ideal types and simplified model of more
complex arguments.
In practice, few agree with all parts of
approaches, often they mix elements from each,
yet it represent fundamental differences in
outlook about social science research.
The approaches are different ways of looking at
the worldways to observe, measure, and
understand social reality.

The three approaches positivism, interpretive
social science, and critical social science.
Positivism is the oldest and commonly / widely
use whilst critical social science and less seen
in scholarly journal because it criticizes the
other approaches and tries to move beyond them.

assumption and ideas of the approaches were
organised such as below to simplify the
discussion.
Why should one conduct social scientific
research?
What is the fundamental nature of social reality?
What is the basic nature of human beings?
What is the relationship between science and
common sense?

5. What constitutes an explanation or theory of
social reality?
6. How does one determine whether an explanation
is true or false?
7. What does good evidence or factual information
look like?
8. Where do sociopolitical values enter into
science?

9
Positivism

Many varieties that go by names logical
empiricism, accepted/conventional view,
postpositivism, naturalism, behaviourism.
Begin by 19th century by ComteFrenchmen who
founded sociology and later modified by John
Stuart Mill.
Positivist researcher prefer quantitative data,
often use experiments, surveys, and statistics.

They seek rigorous, exact measures and test
hypothesis
Used by administrators, criminologist, market
researchers, policy analysts and planners.
Critics reduce people to numbers and that its
concern with abstract laws or formulas are not
relevant to the actual life of real people.
Positivism says science must conform. Social
science as an organised method for combining
deductive logic with precise empirical
observation of individual behaviour in order to
discover and confirm a set of probabilistic
causal laws that can be used to predict general
paterns of human activity.

Positivist on reason for research to discover
and document universal laws of human behaviour
and learn about how the world works so that
people can control or predict eventsknowledge
can be used as a tool to satisfy human wants and
to control the physical and social environment.
Eg. Positivist use theory of how we learn to
identify key factors of an educational system
(class size, student body habits, teacher
education etc) that predict increased student
learning.

Positivist conduct study to verify causal law
then builds knowledge that used by the official
to change school environment that will improve
student learning.
Engaged in never-ending quest for knowledgethe
more you learn, new complexities are discovered
and there still more to learn.
Early version of positivism maintain that human
can never know everything because only God
possesses such knowledge. However, human have a
duty to discover as much as they can.

Positivism on nature of social realityessentialis
t viewreality is real it exist out there and
waiting to be discovered.
Human perception and intellect may be flawed but
reality exist and it is not random it is
patterned and has order (not chaotic). Thus
possible to make prediction and logic.
Social reality is stable, and laws discovered
today will hold in the future. We can study many
parts of reality one at a time and add to get a
picture of the whole.

Positivist on nature of human beinghuman are
assumed to be self-interested, pleasure seeking,
rational individuals.
People act on the basis of external causes and
same causes have same effect on everyone. Thus we
can learn about people by observing their
behaviour.
This external reality is more important than
internal (subjective reality).
Human behaviour do not just happen because of
what the person wants. Rather like robots/puppets
who always respond the same.

Laws permit accurate prediction but not specific
behaviour of a specific person in each situaton.
Eg. Under condition x,y,z, there is a 95
probability that one-half of the people engage in
specific behaviour

Positivism on role of common sense clear
separation between science and nonscience.
Scientific knowledge is better and will replace
inferior ways of gaining knowledge (magic,
religion, astrology, personal experience, and
tradition).
The truth can be produced by special norms,
scientific attitude and technique whereas common
sense does so only rarely and inconsistently

Positivism on what constitutes an
explanation/theory of social realitylaw govern
the social lifesocial life can be explained by
discovering causal law. Y is caused by X because
Y and X are specific instances of a causal law
Positivist connect causal laws and the specific
facts observed about social life with deductive
logic, and can be explained in symbolic system
such as postulates and theorem (natural sc. and
soc. sc. alike).

Laws of human behaviour should be universally
valid, holding in all historical eras and in all
cultures.
Eg. The rise in crime rate in Toronto in 1990s
refer to factors (eg. Rising divorce rate,
declining commitment to traditional moral values)
that can be found anywhere at any time in Buenos
Aires in 1890s, Chicago in 1940s, or in Singapore
in 2010s.

Positivism on whether an explanation is true or
falsetruth can be recognised and distinguish by
applying reason.
Human condition will improved through the use of
reason and the pursuit of truth.
Knowledge accumulates over time and it plays role
to sort out true from false explanation.
Positivism considered explanation must have no
logical contradiction consistent with observed
facts can be replicate

Positivism on good evidence look likepositivism
is dualist. Observable facts are distinct from
ideas, values or theories.
Observation using sense organ (eyesight, smell)
or gadget (telescope, microscope).
If people disagree with facts it must be due to
improper use of measurement instrument or sloppy
observation.
Knowledge of observable reality using senses is
superior to other knowledge (intuition, emotion
feelings), and it allows to separate true from
false ideas about social life.

Good evidence for causal law involve piling up
supporting facts looking for evidence that
contradict the causal law.
Eg. To test the claim that all swans are white,
1,000/10,000 are white could not totally confirm
a causal law or pattern. Must locate one black
swan to refute the claimone piece of negative
evidence. If you cannot find it the best you can
say is thus far I have not been able to locate
any, so the claim might be right

Positivism on sociopolitical valuespositivism
argue for value-free science (objective).
Objective refer to the observers agree on what
they see science is not based on values,
opinions, attitudes, or beliefs.
Science is free from personal, political or
religious values.
Scientific community has an elaborate system of
checks and balance to guard against value bias

23
Interpretive social science (ISS)

Can be traced to German sociologist Max Weber
(1864-1920) and German philosopher Wilhem Dilthey
(1833-1911).
Dilthey argue that there are two types of
science Naturwissenschaft and Geistewissenschaft.
The former based on abstract explanation and the
later based on empathetic understanding of the
everyday lived experience of people in specific
historical settings.

must learn the personal reasons/motives that
shape a persons internal feelings and guide
decisions to act in particular ways.
ISS related to hermeneutics, a theory of meaning
(literally means making the obscure plain) found
in humanities (philosophy, linguistics, religious
studies, literary criticism)emphasizes detail
reading of text (conversation, written words or
picture)

A reseacher read to discover meaning embedded
within text, tries to absorb or get inside the
view point it presents as a whole, and then
develop a deep understanding of how its parts
relate to the whole.
In other words true meaning is not simple or
obvious on the surface, can be reached only
through detailed study of the text, contemplating
its many messages and seeking connection among
its parts.

Several varieties of ISS hermeneutics,
constructionism, ethnomethodology, cognitive,
idealist, phenomenological, subjectivist and
qualitative sociology.
ISS researchers often use participant observation
and field work or analyse transcript of
conversation or study videotapes looking for
subtle nonverbal communication.

Positivism use instrumental orientation, ISS
adopts practical orientationwhich concern with
how ordinary people manage their practical
affairs in everyday life or how they get things
done.
ISS on reason for researchto develop
understanding of social life and discover how
people construct meaning in natural settings. Eg.
Summarizing the goal of 10 year study of Willie,
a repair shop owner in a rural area ISS
researcher, Harper (1987) said the goal of the
research was to share Willies perspective.

ISS researcher study meaningful social action,
not just external behaviour but the action to
which people attach subject meaning. Eg. Eye
blinking (due to dryness of the eye or a social
action).
Nonhuman lack culture and reasoning to plan out
things and attach purpose to their behaviour.
Thus to study human must consider social actors
reasons and social contact of action.

Human action has little intrinsic meaning. To
interpret the action must acquire meaning among
people who share a meaning system.
Eg. Raising one finger in a situation with other
people can express social meaning (direction,
expression of friendship, a vulgar sign) depend
on cultural meaning system the social actors
share.

ISS on nature of social realitysocial reality is
not waiting to be discovered instead what people
perceived it to be. It is fluid and fragile.
People construct it by interacting with others in
ongoing processes of communication and
negotiation.

For ISS social reality is based on peoples
definition of it and it is constantly shifting.
Eg. my social reality is to kiss my mum and give
her gifts and confide in her. I learned from
culture and experience. But it is not fix. If the
situation change the social reality would be
shattered. Eg. If she became demented and no
longer recognised me.
Positivist says everyone shares the same meaning
system and all experience the world the same way.

ISS say people may or may not experience
social/physical reality in the same way. Eg.
Several people seen, heard and touch the same
physical object, yet come away with different
meaning or interpretation of it.
ISS approach sees social reality as consisting of
people who construct meaning and create
interpretations through their daily social
interaction.

ISS on the nature of human beingspeople engaged
in process of creating flexible system of meaning
through social interaction. They use the meanings
to interpret their social world and make sense of
their lives.
Human behaviour may be pattern and regular but
not due to preexisting law waiting to be
discovered (positivism), rather it is created out
of evolving meaning system that people generate
as they socially interact.

ISS researchers want to discover what actions
mean to the people who engage in them. People
have their own reasons for their actions and
researchers need to learn the reasons people use.
ISS on the role of common sensepositivist sees
common sense is inferior ISS say ordinary people
use common sense to guide them in daily living.
Thus important to understand common sense because
it contains the meaning that people use when they
engage in routine social interaction.

To ISS ordinary people could not function in
daily life if they base their action on science
alone. Eg. To boil an egg people use unsystematic
experience, habits and guesswork. A strict
application of natural science require one to
know the laws of physic that determine heating
the water and chemical laws that govern the
changes in eggs internal composition.

Common sense and positivists law are alternative
ways to interpret the world neither is inferior
or superior, each important in its own domain
each created in a different way for different
purpose.
People do not know that common sense is true but
they must assume that it is true in order to get
anything accomplished.

ISS on an explanation/theory of social
realitydiffer from positivist who says that
social theory should be similar to natural
science with deductive axioms, theorem, and
interconnected causal law. Rather it describes
and interprets how people conduct their daily
lives. It contains concepts and limited
generalisation and does not differ from the
experience and inner reality of the people being
studied.

ISS approach is ideographic (a symbolic
representation or thick description of something)
and inductive.
Interpretive theory resembles a map that outlines
a social world or a tourist guidebook describes
local custom and informal norms.

Eg. A report on professional gamblers tells the
reader about careers and daily concern of such
peoplelocations and activities observed,
strategies used to gamble, how professional
gamblers speak, how they view others, their fears
and ambition.
Researcher will give few generalization, and
organizing concept but bulk of it detailed
description of gambling world.

ISS on whether an explanation is true or
falsepositivists deduce from theory, collect
data and analyse facts in ways other scientist
can replicate. An explanation is considered true
when it stand up to replication.
For ISS a theory/explanation is true if it makes
sense to those being studied and if it allows
others to understand deeply of those being
studied.

An interpretive researchers description of
another persons meaning system is a secondary
account. Like a traveler telling about a foreign
land, the researcher is not a native.
Secondary account never equals to primary
account(those being studied).
Thus one way to test truthfulness of an
interpretive study of professional gambling is to
have professional gamblers read it and verify its
accuracy.

ISS on good evidence/factual information look
likein positivism good evidence is observable,
precise, and independent of values.
ISS see the unique features of specific context
and meaning as essential to understand social
meaningsocial action cannot be isolated from the
context in which it occurs.

Interpretive researchers say social situation
full of ambiguity, impossible to discover
straightforward objective facts.
Most behaviours/statements have several meaning
and can be interpret in multiple ways. Pople
constantly making sense by reassessing clues in
the situation and assigning meaning untill they
know whats gong on.

Eg. I see a women holding her hand out palm
forward. I do not know the meaning without
knowing the social situation warding off
potential mugger, drying her nail polish, hailing
a taxi, admiring a new ring, telling oncoming
traffic to stop for her, or requesting five
bagels at a deli counter.

ISS on place for valuespositivist calls for
eliminating values and operating within
apolitical environment.
ISS by contrast argue that researcher should
reflect on, reexamine, and analyse personal point
of view and feelings as part of process of
studying others need to empathize (at least
temporarily) with and share in the social and
political commitments or values of those he
studies

Interpretive approach is the foundation of social
research technique that are sensitive to context,
that use various methods to get inside the ways
others see the world and more concerned with
achieving an empathic understanding than with
testing laws of human behaviour.

47
Critical social science (CSS)

Version of this approach class analysis,
dialectical materialism and structuralism.
Disagree with positivism and ISS on some point.
Practice by Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud
Criticized positivist as being narrow,
antidemocratic and nonhumanist

Books by Jurgen HabermasKnowledge and Human
Interest (1971) and Pedagogy of the Oppressed
(1970) used CSS approach.
criticized ISS--too subjective and relativist,
amoral and passive because ISS is so concerned
with subjective reality, does not take strong
value position or actively help people to see
false illusion around them so that they can
improve their lives.

CSS on reason for researchis to change the
world.
Conduct research to critique and transform social
relations by revealing the underlying sources of
social relations and empowering people especially
less powerful people.
They uncover myths, reveal hidden truth and help
people to change the world for themselves.
CSS researcher is action oriented and seek
dramatic improvements.

On the other hand positivist researcher tries to
solve problems as they are defined by government
without rocking the boat.
CSS researcher create problem by intentionally
raising and identifying more problems than the
government/ruling elites are able to accommodate
much less to solve.
They ask embarrassing questions, expose
hypocrisy, and investigate conditions in order to
encourage dramatic grass-roots action

Eg. CSS researcher conducts a study to
discrimination in rental housing. White landlord
refuse to rent to minority tenants. He would not
just publish the report and wait for the
government to act. He gives the report to
newspaper and meet with grass-roots organisations
to discuss the result of the study. He work with
activists to mobilise the political action in the
name of social justice. When the people picket,
or organise march on city hall demanding action
he predicts the landlord will be forced to rent
to minorities.
The goal of research is to empower.

CSS on nature of social realitylike positivism
adopt a realist position (social reality is out
there to be discovered). But differ from
positivism in that it is historical realism in
which reality is seen as constantly shaped by
social, political, cultural and similar factors.
CSS assumed that social reality always changes
and the change is rooted in the tensions,
conflicts, or contradiction of social
relations/institutions.

CSS focused on changed and conflict, especially
paradoxes or inner conflicts. This paradoxes
reveal the true nature of social reality.
Biological analogy to illustrate paradox is death
and birth. It appear to be opposite yet death
begin with birth. We begin to die the day we are
born. Our bodies begin to decay as we live. There
is inner-tension between living and aging on all
the time. In order to live our bodies must age or
move toward death.

CSS noted social change and conflict are not
always apparent. The social world is full of
illusion, myth, and distortion. This illusion
allow some group in society to hold power and
exploit others.
CSS approach argue that social reality has
multiple layers. Behind the observable surface
reality lie deep structures or unobservable
mechanism.
Such structure can be uncovered with effort
intense and directed questioning, a good theory
about where to look, a clear value position, and
a historical orientation.

CSS agree with ISS that social reality is
changing and subject to socially created meaning.
Disagree with ISS emphasize on micro-level
interpersonal interactions and its acceptance of
any meaning system.
CSS says although subjective meaning is
important, there are real, objective relations
that shape social relations
CSS researcher question social situations and
place them in a larger macro-level historical
context.

Eg. ISS researcher study the interaction male
boss and female secretaryprovides a colourful
account of their rules of behaviour, interpretive
mechanisms, and system of meaning.
By contrast CSS researcher begins with point of
view (eg. feminist) and notes issues ignored by
ISS why are bosses male and secretaries female?
Why do the roles of boss and secretary have
unequal power? Why are such roles created in lare
organisations throughout our societies? How did
the unequal power come about historically? Why
can the boss make off-colour jokes that humiliate
the secretary? etc.

CSS on nature of human beingspositivism views
social forces have power over and operate on
people. CSS reject this idea as
reificationgiving the creation of your own
activity a separate alien existence. That is
separating yourself from what you have created
until you no longer recognise it as part of you.
Once you no longer see your contribution and
treat what you have helped create as an outside
force, you lose control over your destiny.

Eg. Two people meet, fall in love, marry and set
up a household. After two years the male feels
trapped by unseen forces. He fights with his wife
over childcare and house chores. The mans social
values say it is wrong for him to change diapers
or wash dishes. His agreement to marry and adopt
a particular life-style are creation of his
socialization and personal decision. Thus, the
unseen forces acting on him that make him feel
trapped is his own social creation (although he
forget this). If he aware of the forces that trap
him (societal values, social roles, and his own
decision) and take action to change them (modify
his life-style) he may be able to find solution
and to feel less trapped.

CSS researcher says people have a great deal of
unrealized potential, creative, changeable and
adaptive. However people can also be mislead,
mistreated and exploited by others. They trapped
in social meanings, obligations and relationship.
They fail to see how change is possible and thus
lose their independence, freedom and control over
their lives.
The potential of people can be realized if they
dispel their illusion and join collectively to
change society, but delusion, isolation and
oppressive condition prevent people from
realizing their dreams.

Eg. For generations, Americans believed the myth
that women were inferior to men, that men
inherent right to make major decisions, and women
were incapable of professional responsibilities.
By 1980s only minority hold such a belief. It is
resulted from new consciousness and organised
political action to destroy a myth that existed
in laws, customs, and official policies and
importantly in the everyday belief of most
people.

CSS on role of common senseis based on the idea
of false consciousnessthat people are mistaken
act against their own true best interest as
defined in objective reality.
ISS says false consciousness is meaningless
because it implies that social actor uses a
meaning system that is false or out of touch with
objective reality. People create and use such
system and researchers can only describe such
system, not judge their value.

CSS says social researcher should studies
subjective ideas and common sense because these
shape human behaviour. Yet they full of myth and
illusion that mask and objective world.
Thus researcher cannot use observation (although
very careful because it is not enough and
observing an illusion does not dispel it).
Researcher must use theory to dig beneath surface
relations, to observe periods of crisis and
intense conflict, to probe interconnections, to
look at the past, and to consider future
possibilities.
Uncovering the deeper level of reality is
difficult, but it is important because surface
reality is full of ideology, myth, distortion and
false appearance.

CSS on an explanation of social
realitypositivism based on the determinism
(human behaviour is determined by causal laws
that human have little control) ISS based on
voluntarism (people have large amount of free
will to create social meanings) CSS falls in
between (people are constrained by the material
conditions, cultural context and historical
conditionthe world people live in limits their
options and shapes their beliefs and behaviour
yet people are not locked into an inevitable set
of social structures, relationships or laws. They
can develop new understanding s or ways of seeing
that enable them to change these structures,
relationships or laws.

In order to do this they must develop vision of
the future and work together for change.
In a nutshell, people do shape their destiny, but
not under conditions of their own choosing.

CSS on whether an explanation/theory is true or
falsepositivism test theory by deducing
hypothesis, testing hypothesis with replicated
observation, and combine results to support laws.
ISS support theories by seeing whether the
meaning system and rules of behaviour make sense
to those being studied. CSS theory seeks to
provide people with a resource that will help
them understand and change their world.

CSS researcher test critical theory by describing
conditions generated by underlying structures,
then by applying that knowledge to change social
relationthe theory teach people about their own
experiences, help them understand their
historical role and use the theory to improve
condition.
CSS puts theory into practice and use the outcome
of applications to reformulate theory.

Eg. Researcher develop an explanation/ theory for
housing discrimination. He tests the theory by
using it to try to change condition. If the
theory says that underlying economic relations
cause discrimination and that landlord refuse to
rent to minorities because not profitable, then
political actions that make it profitable to rent
to minorities should change the landlords
behaviour. But if the theory says that the
underlying racial hatred causes landlords to
discriminate, then action based on profit will be
unsuccessful. The researcher will then examine
race hatred as the basis of landlord behaviour
through new studies combined with new political
action.

CSS on good evidence look likepositivism says
there are incontestable neutral facts on which
all rational people agree. Social facts are like
objectsthey existed separate from values or
theories. ISS says social worlds is made up of
created meaning, with people creating and
negotiating meanings. CSS bridge the
object-subject gap. It says that the facts of
material conditions exist independent of
subjective perceptions, but the facts are not
theory neutral, instead facts require
interpretation from within the framework of
values, theory and meaning.

Eg. It is a fact that the US spend a lot of
its GNP on health care compared to any advanced
countries, and yet it ranks 29th lowest infant
death rate. CSS researcher interpret that the US
has many people without health care and no system
to cover everyone. The fact includes the way the
health care is delivered to some through a
complex system of for-profit insurance companies,
pharmaceutical firms, hospitals and others who
benefit greatly from current arrangement. Some
powerful group get rich while weaker getting low
quality or no health care. CSS researchers look
at the facts and ask who benefits and who loses?

Eg. Nafziger on inequality of Africa, criticized
facts on income inequality because they
measured only money income in societies where
money is not widely used criticized facts on
land distribution and infant mortality rates
because this facts ignored the number of people
living on a farm and ignored one group (South
African Whites) that has lower infant mortality.
Instead Nafziger looked for wide variety of facts
(eg. Birth rates, urban-rural gaps, ethnic
divisions, international trade, political power)
and went behind the surface facts to connect them
to one another. He asked why is Africa the only
region in the world to become more impoverished
since WW2.

His theory helped him identify a number of social
groups (gov. leaders) and classes (peasants).
All theories are not equally useful for
understanding key facts. Theories based on
assumptions about the world is like and on a set
of moral-politics values. CSS says some values
are better than others. Thus to interpret facts,
one must understand history, adopt a set of
values, and know where to look for underlying
structures.

CSS on when do sociopolitical values enter into
scienceFirst of all social research is a
moral-political activity that requires the
researcher to commit to a value position. CSS
reject positivist value freedom as myth reject
ISS approach of relativism (everything is
relative and nothing is absolutereality of the
genius and reality of the idiot are equally valid
and important).
CSS says there is only one or very few correct
points of view. Other viewpoints are wrong and
misleading. All social research must begins with
a value or moral point of view.

For CSS being objective is not being value free.
Objectivity means a nondistorted, true picture of
reality. To deny that a researcher has a point of
view is itself a point of view. Eg. A
technicians point if viewconduct research and
ignore the moral questions satisfy sponsor and
follow orders. Such view says that science is a
tool anyone can use. It was criticized when Nazi
scientists use inhumane experiments and claimed
that they are blameless because they just follow
orders.

Positivism adopt such approach and produces
technocratic knowledgea form of knowledge best
suited for use by the people in power to control
other people.
CSS reject positivism and ISS as being concerned
with studying the world instead of acting on it.
CSS holds that knowledge is power. Social science
knowledge can be used to control people, hidden
in ivory tower for intellectual to play games
with, or it can be given to people to help them
to take charge of or improve their lives.

There are two additional approaches that are less
well known Feminist research and postmodern
research.
Feminist is conducted mostly by women who hold a
feminist self-identity and consciously use
feminist perspective.
Use multiple research techniques
Attempts to give a voice to women and to correct
male-oriented perspective that has predominated
in the development of social science.

Feminist researcher see positivism as being a
male point of viewit is objective, logical, task
oriented, and instrumental. It reflect a male
emphasis on individual competition, dominating
and controlling the environment. In contrast
women emphasis accommodation and gradually
developing human bondssocial world as a web of
interconnected human relations, people link
together by feelings of trust and mutual
obligation emphasis the subjective, empathetic,
process-oriented, and inclusive sides of social
life.

Nonfeminist research is blamed as sexist ignore
gender as fundamental social division, focuses on
mens problems, overgeneralise from the
experience of men to all people, use men as point
of reference, and assumes traditional gender
roles. Eg. Traditional researcher will say a
family has a problem if the adult men in it
cannot find stable work, but it is not considered
an equal family problem if the a women in it
cannot find a stable work.

Feminist researchers are not objective they
interact and collaborate with the people they
study fuse their personal and professional life
eg. They attempt to comprehend interviewees
sharing their own feelings and experiences. These
process may create personal relationship between
researcher and interviewee that might mature
overtime.

Postmodern researchis part of larger movement of
the contemporary world (including art, music,
literature, and cultural criticism).
Began in humanities, has roots in the
philosophies of existentialism, nihilism, and
anarchism and in the ideas Heidegger, Nietsche,
Sartre, and Wittgenstein
Reject modernism which refers to basic
assumptions, beliefs, and values that arose in
the Enlightenment era.

Modernism relies on logical reasoning optimistic
about the future and believe in progress
confidence in technology and science embrace
humanist values (judging ideas based on the
effect on human welfare).
Modernism holds that there are standards of
beauty, truth, and morality which most people can
agree.
Postmodernism research sees no separation between
arts and social science.

It seeks to deconstruct/tear apart surface
appearance to reveal the internal hidden
structure (like CSS)
Distrust abstract explanation and holds that
research can never do more than describe, with
all descriptions equally valida researchers
description is neither superior nor inferior to
anyone else and only describe the researchers
experiences.
Going beyond ISS and CSS it attempts to dismantle
social science

Reject possibilities of a science of the social
world, distrust all systematic empirical
observation, and doubt that knowledge is
generalizable or accumulates over time
They see knowledge taking numerous forms and
unique to particular people or specific locales
Reject truth as a goal because it is the epitome
of modernity. Truth makes reference to order,
rules and values depends on logic, rationality
and reason (all of which the postmodernists
question)

Postmodernist object to presenting research
results in a detached and neutral way.
Researcher should not hide when someone read the
reporthe must be presentthus they report the
research results is similar to a work of art
(theatrical, expressive, or dramatic style of
presentation, or in the form of work of fiction,
movie or play).
The purpose is to stimulate others, to give
pleasure, to evoke response, or to arouse
curiosity

To postmodernist, knowledge about social life
created by researcher may be better communicated
by skit or musical piece than by scholarly
journal article.
The value lies in telling story that may
stimulate experiences within the people who read
or encounter it.
Reject use of science to predict and to make
policy decisions oppose positivist science to
reinforce power relations and bureaucratic forms
of control over people.

Conclusion there are competing approaches to
social research based on different philosophical
assumption about the purpose of science and the
nature of social reality.
Most researchers operate primarily within one
approach but many combine elements from others.
You can study the same topic from any of above
approaches

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