scholarly journals Evaluative Categories of Action and Identity in Non-Evaluative Human Studies Research: Examples from Ethnomethodology

2005 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-30
Author(s):  
Tim J. Berard
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Social Practices ◽  
Practical Action ◽  
Logical Grammar ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject

Ethnomethodologists have emphasized the pragmatic and contextual nature of description as a variety of social practice, and have suggested the ramifications of this insight for the methodology and philosophy of the social sciences. However, ethnomethodologists have thereby invited difficult questions about the moral and analytic status of their own descriptions. Drawing on Atkinson’s study of suicide verdicts and Coulter’s writings on schizophrenia, ethnomethodological scholarship is shown to display the possibility and promise of disinterested description, even when the subject matter involves the evaluation of problematic actions and identities. The combination of Wittgensteinian logical grammar and empirical studies of natural language use, suggested by Coulter, is presented as especially relevant and remarkable for purposes of studying social practices including describing, naming, categorizing, classifying, labeling, diagnosing, reaching a verdict, and kindred practices of language use conceived as varieties of practical action.

‘Some of Our People can be the Most Difficult’. Reflections on Difficult Interviews

2004 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Sam Pryke
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Initial Response ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Complex Matter

This article questions the methodological convention in the social sciences that the interviewer must never disagree with a respondent in qualitative research. The issue arose during research on the British Serbian community when some participants sought to justify, exculpate or reject Serbian liability for atrocity. My initial response not to demur but to simply move onto the next question morally tainted the research, as it seemed to collud in a denial of Serbian responsibility for atrocity in an understanding of war (1991-99) in which the Serbs were always the victim. I discuss, through an extended excerpt from an interview conducted later in the research, my attempt to challenge respondents over this claim. I set the moral and methodological case to object to the denial of atrocity against the practical dangers present in doing so: the risk of a loosing track of the spine of a prepared script of questions as a fruitless argument develops and the intricacies of the subject matter are exposed. But I also allow for an interpretation that would suggest that my response was altogether too cautious. My conclusion, such as one can make one about such a complex matter, is that to object in such a kind of instance is legitimate.

Introduction. An Introduction to Research Methods in the Social Sciences

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Ece Özlem Atikcan ◽  
Jean-Frédéric Morin ◽  
Christian Olsson
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Easy Task ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Scientific Truth ◽  
Do So

Introducing research methods in the social sciences is not an easy task given how complex the subject matter is. Social sciences, like all sciences, can be divided into categories (disciplines). Disciplines are frequently defined according to what they study (their empirical object) and how they study it (their particular problematization of the object). They are, however, by no means unitary entities. Within each discipline, multiple theories typically contend over the ability to tell provisional truths about the world. They do so by building on specific visions of the nature of the world, reflections on how to generate scientific truth, systematic ways of collecting and analyzing data (methods) and of justifying these methods as part of a coherent research design (methodologies).

scholarly journals Axiological Foundations of Social Pedagogy: Search Areas

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 35-43
Author(s):  
Mariusz Cichosz
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Social World ◽  
Social Pedagogy ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Common ◽  
Related Mode

The issue of values is of key importance in social sciences and thus in pedagogy. The process of education is strongly embedded and makes references to such aspects as models, templates and standards. In turn, they are interpreted axiologically and always receive the axiological interpretation. Every pedagogical sub-discipline tackles this issue in a specific and aspect-related mode. For social pedagogy, apart from the traditional cognitive and interpretative areas, such as the adopted concepts of man and social life, the area and the subject matter of principles on the basis of which the social world should be/ could be transformed is also of great importance. One of such principles is the principle of the common good. One may ask: to which traditions does social pedagogy refer in this respect, how does it interpret this principle and what are the present-day challenges related to it?

scholarly journals Rommet for interaksjon om eksistensielle spørsmål i barnehagen

2020 ◽  
pp. 207-228
Author(s):  
Ragnhild Fauske
Keyword(s):  
Social Practice ◽  
Video Recording ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Subject Area ◽  
Social Practices ◽  
Kindergarten Teacher ◽  
Practice Research ◽  
Concept Space ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject

This article is a contribution to empirical practice research in the field of kindergarten, studying how a part of the subject area Ethics, Religions and Philosophy in the Framework Plan for Kindergartens – Content and Tasks plays out in the field of practice. In this article the concept “space” will – in addition to being a concept of different social practices that take place in kindergartens – be an expression of the space created in interaction between agents acting with different artefacts, in this case a book about birth rites connected with births in different religions. The data is established through video recording of a planned conversation between a kindergarten teacher and four children in a multicultural kindergarten. Sociocultural theory is used for the analysis of the conversation, interpreted as a trialogical process. The interactions and negotiations between children and staff create “a space of possibilities”. The preschool teacher’s use of tools seldom creates “a space of wondering” that leads to dialogue about existential questions, which was the initial purpose of the planned conversation. Religion in kindergarten is in this article understood as part of the social practice in kindergartens and in this context it belongs to the field of education, as opposed to religious practice in for example churches and mosques.

Fakir Baykurt’un Almanya öykülerinde Türk göçmen çocukları

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-28
Author(s):  
Efnan Dervişoğlu
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
Main Theme ◽  
Social Dimensions ◽  
Home Life ◽  
Literary Forms ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Life Education

Almanya’ya işçi göçü, neden ve sonuçları, sosyal boyutlarıyla ele alınmış; göç ve devamındaki süreçte yaşanan sorunlar, konunun uzmanlarınca dile getirilmiştir. Fakir Baykurt’un Almanya öyküleri, sunduğu gerçekler açısından, sosyal bilimlerin ortaya koyduğu verilerle bağdaşan edebiyat ürünleri arasındadır. Yirmi yılını geçirdiği Almanya’da, göçmen işçilerle ve aileleriyle birlikte olup işçi çocuklarının eğitimine yönelik çalışmalarda bulunan yazarın gözlem ve deneyimlerinin ürünü olan bu öyküler, kaynağını yaşanmışlıktan alır; çalışmanın ilk kısmında, Fakir Baykurt’un yaşamına ve Almanya yıllarına dair bilgi verilmesi, bununla ilişkilidir. Öykülere yansıyan çocuk yaşamı ise çalışmanın asıl konusunu oluşturmaktadır. “Ev ve aile yaşamı”, “Eğitim yaşamı ve sorunları”, “Sosyal çevre, arkadaşlık ilişkileri ve Türk-Alman ayrılığı” ile “İki kültür arasında” alt başlıklarında, Türkiye’den göç eden işçi ailelerinde yetişen çocukların Almanya’daki yaşamları, karşılaştıkları sorunlar, öykülerin sunduğu veriler ışığında değerlendirilmiş; örneklemeye gidilmiştir. Bu öyküler, edebiyatın toplumsal gerçekleri en iyi yansıtan sanat olduğu görüşünü doğrular niteliktedir ve sosyolojik değerlendirmelere açıktır. ENGLISH ABSTRACTMigration and Children in Fakir Baykurt’s stories from GermanyThe migration of workers to Germany has been taken up with its causes, consequences and social dimensions; the migration and the problems encountered in subsequent phases have been stated by experts in the subject. Fakir Baykurt’s stories from Germany, regarding the reality they represent, are among the literary forms that coincide with the facts supplied by social sciences. These stories take their sources from true life experiences as the products of observations and experiences with migrant workers and their families in Germany where the writer has passed twenty years of his life and worked for the education of the worker’s children; therefore information related to Fakir Baykurt’s life and his years in Germany are provided in the first part of the study.  The life of children reflected in the stories constitutes the main theme of the study.  Under  the subtitles of “Family and Home Life”, “Education Life and related issues”, “Social environment, friendships and Turkish-German disparity” and “Amidst two cultures”, the lives in Germany of children who have been  raised in working class  families and  who have immigrated from Turkey are  evaluated under the light of facts provided by the stories and examples are given. These stories appear to confirm that literature is an art that reflects the social reality and is open to sociological assessments.KEYWORDS: Fakir Baykurt; Germany; labor migration; child; story

Potencjał kooperacji turystycznej i piłkarskiej w państwach Grupy Wyszehradzkiej

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 351-375
Author(s):  
Mateusz Rafał ◽  
Dominik Borek
Keyword(s):  
Subject Matter ◽  
Social Initiative ◽  
Cultural Proximity ◽  
Tourism Sector ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Potential ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Migration Crisis ◽  
Visegrad Group ◽  
Visegrád Countries

This article takes up the innovatory subject of cooperation in the field of football and the tourism sector by the Visegrad Group states. The subject matter of this study has not been widely discussed in the literature, hence most of de lege ferenda postulates are open to further discussion. The current Visegrad Group was created as a political project, not an evolutionary social initiative. This does not mean, however, that the societies of its member states are significantly different from each other, and the structure itself is exotic. The benefits of an extended cooperation, which seems not to have an alternative, for all the participants are fully understood. Therefore, the direction of common thinking about maximizing profits in the developing sector of tourism, and making the most of the social potential of football, can be an attractive platform for international dialogue and extended cooperation among the V4 countries. The baggage of history, geographic and cultural proximity, the migration crisis, as well as the imperialist policy of the neighbouring Russia effectively motivate to strengthen cooperation and create stronger mechanisms with each other. It is indisputable that the tendencies for cooperation in the Visegrad countries are not a novelty.

Rhythm

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lexi Eikelboom
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Embodied Experience ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
The Social ◽  
Contemporary Philosopher ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Theoretical Category

This book argues that, as a pervasive dimension of human existence with theological implications, rhythm ought to be considered a category of theological significance. Philosophers and theologians have drawn on rhythm—patterned movements of repetition and variation—to describe reality, however, the ways in which rhythm is used and understood differ based on a variety of metaphysical commitments with varying theological implications. This book brings those implications into the open, using resources from phenomenology, prosody, and the social sciences to analyse and evaluate uses of rhythm in metaphysical and theological accounts of reality. The analysis relies on a distinction from prosody between a synchronic approach to rhythm—observing the whole at once and considering how various dimensions of a rhythm hold together harmoniously—and a diachronic approach—focusing on the ways in which time unfolds as the subject experiences it. The text engages with the twentieth-century Jesuit theologian Erich Przywara alongside thinkers as diverse as Augustine and the contemporary philosopher Giorgio Agamben, and proposes an approach to rhythm that serves the concerns of theological conversation. It demonstrates the difference that including rhythm in theological conversation makes to how we think about questions such as “what is creation?” and “what is the nature of the God–creature relationship?” from the perspective of rhythm. As a theoretical category, capable of expressing metaphysical commitments, yet shaped by the cultural rhythms in which those expressing such commitments are embedded, rhythm is particularly significant for theology as a phenomenon through which culture and embodied experience influence doctrine.

scholarly journals The Relevance of Inequality Research in Sociology for Inequality Reduction

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 237802312110201
Author(s):  
Thomas A. DiPrete ◽  
Brittany N. Fox-Williams
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Social Inequality ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Life Chances ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Large Scale Change ◽  
The Subject

Social inequality is a central topic of research in the social sciences. Decades of research have deepened our understanding of the characteristics and causes of social inequality. At the same time, social inequality has markedly increased during the past 40 years, and progress on reducing poverty and improving the life chances of Americans in the bottom half of the distribution has been frustratingly slow. How useful has sociological research been to the task of reducing inequality? The authors analyze the stance taken by sociological research on the subject of reducing inequality. They identify an imbalance in the literature between the discipline’s continual efforts to motivate the plausibility of large-scale change and its lesser efforts to identify feasible strategies of change either through social policy or by enhancing individual and local agency with the potential to cumulate into meaningful progress on inequality reduction.

Political Science and Public Administration: A Note on the State of the Union

1952 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 660-676 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roscoe C. Martin
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Russell Sage Foundation ◽  
Special Study ◽  
Woodrow Wilson ◽  
State Of The Union ◽  
The Social ◽  
Original Essay ◽  
The Subject

By tradition public administration is regarded as a division of political science. Woodrow Wilson set the stage for this concept in his original essay identifying public administration as a subject worthy of special study, and spokesmen for both political science and public administration have accepted it since. Thus Leonard White, in his 1930 article on the subject in the Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, recognizes public administration as “a branch of the field of political science.” Luther Gulick follows suit, observing in 1937 that “Public administration is thus a division of political science ….” So generally has this word got around that it has come to the notice of the sociologists, as is indicated in a 1950 report of the Russell Sage Foundation which refers to “political science, including public administration….” “Pure” political scientists and political scientists with a public administration slant therefore are not alone in accepting this doctrine, which obviously enjoys a wide and authoritative currency.But if public administration is reckoned generally to be a child of political science, it is in some respects a strange and unnatural child; for there is a feeling among political scientists, substantial still if mayhap not so widespread as formerly, that academicians who profess public administration spend their time fooling with trifles. It was a sad day when the first professor of political science learned what a manhole cover is! On their part, those who work in public administration are likely to find themselves vaguely resentful of the lack of cordiality in the house of their youth.

Science and common sense in the study of international politics

1984 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-39
Author(s):  
Roger D. Spegele
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Common Sense ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Mind And Body ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Humean View

The history of recent efforts to establish a science of international politics may be usefully viewed as elaborate glosses on David Hume's powerful philosophical programme for resolving, reconciling or dissolving a variety of perspicuous dualities: the external and the internal, mind and body, reason and experience. Philosophers and historians of ideas still dispute the extent to which Hume succeeded but if one is to judge by the two leading ‘scientific’ research programmes1 for international politics—inductivism and naive falsificationism —these dualities are as unresolved as ever, with fatal consequences for the thesis of the unity of the sciences. For the failure to reconcile or otherwise dissolve such divisions shows that, on the Humean view, there is at least one difference between the physical (or natural) sciences. and the moral (or social) sciences: namely, that while the latter bear on the internal and external, the former are concerned primarily with the external. How much this difference matters and how the issue is avoided by the proponents of inductivism and naïve falsification is the subject matter of this paper.

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