Narrative Foundations of Knowing: Towards a New Perspective in the Sociology of Knowledge

2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 206-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Borisenkova
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Narrative Inquiry ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Social Epistemology ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Sociology Of Knowledge ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Sociological Explanation

There has been a tendency in social science to apply narrative inquiry ways of thinking and working to sociological research. Narratives are present either in theoretical schemes or in methodology. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the contribution made by narrative to social epistemology. Firstly, this is done through the explication of an explanatory potential of the concept of narrative and its ability to transform the analysis of fundamental sociological objects, such as human experience, actions, and communication. Secondly, the paper highlights three points involved in a narrative basis to scientific knowledge: discipline's biography as a narrative; narrative as a representation of social phenomena; and narrative as a kind of logic, embedded in the process of sociological explanation. Through a consideration of Charles Tilly's, Paul Ricoeur's, and Max Weber's arguments the problem of applying narrative inquiry to the investigation of large-scale phenomena is set. Apart from some insights, interpretative explanations, and illustrations, the paper provides critical arguments concerning the limitations of the narrative inquiry with respect to social epistemology.

The Laws that Govern Chaos

2020 ◽  
pp. 41-74
Author(s):  
Theodore M. Porter
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Low Countries ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Social Physics ◽  
Statistical Laws ◽  
Social Improvement

This chapter focuses on Adolphe Quetelet, who was among the few nineteenth-century statisticians who pursued a numerical social science of laws, not just of facts. Quetelet's contribution to statistical thought and to the mathematics of statistical analysis was a characteristic if not unsurprising product of his syncretic approach. Social physics was an elaborate metaphor that integrated his genuine concern for the advancement of scientific knowledge with his desire to turn science to the promotion of sound government and social improvement. Quetelet's fascination with the possibility of subjecting ostensibly uncontrolled social phenomena to scientific order was at the heart of his dedication to the concept of statistical laws. Characteristically, he gave this idea its fullest development in reference to such events as crime and suicide, the immoral materials for that “moral statistics” which was central to the early statistical movements in Britain and France as well as the Low Countries. The notion of statistical law achieved its fullest expression in Great Britain during the 1850s, the decade when laissez-faire liberalism reached its intellectual apogee.

scholarly journals From methodology to methodography?

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 205979912097699
Author(s):  
Martyn Hammersley
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Research Methodology ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Practical Reasoning ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Qualitative Approaches ◽  
The Social

This article examines the character of a small but detailed observational study that focused on two teams of researchers, one engaged in qualitative sociological research, the other developing statistical models. The study was presented as investigating ‘the social life of methods’, an approach seen by some as displacing conventional research methodology. The study drew on ethnomethodology, and was offered as a direct parallel with ethnographic and ethnomethodological investigations of natural scientists’ work by Science and Technology Studies scholars. In the articles deriving from this study, the authors show how even the statisticians relied on background qualitative knowledge about the social phenomena to which their data related. The articles also document routine practices employed by each set of researchers, some ‘troubles’ they encountered and how they dealt with these. Another theme addressed is whether the distinction between quantitative and qualitative approaches accurately characterised differences between these researchers at the level of practical reasoning. While this research is presented as descriptive in orientation, concerned simply with documenting social science practices, it operates against a background of at least implicit critique. I examine its character and the closely associated criticism of social research methodology and conventional social science.

scholarly journals FlavorGraph: a large-scale food-chemical graph for generating food representations and recommending food pairings

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Donghyeon Park ◽  
Keonwoo Kim ◽  
Seoyoon Kim ◽  
Michael Spranger ◽  
Jaewoo Kang
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Property ◽  
Statistical Learning ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Graph Embedding ◽  
Food Science ◽  
Embedding Method ◽  
Chemical Graph ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
The Web

AbstractFood pairing has not yet been fully pioneered, despite our everyday experience with food and the large amount of food data available on the web. The complementary food pairings discovered thus far created by the intuition of talented chefs, not by scientific knowledge or statistical learning. We introduce FlavorGraph which is a large-scale food graph by relations extracted from million food recipes and information of 1,561 flavor molecules from food databases. We analyze the chemical and statistical relations of FlavorGraph and apply our graph embedding method to better represent foods in dense vectors. Our graph embedding method is a modification of metapath2vec with an additional chemical property learning layer and quantitatively outperforms other baseline methods in food clustering. Food pairing suggestions made based on the food representations of FlavorGraph help achieve better results than previous works, and the suggestions can also be used to predict relations between compounds and foods. Our research offers a new perspective on not only food pairing techniques but also food science in general.

Assessment of quality of life in patients with the effects of transient ischemic stroke

2016 ◽  
pp. 37-39
Author(s):  
A. Babirad
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Ischemic Stroke ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Cerebrovascular Diseases ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Cerebrovascular Events ◽  
Sf 36 ◽  
Angioplasty And Stenting

Cerebrovascular diseases are a problem of the world today, and according to the forecast, the problem of the near future arises. The main risk factors for the development of ischemic disorders of the cerebral circulation include oblique and aging, arterial hypertension, smoking, diabetes mellitus and heart disease. An effective strategy for the prevention of cerebrovascular events is based on the implementation of large-scale risk control measures, including the use of antiagregant and anticoagulant therapy, invasive interventions such as atheromectomy, angioplasty and stenting. In this connection, the efforts of neurologists, cardiologists, angiosurgery, endocrinologists and other specialists are the basis for achieving an acceptable clinical outcome. A review of the SF-36 method for assessing the quality of life in patients with the effects of transient ischemic stroke is presented. The assessment of quality of life is recognized in world medical practice and research, an indicator that is also used to assess the quality of the health system and in general sociological research.

“We Speak the Truth!”

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 53-80
Author(s):  
Sari Hanafi
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Social Science ◽  
The Political ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
The Social ◽  
Academic Qualifications

This study investigates the preachers and their Friday sermons in Lebanon, raising the following questions: What are the profiles of preachers in Lebanon and their academic qualifications? What are the topics evoked in their sermons? In instances where they diagnosis and analyze the political and the social, what kind of arguments are used to persuade their audiences? What kind of contact do they have with the social sciences? It draws on forty-two semi-structured interviews with preachers and content analysis of 210 preachers’ Friday sermons, all conducted between 2012 and 2015 among Sunni and Shia mosques. Drawing from Max Weber’s typology, the analysis of Friday sermons shows that most of the preachers represent both the saint and the traditional, but rarely the scholar. While they are dealing extensively with political and social phenomena, rarely do they have knowledge of social science

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.

Using crystallization to understand loneliness in later life: integrating social science and creative narratives in sensitive qualitative research

2021 ◽  
pp. 146879412110059
Author(s):  
Barbara Barbosa Neves ◽  
Josephine Wilson ◽  
Alexandra Sanders ◽  
Renata Kokanović
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Creative Writing ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Older People ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Vulnerable Populations ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Care Homes ◽  
Social Phenomena

This article draws on crystallization, a qualitative framework developed by Laurel Richardson and Laura Ellingson, to show the potential of using sociological narratives and creative writing to better analyze and represent the lived experiences of loneliness among older people living in Australian care homes. Crystallization uses a multi-genre approach to study and present social phenomena. At its core is a concern for the ethics of representation, which is critical when engaging with vulnerable populations. We use two case studies from research on loneliness to illustrate an application of crystallization through different narrative types. To supplement our sociological narratives, we invited author Josephine Wilson to write creative narratives based on the case studies. Josephine was awarded the prestigious Miles Franklin Literary Award in 2017 for Extinctions, a novel exploring themes such as later life and loneliness. By contrasting the two approaches—sociological and creative narratives—we discuss the implications of crystallization for qualitative research.

TRADITION AND INNOVATION IN MODERN KAZAKH POETRY (XX century and independence)

2021 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
pp. 118-128
Author(s):  
Sh. Kuttybaev ◽  
◽  
Е. Abdimomynov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Evolutionary Development ◽  
Spiritual Values ◽  
Literary Traditions ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
National Poetry ◽  
In The Beginning

The article analyzes views on innovation in the literary science of the early twentieth century and the work of Alash representatives in an era that is a period filled with profound changes and large-scale innovations in Kazakh society. In addition, works related to freedom, enlightenment, politics, spiritual values, the position of the people as a whole and social changes are considered the idea of independence and continuity. On the way of evolutionary development of the Kazakh literature, artistic power, thematic and ideological character, substantial and stylistic features of poetry of poets in the beginning of the XX century and during the Great Patriotic War, in subsequent years and years of independence are discussed in detail. In addition, on the basis of literary traditions and novelty, the works of prominent poets of Kazakh poetry of the 20th century and Independence are considered and comprehensively characterized, i.e. internal motives, the content of life phenomena in national poetry are analyzed in close connection with the works of poets. The original vision of the traditional and differentiated in the literature of the Soviet period in the works of poets from a new perspective, from the point of view of today. In addition, the works of outstanding poets of Kazakh poetry in the period of the 20th century and independence are considered on the basis of classical tradition and novelty in literature.

scholarly journals Is Banning Significance Testing the Best Way to Improve Applied Social Science Research? – Questions on

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 95-105
Author(s):  
Thees F Spreckelsen ◽  
Mariska Van Der Horst
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Significance Testing ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Research Practice ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Applied Social Science

Significance testing is widely used in social science research. It has long been criticised on statistical grounds and problems in the research practice. This paper is an applied researchers’ response to Gorard's (2016) ‘Damaging real lives through obstinacy: re-emphasising why significance testing is wrong’ in Sociological Research Online 21(1). He participates in this debate concluding from the issues raised that the use and teaching of significance testing should cease immediately. In that, he goes beyond a mere ban of significance testing, but claims that researchers still doing this are being unethical. We argue that his attack on applied scientists is unlikely to improve social science research and we believe he does not sufficiently prove his claims. In particular we are concerned that with a narrow focus on statistical significance, Gorard misses alternative, if not more important, explanations for the often-lamented problems in social science research. Instead, we argue that it is important to take into account the full research process, not just the step of data analysis, to get a better idea of the best evidence regarding a hypothesis.

scholarly journals Damaging the Case for Improving Social Science Methodology through Misrepresentation: Re-Asserting Confidence in Hypothesis Testing as a Valid Scientific Process

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 136-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Nicholson ◽  
Sean Mccusker
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Hypothesis Testing ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Significance Tests ◽  
Hypothesis Tests ◽  
Strong Statement ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Science Methodology ◽  
Social Science Methodology ◽  
Reasonable Model

This paper is a response to Gorard's article, ‘Damaging real lives through obstinacy: re-emphasising why significance testing is wrong’ in Sociological Research Online 21(1). For many years Gorard has criticised the way hypothesis tests are used in social science, but recently he has gone much further and argued that the logical basis for hypothesis testing is flawed: that hypothesis testing does not work, even when used properly. We have sympathy with the view that hypothesis testing is often carried out in social science contexts when it should not be, and that outcomes are often described in inappropriate terms, but this does not mean the theory of hypothesis testing, or its use, is flawed per se. There needs to be evidence to support such a contention. Gorard claims that: ‘Anyone knowing the problems, as described over one hundred years, who continues to teach, use or publish significance tests is acting unethically, and knowingly risking the damage that ensues.’ This is a very strong statement which impugns the integrity, not just the competence, of a large number of highly respected academics. We argue that the evidence he puts forward in this paper does not stand up to scrutiny: that the paper misrepresents what hypothesis tests claim to do, and uses a sample size which is far too small to discriminate properly a 10% difference in means in a simulation he constructs. He then claims that this simulates emotive contexts in which a 10% difference would be important to detect, implicitly misrepresenting the simulation as a reasonable model of those contexts.

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