‘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.

scholarly journals Młode pokolenie wobec pracy, konsumpcji oraz sukcesu

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 15-31
Author(s):  
Joanna Wardzała
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Social Context ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Consumer Society ◽  
Young Generation ◽  
Consumer Behaviors ◽  
Applicable Law ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject

The young generation in terms of work, consumption and success  The subject matter of the young generation in the social context has been repeatedly examined and many studies have been prepared on this topic, for example the works of K. Wyka and earlier K. Manheim. Increasingly, the issue of the younger generation is discussed in the area of issues related to consumption and work. The article is of a theoretical and empirical nature; it is an attempt to portray the young generation in its two most important roles on the market — the consumer and the entrepreneur. It is an introductory element to the problems of consumer behaviors and entrepreneurial behaviors of the young generation. The publication draws attention to the expectations of the young generation about the applicable law and the economy. The first part of the article is characterized by sociological considerations and serves to determine the meaning of the young generation in consumer society, in particular, to outline the framework of youth, which in literature is sometimes defined not only by age categories. It is also an interdisciplinary review of theories, both those created in the past and those quite contemporary. In the second part, it refers to the results of qualitative research relating to the opinions and expectations of the young generation about consumption, work and success.  

scholarly journals The implications for qualitative research methodology of the struggle between the individualised subject of phenomenology and the emergent multiplicities of the poststructuralist subject: the problem of agency

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bronwyn Davies
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Research Methodology ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Academic Work ◽  
Reggio Emilia ◽  
The Social ◽  
Qualitative Research Methodology ◽  
Poststructuralist Theory ◽  
The Subject

This paper re-visits the problem of how we re-conceptualize human subjects within poststructuralist research. The turn to poststructuralist theory to inform research in the social sciences is complicated by the difficulty in thinking through what it means to put the subject under erasure. Drawing on a study in a Reggio Emilia inspired preschool in Sweden, and a study of neoliberalism's impact on academic work, this paper opens up thought about poststructuralism's subject. It argues that agency is the province of that subject. 

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 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.

scholarly journals ¿Artesanía o cazador tras la huella?. Reflexiones para el análisis cualitativo de datos

2018 ◽  
pp. 65
Author(s):  
Daniel San Martín Cantero
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Research Process ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Object Of Study ◽  
And Training

En las ciencias sociales se generan debates metodológicos que contribuyen a las formas de comprender la investigación social. En este ensayo se discute el modo de entender el rol del investigador frente a la aproximación y análisis del objeto/sujeto de estudio. El objetivo es cuestionar el uso de la metáfora del investigador como artesano. Esta imagen aparece en los años 50 para explicar la creatividad que requiere el proceso de investigación y análisis cualitativo de datos. Sin embargo, la metáfora del artesano representa una aproximación deductiva del investigador al sujeto/objeto de estudio. Por el contrario, el análisis cualitativo está orientado por procedimientos inductivos. Entonces, se propone la metáfora del cazador tras la presa, como un recurso con consistencia paradigmática y epistemológica que aporta a la comprensión y formación en investigación cualitativa.Within the social sciences, methodological debates contribute to the understanding of social research. This paper discusses one way of understanding the role of the investigator in relation to the approach and analysis of the object/subject of study. The objective is to question the use of the researcher's metaphor as a craftsman. This image appears in the 1950s in order to explain the creativity required by the research process and qualitative data analysis. However, the artisan's metaphor represents a deductive approximation of the researcher to the subject/object of study. On the contrary, the qualitative analysis is oriented by inductive procedures. The metaphor of the hunter after the prey is then proposed as a resource with a paradigmatic and epistemological consistency that contributes to the understanding and training in the qualitative research.

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.

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