Social research is primarily about gathering data and working with it in ways that will help us to understand and explain social phenomena. We have seen that there are differ- ent ways of knowing and that social scientists have different ways of looking at the social world and accept different types of knowledge as useful in attempting to understand and explain.
Your research
Think about your own area of research and identify four questions or aspects you might address. Descriptive research Exploratory research Explanatory research Evaluation research variable An attribute or charac- teristic of cases (for example, individuals, organisations, objects or situations) which can vary from case to case. causal relationship The assertion that a change in ‘A’ causes a change in ‘B’.
What is . . .
Theory
A set of ideas or related concepts which can be used to explain and understand an event, situation, social phenomena.
Concept
An abstract idea which encapsulates a way of describing or thinking about a social phenomenon, for example, family, poverty, power, health. (See A4for more about working with concepts.)
We have already encountered theories– in this case theories relating to knowledge, what knowledge there is about the social world and how knowledge about the world can be used to help us to understand and explain social phenomena. Ontological and epistemological positions are themselves theories of knowledge. And as we have seen, there are different theories, or sets of ideas, about the nature of knowledge and how it can be ‘known’. The epistemological positions we identified are based on theories of knowledge and, as such, provide us with theories of social research, which attempt to explain the nature of social research itself.
Whatever approach we take to our research theory will be part of it. Just as we are all re- searchers, so we are all everyday theorisers. Theories are sets of ideas which attempt to ex- plain something – the relationship between two characteristics, why particular events occur, how some people come to hold particular views or behave in particular ways. In an everyday way we draw on our own theories to explain what is happening to us.
I think I have done well in that assignment because I spent hours in the library reading up on it …
Theory – the more time you spend reading, the better the assignment (a theory that
could quite easily be disproved!).
She’s not got such good marks this year because she’s had a hard time, her parents have divorced and her grandmother has been ill.
Theory – academic work can be affected by personal worries and stresses.
In conversation, we often try to explain ourselves to others by drawing on ideas about the way things are, or ought to be, and how things work; these depend on our shared common experience of being social human beings. We use our own experience, ability to empathise and understandings to apply our theories to others.
In addition to using theories of social research, social scientists (and natural scientists) develop and use theories to attempt to explain the nature of the phenomena they study. Just as there are different ways of explaining the nature of social research, so there are
different ways of explaining how a social phenomenon like ‘the family’ comes to be seen or understood as it is. As social researchers we need to both identify our own theories about our research topic and to find out about the theories other researchers have used or devel- oped from their own research findings.
O’Brian (cited in Gilbert, 1993: 11) uses the example of a kaleidoscope to demonstrate the way theories help us to study the social world:
When you turn the tube and look down the lens of the kaleidoscope the shapes and colours, visible at the bottom, change. As the tube is turned, different lenses come into play and combinations of colour and shape shift from one pattern to another.
Theories are like lenses which bring different aspects of the social world into view and can help us to see the social world in new ways.
Example A2.5
Examples of theories relating to the example of teenage gangs and family
Masculinity is socially constructed (understood and given meaning) in different ways in different times and cultures (social constructionist theory).
A child’s development is influenced by culture, neighbourhood and family (known
as the ecological–transactional model).
One function of the family is to socialise the children (functional theory).
Some groups of boys are expected to fail at school (stereotyping/labelling theory).
Some young men join gangs because it gives them a sense of belonging and identity which may be lacking in other aspects of their lives (identity theory).
A child who witnesses violence may become aggressive and see violence as nor- mal (social learning theory).
Social theories are often described as being at different levels relating to the areas of the so- cial world they can be said to cover: macro, mesoand micro.
Macro (or sometimes grand): theories that attempt to cover all aspects of the social world
in general terms.
Meso: middle-level theories relating to social phenomena usually found, such as organ-
isations, institutions, community and family.
Micro: local theory relating to a specific area, group of people or aspect of the social world.
Macro-level theories influence the way social scientists think about the social world as a whole and can provide the basis for the development of theories at a lower level and related to more specific aspects of the social world.
Think about it . . .
Earlier we highlighted an opinion poll which found that 80% of adults questioned thought that family breakdown and the lack of discipline in the home are factors in the increase of gun-related crime among young men.
What theory or theories do you think the people who held this opinion may have been using?
macro theories Theories that attempt to cover all aspects of the social world in general terms (also known as grand theories). meso theories Middle-level theories relating to social phe- nomena usually found, such as organisations, institutions, community and family.
micro theories Local theory relating to a specific area, group of people or aspect of the social world.
Paradigms
Theories at a macro level that attempt to encompass the social world also cover the social phenomena of social research itself and include within the theory ideas about the nature of the social world and the acceptable ways of studying it. This means that a particular theoretical approach can include its own ontological and epistemological position. Bringing together theory about the social world with particular ontological and epistemological po- sitions in this way is sometimes referred to as a paradigm.
As the definitions suggest, paradigms tend to reflect the interests and focus of research communities, or of social scientists from a particular discipline or sharing a set of theory- informed beliefs about the social world. Within the social sciences we can identify, for ex- ample, feminism, postmodernism and post-structuralism as paradigms (see Example A2.7 below for a discussion of feminism and the ontological and epistemological positions im- plicit within feminist theory). Researchers sometimes talk about the way a paradigm sup- ports their research as a theoretical framework. This suggests that the theoretical ideas and approaches to viewing and gathering knowledge provide the basic ways of addressing the topic. Marlow describes a paradigm as a map, helpfully ‘directing us to the problems that are important to address, the theories that are acceptable, and the procedures needed to solve the problems’ (Marlow, 2001: 7).
What is . . .
Paradigm
(1) The entire constellation of beliefs, values, techniques and so on shared by mem- bers of a given (scientific) community (Kuhn, 1970: 175).
(2) A cluster of beliefs and dictates which for scientists in a particular discipline in- fluence what should be studied, how research should be done, how results should be interpreted and so on (Bryman, 1988: 4).
Example A2.6
Theory levels relating to the example of teenage gangs and family
Macro theory – Masculinity is socially constructed (understood and given mean-
ing) in different ways in different times and cultures.
Meso theory – If within a particular culture masculinity is socially constructed
as powerful and dominant, this will be evident in the way families and organisa- tions are structured.
Micro theory – Young men who join gangs often lack power over other aspects of
their lives and seek power through membership of a gang and committing crime.
Example A2.7
Feminism – theory, ontology and epistemology
In the latter part of the twentieth century, feminists – people who held a set of ideas and approaches to studying and explaining the social world that prioritised the expe- riences and perspectives of women – challenged social researchers to approach their research from a feminist perspective. For feminist researchers the relationship between the genders and gender differences is fundamental to understanding and explaining the social world and, from a feminist perspective, much social research theoretical
framework The ideas and ap- proaches to viewing and gathering knowl- edge, and which provide the basic ways of addressing a topic.
has been focused on the study of men and their social world with the voices and expe- riences of women being hidden or ignored. A new approach to social research was put forward which incorporated the feminist ideas within the ontology and epistemology. The nature of the social world (ontology) is described by feminist researchers as socially constructed and both the natural and social worlds have been predomi- nantly constructed by men – the meanings and understandings of the nature of so- cial phenomena given by men have been prioritised in attempts to understand and explain the social world. A feminist ontology includes multiple constructions and, in particular, emphasises the differences in meanings and understandings between men and women.
A feminist epistemology prioritises women’s experience as the basis of knowl- edge of a social phenomenon and focuses on experiences, feelings and emotions that are held in common. There is an emphasis on data-gathering methods that place the researcher alongside the research participant working collaboratively to generate knowledge (see participatory research methods in C1, and power in social research in A5). There is often an explicit commitment for change in the gender relations between women and men.
Studying our example within a feminist paradigm or theoretical framework
1.The research may focus on gathering the experiences and feelings of women linked to the young men involved in gun crime, particularly mothers and siblings.
2.The research may take a critical approach to studying power and influence within the family relationships of those involved.
3.The research may look at the ways in which ideas about masculinity are con- structed in opposition to ideas about femininity.
4.The research may look critically at ideas that families, and particularly the mother, are to blame for the behaviour of young men.
Alongside the feminist paradigm other critical approaches to studying the social world have developed which Cresswell terms ‘advocacy’ or participatory research (Cresswell, 2003: 9). As in the case of feminist social research, these include approaches that study the social world from the perspective of groups of people whose understandings and experi- ences of the social world have been ignored or hidden, for example people with disabili- ties, black people, gay and lesbian groups (A5). Research within such theoretical frameworks may focus on the discourse or language that is used by other people, who are perceived to be more powerful, to describe the group. There may also be an emphasis on the empowerment of the research subjects and on research that will challenge current dis- courses and practice and initiate change.
Your research
Each discipline within the social sciences has different sets of theoretical positions which are both taught and inform research in that disciplinary area.
Thinking about your own discipline, can you identify any macro-, meso- and micro-level theories that are used?
Macro Meso Micro