The Practical Consequences of Research

In an article about values, Roger Gomm gives the example of a sociologist carrying out a survey for a housing authority, showing housing patterns in terms of the ethnic origins of the tenants. Maps were drawn up to illustrate these patterns, but the sociologist was...

The Importance of Questions

We have seen that funding bodies may not want to ask certain questions, but sociologists themselves may be ignoring important questions by their focus on alternatives. For example, a focus on the influence of home background on educational success does not focus on...

Something to Think About : Objectivity

Question 1: Explain what is meant by the phrase, ‘by not taking sides, the sociologist is in fact taking the side of the powerful’. Question 2: Make a list of all the factors mentioned in this Topic that might influence a sociologist’s choice of subject matter. Can...

Criticisms of Positivism

Using the words listed below, complete the following list of criticisms made of positivism by interpretive sociologists: Sociology never can nor should try to be a__________. Sociologists can rarely produce the kinds of__________conditions for study such as those of...