Category: research design
-
Why philosophy matters to your research project
This Slavoj Zizek video illustrates very well why and for what we need philosophy in our research design. Simply because philosophy helps us to formulate the right research question. Because there are not only wrong answers but also wrong questions.
-
Spurious correlations
“Spurious correlations” is the name of a website I came across recently. There you can see plenty of cases where correlation may not imply causation. What does it mean in terms of research methods in the social sciences? It means that whenever our research approach is uniquely quantitative, we take the risk of come up with wrong…
-
“Quantitative and qualitative social science” by Daniel Little
I would like to share here a outstanding post on the quantitative/qualitative debate by Daniel Little in his blog Understanding Society. Debate addressed in previous posts here and that is gaining more and more importance within social science. THE social world is one reality, but the methodologies associated with quantitative and qualitative research are quite different.…
-
Example of explanatory research by mean secondary data
A referendum to limit migration from European Union countries took place on 10th February of 2014 in Switzerland. In the score of such event, Alexandre Afonso (2014) and Paul Haydon (2014) did a simple analysis of correlation between the share of migrants population per canton and the share of yes to anti-immigration initiative, based on the results…
-
Why the qualitative approach is essential for every research project?
“Recently, it was conducted a global survey which sought to answer the following question: Please answer honestly. How in your opinion could be solved the problem of lack of food in many countries in the world?” The survey was a failure because in Africa nobody knew what food means. In France nobody knew what honesty…
-
Imagine a conversation between the qualitative and quantitative approach!
(Needless to say that if case Qualitative would be feminine and quantitative masculine) – Mr. Quantitative: we need to find out social causal relationships -Mrs. Qualitative: why? -Mr. Quantitative: obviously, to be able to do law-like generalizations like natural scientist do! -Mrs. Qualitative: It is not possible because relationships of human beings might be spurious. –…
-
Dramaturgical perspective: understanding everyday life
The term dramaturgical perspective was first adapted into sociology from the theatre by Erving Goffman, who developed most of the related terminology and ideas in his 1959 book, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Together with ethnomethodology and symbolic interactionism, is one of the most relevant perspectives in the field of qualitative research. Before…