1 Kieran Allen Room C103 Tel: 716 8274 E Mail: kieran.allen@ucd.ie SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH: THEORETICAL AND APPLIED ISSUES 2010 SOC 40220 Course Objectives The objective of this course is to introduce students to some of the issues and problems in doing sociological research. The course is intended to provide the student with a knowledge and an understanding of the range and diversity of sociological research. Particular attention will be paid to the way the field of sociological knowledge and research has developed to the present day. We will explore and discuss fundamental issues such as: Is sociology a science? How can we analyse and describe the social world? How do we know if what we say is valuable and reliable? Must research be value free? How do researchers fit into the power relations of the society they study? What is the relation between social research and the formulation and implementation of policy? Where does theory fit into research? One of the main aims in exploring and discussing these issues is to enable the student to assess the quality of research material and to carry out his/her research in a sociologically competent manner. Each lecture is followed by a seminar where specific items of research are discussed. This provides a framework whereby more general ideas that are raised in the lecturers can be discussed in relation to particular studies. There is no one textbook but you may find this book useful for the early section of the course: J. Hughes,(1990) The Philosophy of Social Research London, Longman. There are also a number of additional readings that accompany each lecture. These are seen very much as essential readings. Students are also required to read two articles based on specific research studies in advance of the seminar. During these sessions, individual students will introduce a short critique of the two pieces of research for that week and others will be expected to contribute to the discussion.
2 Assessment Students are required to hand in one piece of assessment on the sixth week of the course and a further piece of assessment on the 12 th week of the course. The first piece should be a short critique of no more than 750 words of one of the research articles that are discussed in the relevant part of the course. The second piece will be a 2,000 word essay dealing with one of the wider topics in the relevant part of the course. NOTE: A central feature of the assessment of this course will be that students adhere rigorously to the cannons of social scientific research writing and referencing. Any piece of work that is found to have three major referencing errors will be returned to the student for correction. Errors remaining after re-submission will lead to heavy loss of grades. Organisation of the Course This is a highly participative course and so you need to read a number of comparatively short articles each week. You will find the s which forms the background material for the lectures either on Blackboard or in the Students Union. The Students Union Photocopying Office will copy the articles I have left in for a small fee. You may wish to get them all together or pick them up as you approach individual lectures. Alternatively, you will also find most of this material in the library. The package of are all on Blackboard. I shall also leave hard copies into the Students Union so that you may also get them photocopies for a small fee.. You will need to volunteer to introduce one of the studies to the wider group. COURSE OUTLINE: Lecture 1: Introduction Bourdieu, P (1993) A Science That makes Trouble in P. Bourdieu, Sociology in Question London, Sage. Krimsky, S (1999) The Profit of Scientific Discovery and its Normative Implications Chicago Kent Law Review, vol.. 75. no. 15 pp. 15-39.
3 Lecture 2: DECIPHERING SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH Rose, G.(1982) Deciphering Sociological Research London, Longman Chapter 9. Faludi, S.( 1992) Backlash: The Undeclared War against Women, London, Chatto and Windus. Schlosser, E. (2002) Fast Food Nation Harmondsworth, Penguin Chapter 8. Lecture 3: SCIENCE, PROGRESS AND POSTMODERNISM : Kuhn, T.(1963) Scientific Paradigms in B. Barnes (ed.) Sociology of Science: Selected Readings Harmondsworth, Penguin : Conquerwood, D. (1994) 'For the nation: How Street gangs problematize patriotism', M. Billig and H. Simons (eds) After Postmodernism London, Sage. P. Taylor and P Bain (1999) An Assembly Line in the Head: Work and Employee Relations in the call centre Industrial Relations Journal vol. 30 no. 2 pp 101-107) Lecture 4: POSITIVISM AND QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH Durkheim, E.(1964) The Rules for a Sociological Method New York, The Free Press especially the author's preface to 2nd edition. Hughes, J. (1990) The Philosophy of Social Research London, Longman Chaps 2-3. I Bacik and M. O Connell (1998) Crime and Poverty in Ireland Dublin, Round Hall Chapter 1. McCullagh, C. (1992) 'Unemployment and Imprisonment' in Irish Journal of Sociology vol. 2 pp.1-20.
4 Lecture 5: NATURALISM AND THE REVOLT AGAINST POSITIVISM Hammersley, M. (1995) The Politics of Social Research London, Sage Chap 1. Hammersley, M. (1990) Reading Ethnographic Research London, Longman Chap 1. Hughes, J. (1990) The Philosophy of Social Research London, Longman Chap 5. Bourgois, P. (1998) Just Another Night in a Shooting Gallery, Theory, Culture and Society, vol 15, no 2. Pearson, G. (1987) Social Deprivation, unemployment and patterns of heroin use, N. Dorn and N. South (eds) A Land fit for Heroin, Basingstoke, Macmillan Lecture 6: Foucault, Power-Knowledge and Research P. Rabinow (1991) The Foucault Reader Harmondsworth, Penguin. Introduction. M. Foucault,(1980) Power Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Articles 1972-1977 Hemel Hemstead, Harvester. Chapter 6. Helleiner, J.(1995) Gypsies, Celts and Thinkers: Colonial Antecedents of anti-traveller Racism in Ireland, Ethnic and Racial Studies vol. 18 no. 3 pp. 532-554 Wacquant, L. (2002) The curious eclipse of prison ethnography in the age of mass incarceration Ethnography Vol 3(4) pp.371-397. Lecture 7: CRITICAL THEORY IN RESEARCH Merton, R.(1968) Social Theory and Social Structure, New York, Free Press, Chaps 4 and 5. ( In Students Union)
5 B. Fay (1987) Critical Social Science Cambridge, Polity Chapter 2 P. Mair, (1992) 'Explaining The Absence of class politics in Ireland' in J. Goldthorpe and C. Whelan (eds) The Development of Industrial Society in Ireland Oxford, OUP. Gibbon, P. (1974) 'Arensberg and Kimball revisited' in Economy and Society vol 2 no 4 Lecture 8: POWER, FEMINISM AND RESEARCH Ehrenreich, B. (2002) Maid to Order in B. Ehrenreich and A Hochschild, Global Woman: Nannies, Maids and Sex Workers in the New Economy New York, Metropolitan Books Mies, M. (1993) 'Towards a methodology for feminist research' in M. Hammersley (ed.) Social Research: Philosophy, Politics and Practice London, Sage. 9 Hammersley, M.(1995) The Politics of Social Research London, Sage Chap 3. Carey, M. (1994) 'Gender and Power: Boys will be boys and so will girls', Irish Journal of Sociology vol 4 pp.. 105-127. Hakim, C (1995) 'Five Feminist Myths about women's employment', British Journal of Sociology vol 46 no 3 pp.429-457. Lecture 9: RESEARCH, OFFICIAL DATA AND THE STATE Walthery, P. (2006) Figuring Out social Classes: An Overview Radical Statistics No 92 Hindess, B.(1973) The Use of Official Statistics in Sociology London Macmillan. I. Miles and J. Irvine.(1979) 'The Critique of Official Statistics', J. Irvine, I Miles, and J. Evans (eds) Demystifying Social Statistics London, Pluto.
6 Nolan, B.(1994) 'Poverty and Health Inequalities', B. Nolan B. and T. Callan (eds) Poverty and Policy in Ireland Dublin, Gill and Macmillan. Loyal, S (2003) Welcome to the Celtic Tiger: racism, immigration and the state,c. Coulter and S. Coleman (eds) The End of Irish History, Manchester, Manchester University Press Lecture 10: THE RESEARCHER'S PERSPECTIVE AND VALUE FREE RESEARCH : Allen, K ( 2004) Max Weber: A Critical Introduction London, Pluto Press Chapter 5 Gouldner, A. (1973) 'Anti Minotour: The Myth of Value Free Sociology' in For Sociology, London, Allen Lane. Hammersley, M.(1995) The Politics of Social Research London, Sage Chap 7. Mulholland, P. (1999) Drumcree: A Struggle for Recognition in Irish Journal of Sociology Vol.9 pp.5-30 Burawoy, M. (2004) For Public Sociology American Sociological Review Vol. 4. No. 1 pp. 4-28 Lecture 11: RESEARCH, REDUCTIONISM AND DETERMINISM Rose, S.(1997) The poverty of Reductionism in Lifelines, Harmondsworth, Allen Lane Chapter 10. Rose, H. (2000) Colonising the Social Sciences in H. Rose and S. Rose, Alas Poor Darwin, London, Jonathan Cape
Murray, M. (2007) Cosmopolitans versus locals: community-based protest in the age of globalisation Irish Journal of Sociology Vol.16 No. 2 pp 117-135 Lecture 12: RESEARCH ON ELITES : Mills, C. W. (2000) [1956] The Power Elite, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Chapter 1 'The Higher Classes' and Chapter 12 'The Power Elite'. Allen, M. (1974) The Structure of Inter-organizational Elite Cooption: Interlocking Corporate Directorates American Sociological Review Vol 39, No 3 pp. 393-406 Burawoy, M. (2001) Neoclassical Sociology: From the End of Communism to the En d of Social Classes American Journal of Sociology Vol 106, No 4 pp.1099-1120 7 Critique of Official Reports Student Presentations