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Researching social problems: Putting the cart before the horse?
Chauhan, A.
(Invited presenter)
School of Applied Social Science
Centre of Resilience for Social Justice
Activity
:
External talk or presentation
›
Invited talk
Description
Whatdowegainindefiningandresearchingsocialproblemsas‘objective’,‘quantifiable’,and‘measurable’phenomena?Inhisinfluential1971paper,HerbertBlumercritiquedthesocialsciencesforchasingwhatisusuallytakenasthe‘objective’aspectofsocialproblems.Guidedbytheirobjective,quantifiableformulation,weoftenpurportknowingwhatasocialproblemisbeforewebeginresearchingit—inotherwords,weputthecartbeforethehorse.Usingmyresearchonpovertyasanexample,Iwilllogicallyexaminebothrealistandconstructivistapproachestothestudyofsocialproblemsandpointoutsomecommonerrorsineach.Iwillarguethatinresearchingsocialproblems,psychologyhascometosufferfromwhatFrancisBaconcalledtheidolatheatri—thedogmatictendenciesofresearchborneoutofwronglawsofdemonstration.
Period
24 Oct 2017
Held at
University of Cambridge
, United Kingdom
Keywords
social problems
Documents & Links
SDP - Poster 2017-18 Chauhan
File
:
application/pdf, 393 KB
Type
:
Text