MSSC/ MA Postgraduate course in Economics 2016/2017 ECON Research Methodology

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1 MSSC/ MA Postgraduate course in Economics 2016/2017 ECON Research Methodology Social Research: A Historical Overview Social research is by no means an invention of the modern social scientist. Although the from used by many social scientists today might be less than 150 years old, and in some special forms even younger, as a tool of gaining knowledge and of gathering information about people and their social life, social research has been used extensively for more than 2000 years. In some cases, it was employed in much the same way and in about the same methodological context as many social researchers use it today. Greek philosophers such as Socrates investigated the structure of society and the causes of social problems more than 2000 years ago, and produced very impressive accounts of social life and of society. They carried out research at different levels, collected information on various social phenomena and interpreted their finding in a political and philosophical context (Menzel, 1936 and Stergios, 1991). More particularly, signs of empirical science were even before Socrates. Thales ( BC) is an example of a researcher who employed an empirical-rational framework to understand the world of his time: instead of using the traditional explanation based on religious principles, beliefs and superstitions, he applied observation of natural events and offered what could be termed an empirical-scientific approach to the world. On the other hand, Anaximander ( BC) with his theory of evolution, Empedocles (c. 450 BC) and Xenophanes (c. 600 BC) are other examples of empirically thinking philosophers of the distant past. Hippocrates (c. 450 BC) was even more involved in empirical research than his contemporaries; his experiments in health and illness opened up general knowledge and weaned public opinion away from superstitions and powers of demons and bad spirits and established guidelines and findings based on observation and empirical science. The interest in controlled research including observation and experimentation increased with time, and by 400 BC it had partly displaced the theological religious explanations of the past. Empiricism emerged as the antipode of old-style mysticism, augmented by the works of great philosophers such as Aristotle ( BC), who saw empirical events as manifestations of fundamental principles of an ordered universe. It was Socrates (and of course Plato) who turned the course of research back to speculation and mysticism. The work of Greek philosophers was pioneering. At times descriptive and comparative and at other times critical and normative, this type of research was received very positively by contemporary intellectuals and politicians. Many of works of these writers are read today, and the methods they used are still employed by modern researchers. This methodological approach introduced by the Greek philosophers influenced researchers throughout Europe and became more profound, particularly during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the time of scientific revolution, when many researchers displayed a strong interest in understanding nature,. Examples are Descartes, who offered the mathematical foundations for this endeavor; Bacon, who developed experimental models 1

2 and used experimental data to develop theories; and Newton, who related experiments to mathematics. Experimentation was gradually believed to be the way that would allow social researchers to unlock the mysteries of nature, and to gather truths about society; it ultimately become accepted into the system of science. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, in the context of the so-called political arithmetic, serious research was undertaken by social philosophers to discover regularities in social and economic phenomena. Nevertheless, it was the nineteenth century that brought research into its real place, namely to people, by studying real problems such as poverty and the plight of the working classes; and it established research as a form of intellectual enterprise containing most of the elements of modern-day social research. Following this path, Le Play investigated in France the conditions of European workers in a systematic way, using family monographs, a method still employed today in some form. Boots, on the other hand, studied workers by using surveys and participant observation. Similar techniques were employed in Norway and Denmark. Increasing social problems in agriculture and agrarian populations, caused by a progressively higher industrialization, motivated social researchers to intensify their efforts in order to provide more convincing explanations of and solutions to these problems. Positivism Although the methodological attempts to understand people, society and social problems were reported in many countries, social research as it is known today originated in France, introduced by a distinct social philosopher, August Comte, whose name is inseparably connected with sociology. Comte believed that the approach employed in the past, and also by his contemporaries, to study society was by no means uniform, and the methodology used was torn between rationalism and empiricism; and the arguments were based ether on reason or empirical observation. Nevertheless, the emphasis on metaphysics, speculation and theological thinking was particularly dominant; and this was, according to Comte, insufficient and inadequate to study social life. In 1848 Comte simply denounced in his Positive Philosophy the methodology of his time and proposed the introduction of a positive method, which was to dominate the field of social research for more than a century. In Comte s view, researchers employed metaphysical principles and theological beliefs to explain social problems, attempting to relate ailments and social structures to supernatural phenomena. He believed social investigators should not seek explanations of social problems in theological principles or metaphysical theories, but rather in society itself and in the structure of social relations. He argued, for instance, that it is not God who makes people poor or rich but the social forces that dominate society. Therefore, the new methods must be scientific and it was essential to study society and people as we see them rather than as they are interpreted by philosophers and theologians. Scientific method were, according to Comte, the most appropriate tools of social research. His aversion to metaphysics, and speculation in general, was more than obvious. 2

3 Comte s theory, known as positivism, had a profound impact on the thinking of many social scientists of the time, leading to the introduction and development of sociology as a new science of society; positivism become the backbone of social sciences in Europe and in other countries, revolutionizing the methodological thinking of the time. The new methodology shifted its domain from philosophy to science and from speculation to the gathering of empirical data, and become a positivism methodology, which was to study positive phenomena, that is, phenomena that can be perceived through the senses, and to employ scientific methods, namely methods similar to those employed by physical scientists. The social and intellectual atmosphere created by positivism influenced thinking and research in other academic areas such as psychology, which for some time is reported to have been dominated to a certain extent by theological principles. Positivism helped to strengthen the efforts to look at the psyche from a different perspective and explain problems through scientific methods and principles. Psychology gained new support and strengthened its foundations as a discipline and as a way of looking at the world. The new positivistic trend made this discipline more popular among academics as well as in the context of educational institutions. Wilhelm Wundt ( ), for instance, established in 1879 in Leipzig the first psychological laboratory, with experiments becoming the central method of psychological research; experimentation (next to psycho-analysis) dominated the psychological thinking and research of that time. Positivism flourished also in the USA, where, especially in the twentieth century, it gained many supporters. Social research become institutionalized, with many research centers being established and many universities gradually becoming research institutions. The establishment of research centers inside and outside universities formalized this trend further, and studies of social issues, such as integration of migrants into the USA, earned a high status and prestige and their reports are still being read today. The 1930s produced very respectable works. The social psychologists of Columbia University, with their quantitative studies, followed the trend of the time. Market research and opinion research become more popular and more sophisticated and led to the development of Gallup studies, which are still currently used. England followed this trend (with some hesitation) later, and Australia adopted the British tradition, in all aspects of epistemology, research and methodology. As a results, until the 1960s social sciences in general and sociology in particular were largely positivistic in theory as well as in methodology, with the typical sociological research including mainly survey methods and experiments, and being directed towards quantification and the use of statistics and computers. The challenge Comte s attempt to resolve the conflict between the logicians and the empiricists was greeted with some considerable resistance and apposition. Such an opposition came, in the first instance, from within positivism. Branches of positivism emerged, with logical positivism (also called logical empiricism) being one of the most influential. A group of academics of the early twentieth century (Rudolf Carnap ( ), Hans Reichenbach ( ), Bernard Russel ( ) and Ludwig Witkenstein ( )) joined forces to prove that science is that logic and empirical evidence in observable facts. It was 3

4 argued in this context that logic and empirical evidence together provide the avenue for experiencing social reality. This is done through operationaism and verification. Theoretical terms have their corresponding empirical reflections, which can be subjected to scientific examination. Karl Popper ( ) was one of the last and most influential logical positivists. Positivism was challenged further by a number of schools of thought, this time from outside the positivist domain. Examples of such schools of thought are symbolic interactionism, phenomenology, philosophical hermeneutics and ethnomethodology; all questioned most theoretical points of positivism, especially its methodology and its perception of social reality (this point will be discussed later in more detail). Symbolic interactionism criticized positivism from the very beginning, and was strongly supported by a group of US and European sociologists and social psychologists. Its influence gradually became stronger and gained recognition among wider audiences of social scientists in Europe and the USA. Its theoretical orientation and its objection to positivism made this school of thought a legitimate and also well-respected alternative. In addition, symbolic interactionism offered the basis for other theoretical developments, which were equally critical of the theoretical and methodological direction of positivism. In this way, the criticism against positivistic theory became wider, and undermined its hegemony in the social sciences. On a more practical and methodological level, the work of critics of positivism, as well as reports communicating findings gained through non-positivistic methods, began to appear and to be read by many academics and students, not only in the USA but also in Europe. Blumer s theoretical contribution in this context was pioneering. But reports of actual research contributed further to make this type of research more acceptable. Becker s Outsiders (1960) and Whyte s Street-corner society (1943) are two good examples. In the 1970s, the ethno-methodologists continued this trend even further. Criticism of and attack on positivism came also from other directions. Members of the Frankfurt School, for instance, introduced a critical debate that culminated in the late 1960s in the so-called conflict of positivism. Beyond this, Marxists exercised an equally sharp critique of positivism, while the interpretive school of thought and the action-research group of sociologists continued their efforts with equal strength and commitment. Equally significant and effective indeed was the feminist critique of positivism. Unlike other critics, feminists concentrated on basic philosophical and methodological premises of positivism. Most of all, feminists argued that positivism has a gendered character, is based on a male paradigm that derives knowledge in an androcentric way (Brieschke, 1992; Harding, 1990), and places women in a position of inferiority and hence oppression and exploitation. In addition, feminist research critically addressed issues resulting from this methodological perception of the world, such as objectivity, the relationship between researchers and researched, its methodolatry or physics envy and so on, which they considered inadequate, inappropriate and oppressive ways of data generation and analysis. Many researchers began to express more openly their dissatisfaction with the positivist thinking and methodology. Many criticized, for instance, positivism s perception of reality, the goals it pursued, the methods it employed, the moral prescriptions it made, and also its perception that the world was mathematically drafted and, therefore, mathematics was a 4

5 guarantee of precision. Critics from all sides proposed a new methodology that focused on subjective elements and a constructed world, on critical thinking, on interpretive attributes and on political issued that rejected the notion of taking the world for granted. This has motivated some writers to talk about the emergence of a new stage of research, the postempiricist period, marked by the notion that the scientific method is not the only source of knowledge, truth and validity. In summary, the early attacks by symbolic interactionism, followed by the works of the members of the Frankfurt School, were augmented later by the establishment of women s studies, phenomenology and ethnomethodology and the introduction of semiotics, poststructural linguistic theory, existentialism, etc. In the context of sociology as well as by the introduction of other methods, so far not accepted in the domain of this discipline. As a result, the number of alternative methodologies increased, and positivistic methodology lost, more or less, its privileged position in the social sciences, giving way to the post-positivist era (see Lather, 1992). Sociological methodology is no longer a uniform body of theory and research based on positivism only, as it was in the past, but a body of diverse methodologies with diverse theoretical backgrounds and diverse methods and techniques, all of which appear to be equally acceptable, equally valid and equally legitimate. Types of Social Research The diverse perception of methodology discussed above has been expressed in many ways in practice. Several research models have been introduced and practiced by many social researchers, some being unique. The diverse practices and uses of social research are shown in the following descriptive list; Quantitative Research; This refers to the type of research that is based on methodological principles of positivism and neo-positivism, and adhered to the standards of strict research design developed before the research begins. It employs quantitative measurement and the use of statistical analysis. Basic Research; This research is usually employed for the purpose of gaining knowledge that will advance our understanding of the social world. It many also help in rejecting or supporting existing theories about the social world. Applied Research; This type of research is directly related to social and policy issues and aims at solving specific problems and establishing policy programs that will help to improve social life in general, and specific conditions in particular. Types of applied research are social impact studies, action research, evaluation research and cost-benefit analysis. Longitudinal Research; Longitudinal research involves the study of a sample on more than one occasion. Versions of this type of research are panel studies and trend studies. Qualitative Research; This type of research refers to a number of methodological approaches, based on diverse theoretical principles (e.g. phenomenology, hermeneutics and social interactionism), employing methods of data collection and analysis that are nonquantitative, and aiming towards exploration of social relations, and describes reality as experienced by the respondents. 5

6 Barton and Lazarsfeld (1979), for instance, see in qualitative research: (1) exploration, which helps to analysis research objects, identify indicators and establish classifications and typologies; (2) discovery of relationships between variables, enabling comparisons and conclusions to be made about the significance of certain factors for the relationship; (3) Descriptive Research; This form of research is quite common, in most cases as a preliminary study or an exploratory study, but also as an independent investigation; it aims to describe social systems, relations or social events, providing background information about the issue in question as well as stimulating explanations. Classification Research; The aim of this research is to categories research units into groups, to demonstrate differences, explain relationships and clarify social events or relationships. Putting youth into categories on the basis of their political preference, ranking groups according to their views on multinational operations in Australia or according to their body form are a few examples of classification research. Comparative Research; In this type of research, the researcher is interested in identifying similarities and/or differences between units at all levels, for example at a historical or cultural level. The differences between British and Australian families, between forms of exploitation of women in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and classes in the USA and Australia are a few examples. Exploratory Research; This research is usually undertaken when there is not enough information available about the research subject. In certain cases it is undertaken in order to provide a basis for further research, for example to define certain concepts, to formulate hypotheses or to operationalize variables; in other cases it is undertaken to gain information on the issue per se. The use of library research, cases studies or expert consultation as sources of data is commonly employed in this form of research. Qualitative studies are more likely to use this type of research as a study per se than quantitative research. Exploration is a process that, according to some writers, is useful for developing an accurate picture of the research object, is a central element of qualitative research and can offer assistance not only in formulating hypotheses and theories but also in modifying and testing hypotheses and theories. Explanatory Research; Here, research aims at explaining social relations or events, advancing knowledge about the structure, process and nature of social events, linking factors and elements of issues into general statements and building, testing or revising a theory. Causal Research; This is considered the most respected type of research in the social sciences and is employed to explain the causes of social phenomena and their consequences. The research aims at establishing a relationship between variables so that the one is the cause of the other; and so that when the one variable occurs the other will also occur. Theory-testing Research; Its aim is to test the validity of a theory. Theory-testing research may employ other types of research to achieve its purpose. Theory-building Research; For many social scientists, the purpose of research is to establish and formulate theories. It is expected to provide the data and the evidence that support a theory. For instance, research with criminals led to the development of the theory of complementary needs. 6

7 Action Research; Action research is the application of fact finding to practical problem solving in a social situation with a view to improving the quality of action within it, involving the collaboration and co-operation of researchers, practitioners and laymen (Burns, 1990: 252). This type of research is characterized by a number of criteria. Burns, (1990), for instance, notes that action is situational (it diagnoses a problem and attempts to solve it), collaborative (since it requires the efforts of researchers and practitioners), participatory (in that researchers take part in the implementation of the findings) and selfevaluative (for it involves a constant evaluation of its process and modifications to adjust research and practice). Action research criticizes the theoretical and methodological basis of conventional social research, both by its challenges and by its claims. As Winter (1987:2) put it, it challenges a scientific method of inquiry based on the authority of the outside observer and the independent experimenter, and it claims to reconstruct both practical expertise and theoretical insight on the different basis of its own inquiry procedures. Participatory action Research (PAR); This is form of research characterized by the strong involvement and degree of participation of members of organizations or communities in the research process (Whyte, 1991). In PAR, some members of the units under study are expected and indeed encouraged to participate actively with the researcher throughout the study. This participation begins with the initial identification of the research topic and design and continues up to the publication of the findings. These types of social research are not mutually exclusive. Researchers usually employ more than one type of research in a project. It is, for instance, possible that descriptive research in used in an investigation together with classification research, theory-building research and comparative research. The investigator has to decide about the types and combinations of research forms that, in his or her opinion, best serve the goals of the study. Nevertheless, the two well established major domains of social research are quantitative and qualitative research. Dr. D.M.Ajith Dissanayaka Senior Lecturer 1 Department of Economics University of Kelaniya ajith@kln.ac.lk 7

8 Problem Generalization Hypothesis Theory Data Analysis Research Design Data Collection Measurement 8

9 MSSC / MA Degree (Economics) Programme 2016/2017 ECON / M 06 Research Methodology for Economics Assignment Identify a suitable research problem for an economic research and design an appropriate methodology to address your research problem wdr\:slúohdj i#oyd mr\fhaik l%ufõoh mejereu wdr\:sl mr\fhaikhla i#oyd iqÿiq mr\fhaik.eg jla y kdf.k Tnf.a mr\fhaik.eg j wduka;%kh lsrsu i#oyd fhda.h l%ufõohla ie,iqï lrkak 9