Led by Harriet Martineau Simulacrum
About this course
The methods topic of the "Understanding Social Processes" component — the toolkit by which sociologists gather and judge evidence. Methods are a topic in their own right, but they permeate the whole course: whenever you meet a study, you should ask how its evidence was gathered and whether the method was sound.
Your host is the Harriet Martineau Simulacrum, one of the first to carry out systematic empirical social research and to write on how society should be studied.
Led by Harriet Martineau Simulacrum
The question
What kinds of evidence exist? You will distinguish primary from secondary data and qualitative from quantitative data, study the sources of secondary data (diaries, journals, official and non-official statistics), and weigh the usefulness and limits of each.
Outcome
You can judge which type of data suits a given research question.
Sub-units
Led by Harriet Martineau Simulacrum
The question
Which instrument for which study? You will study questionnaires, structured and unstructured interviews, and observations, and learn to judge each by the four touchstones — validity, reliability, ethics, and representativeness — and the value of mixed methods.
Outcome
You can choose a method for a study and defend it against its weaknesses.
Sub-units
Led by Harriet Martineau Simulacrum
The question
Whom do you study, and at what cost? You will study representative and non-representative sampling and what each lets you claim, the practical issues of access, gatekeepers, time and cost, and the ethical issues of consent, confidentiality, harm, and deception.
Outcome
You can identify the sampling and ethical problems in a proposed study.
Sub-units