1. Value-Freedom

The term "value-freedom" is a little misleadingsince it suggests human behaviour can be ‘freefrom the influence of values’.

An alternative concept, therefore, is value-neutrality - the idea a researcher recogniseshow their values influence the research processand adjusts their research strategy accordingly.For example, the need to ensure conclusionsdrawn from research are not influenced bypersonal prejudices.

Dentler (2002) suggests debates about value-neutrality generally fall into two main camps:

1. Positivists, who argue sociological researchshould be value-neutral.

2. Those who argue it should be value-committed. Feminist approaches, for example,argue research should be directed towardspromoting social change in the status ofwomen.

How values intrude into the research processcan be considered in two ways:

a. Practical: doing research involves makingchoices about what to study / how to study it.

▪ Some choices reflect direct personal values(Townsend (1979) spent much of his careerresearching poverty).

▪ Others reflect indirect values. How and bywhom research is funded may influence notonly what is studied but also how it is studied;much UK government-funded research, forexample, requires quantitative rather thanqualitative data.

b. Theoretical: These choices reflect beliefsabout the nature of the social world and how it’spossible to study social behaviour.

These relate to the researcher's beliefs aboutwhat exists, the kinds of proof they are willing toaccept and ideas about what constitutesreliable and valid data.

At a fundamental level sociologists have toconfront their beliefs about their subject matterand how it influences research design andconduct – whether people are, for example:

▪ ‘equal participants’ in a process where theiractive involvement is encouraged(Interpretivism) or as:

▪ ‘research objects’ to be questioned andobserved in whatever way the researcherdeems appropriate (Positivism).

M13. Objectivity, Subjectivityand Value-Freedom

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2. Objectivity and Subjectivity

Coser (1977) argues choice is alwaysinfluenced by values (value-relevance), butonce research choices have been made value-neutrality involves the researcheracknowledging their values and not imposingthem on the research process - an importantdimension of objectivity and subjectivity - ideasillustrated by four related types of knowledge.

1. EthicalWhatever their personal involvement or beliefs,a researcher must maintain a critical andobjective detachment - a form of objectivity towhich all sociologists subscribe.

2. PersonalThis reflects a researcher's beliefs about how itis possible and desirable to study behaviour.

▪ For positivists, the researcher doesn'tbecome ‘personally involved’ by participating inthe behaviour being researched. This socialdistance between researcher and respondent ismaintained using research methods, such asquestionnaires, to ensure the researcherdoesn’t interact with their respondents toinfluence their behaviour.

▪ Interpretivists, on the other hand, argue forpersonal subjectivity; the researcher should getas close as possible those being researched(while maintaining ethical objectivity). Thisgenerally involves using ‘subjective’ researchmethods, such as unstructured interviews orparticipant observation.

3. IdeationalThis involves beliefs about the nature ofknowledge (whether, for example, it’spossible to get at the truth about something).In terms of the methods used in the researchprocess.

▪ Positivists argue it is possible to generateobjective knowledge, which means the taskof the sociologist is to test hypotheses usingobjective research methods.

▪ Interpretivists argue all knowledge isnecessary subjective and the task of thesociologist is to reveal different forms of truthby describing social behaviour.

4. SocialThis refers to core beliefs about the nature ofthe social world and how it can be studied.

▪ For some approaches - particularly positivismand realism - the social world has an objectiveexistence. This, Mulder (2004) notes, meanssociety "exists independent of the researcher’sperception of it. The object would “be there”even if no-one perceived it". This meaning ofobjectivity is "typically associated with ideassuch as reality and reliability".

▪ For Interpretivism the social world existssubjectively and societies can't be validlystudied independently of the people who createthem. The aim of research is to reveal howpeople make sense of their world.

1. Objectivism

Positivists and realists argue we can studyobjective features of the social world(institutions such as families and educationalsystems) because they have both permanenceand solidity.

Objectivism, therefore involves the idea socialstructures are real, exist independently of theobserver and can be experienced directly orindirectly. Sociological research, therefore,involves discovery - progressively uncoveringthe principles on which the social world isbased - and should be value-neutral; theresearcher should not allow values to influencewhat they see and they study the social worldas a detached observer. As Firestone (1987)puts it, this approach argues “There are socialfacts with an objective reality apart from thebeliefs of individuals”

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These social facts - embodied in the idea ofsocial structures that influence and constrainindividual behaviour - can be studied in muchthe same way a physicist studies naturalphenomena.

Objectivism, therefore, argues humanbehaviour is always the result of externalstimulation - social structures pushing people tobehave in particular ways, such as playingparticular roles and conforming to specificnorms. Just as in the natural world where thebehaviour of things is determined bythe operation of physical forces,such as gravity, human behaviour istheorised as the result of socialforces:

If a natural scientist wants tounderstand why apples always fallto the ground, they don't ask theapple; they study the forces thatpropel apples to behave as they do.

Similarly, to understand socialbehaviour we need to understandthe social forces that compel people to behavein particular ways - and if individual action is aproduct of external social stimuli, it followsthese can be identified, researched andexplained in an objective, scientific, way.

2. Subjectivism

Where objectivism sees a single reality that canbe discovered through systematic research,subjectivism argues there are many realities,expressed through the various ways differentpeople see and understand the social world.

The social world is not something out therewaiting to be discovered; rather, it exists onlyas ‘interpretations waiting to be made’ - howpeople understand both their own behaviourand that of others. From this position the aim ofsocial research is the production of "subjectiveunderstanding".

Interpretivist and feminist approaches, forexample, see the researcher as a channelthrough which individuals can "tell their story".The objective is to uncover how and whypeople see the social world - and their rolewithin that world - in particular ways.

Empathy (what Weber calls verstehen orunderstanding) involves the ability to seeevents from the viewpoint of others and is notsomething to avoid. Rather, sociologists shouldtake advantage of the fact they have somethingin common with the people they study.

Murphy (1988), for example, argues theresearcher should recognise how we seesomething is always based on our values andcan’t be separated from how we interpret whatwe see.

Value-freedom -rather thangivingsociologistsaccess to "thetruth" - actuallydistorts databecause it’s(unattainable)pursuit stops theresearcherquestioning howand why their

values are part of the research process.Sociologists should, therefore, "strive tounderstand the value base of data, rather thansearching for ways to purge values fromresearch".

This doesn’t mean the researcher should bepersonally subjective. Williams (2005), forexample, argues, researchers should strive forpersonal objectivity in their work.

Williams also argues we should see objectivityand subjectivity as part of a continuum – a linewith ‘pure objectivity’ at one end and ‘puresubjectivity’ at the other. Although sociologicalresearch is more value-laden than naturalscientific research, this doesn’t automaticallyrender it unreliable and invalid, for two reasons:

1. Pure objectivity is an ideal that can never beattained because all research involves somedegree of value commitment.

2. If sociologists recognise how values impacton their work (by identifying the assumptionsunder which they are working), this research isless value-laden, more reliable and valid thanthe opinions of the non-sociologist.