SCIENCE, POSITIVISM AND SOCIAL INQUIRYGurminder K Bhambra

MODULE OUTLINE - 2013/14Week

Topics Lecturer

2 Science, Positivism and Social Inquiry GKB3 Interpretation & Realism GKB4 Values, Validity and Ideal Types GKB5 Standpoint Epistemology: Marxist &

FeministGKB

6 Postcolonial Epistemologies GKB7 The Mobilities Turn NG8 Social Science in Crisis? NG9 DTC Conference - Nottingham10 Live Methods NG

CONTACT DETAILS Convenor, Lecturer / Seminar Tutor

Professor Gurminder K Bhambra Sociology, R2.35, Ramphal g.k.bhambra@warwick.ac.uk Office Hours: Weds, 10-11am or by appointment

Lecturer / Seminar Tutor Professor Nicholas Gane Sociology, R3.15, Ramphal n.gane@warwick.ac.uk Office Hours: Tues, 4-5pm or by appointment

ASSESSMENT Final essay, 3000 words due in week 1 of the

spring term Tuesday 7th January 2014, by 2pm E-submission – a link will be available on the

module website

Essay Question: Discuss the strengths and limitations of the

epistemological framework underpinning your planned research.

Or, you can choose your own question, but this must be agreed with your seminar tutor by week 8 at the latest.

WHAT THE MODULE IS ABOUT… How do we know what we claim to know? How can we justify what we claim to know to

others?

This gives rise to questions about features of the world that make our knowledge of it possible, but also potentially fallible.

How do we explain how knowledge is produced?

How do we explain erroneous beliefs and how do we know that they are erroneous?

WHAT IS SCIENCE? These issues are connected to the

emergence of science and its self-understanding It is a product of strict ‘norms’ – method It is secured by institutions that reinforce these

norms – universities, research laboratories, peer-review journals.

Science is presented as rising above particular contexts (universality), but has a history, which, insofar as it involves changing ideas, must also be a history of error and correcting error.

WHAT IS SCIENCE? The possibility of ‘objectivity’ in circumstances of

possible ‘subjective bias’ Knowledge vs. Belief

What counts as evidence? How is evidence produced? Theory-independent observation?

Falsification Naïve As process

Role of anomalies Progressive problem shift Degenerative problem shift

SCIENCE AND SOCIAL INQUIRY Science is a social activity, which implies

human beings are of nature and distinct from it, capable of acting in relation to it and ‘misrepresenting it’.

Representing nature and representing society may be different activities. Natural science might be thought of as a human

activity accounting for a reality external to that activity

Social inquiry is more problematic. It is an activity accounting for human activities of which it is a part.

What does this mean?....

SOCIAL INQUIRY Debates on the nature of social inquiry are

implicated with debates on natural science. Unity of method Criticism of positivism applied to social inquiry Criticism of positivism applied to natural science

Consequences ... Pluralism of positions and conflicting ontological

claims about the (true) nature of natural and social worlds.

Pluralism of positions and conflicting epistemological claims about how these natural and social worlds can be represented in knowledge.

These differences more pronounced in social inquiry

SOCIAL INQUIRY Generalities/ regularities:

‘Structures’ – these are frequently taken-for-granted or routinised.

‘Cultures’ – humans are social beings and their behaviours are reinforced by groups and the meanings that inform their interactions.

Unique events and ‘unintended consequences’: Emphasis on ‘particularities’ and case study

approaches. Unlikely that social inquiry wouldn’t address

objects of inquiry that involved a mix of structural and cultural regularities and unique case-specific events.