SA 150 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Roland Barthes, Discourse Analysis, Dependent And Independent Variables

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Sociology and Anthropology
• Course: SA 150
• Professor: Lindsey Freeman

Document Summary

Definition: the system of methods a researcher uses to gather data on a particular question. Sociology is a big discipline with researchers taking variety of approaches: can be contentious. Should have many methodological tools at disposal. French philosopher august comte (1798-1857) believed that the objective scientific methods used to study the natural sciences could be applied to the social science. In essence, comte implied that researched didn"t have biases on the basis of gender, age, race, etc. Dorothy smith"s standpoint theory: social characteristics such as gender, race, ethnicity, age and sexual orientation will condition both questions asked by sociologist and the answers received. Works on sexuality, prison and madness, he showered how experts were given the privileged position on determining which parts of subjects" accounts of their experiences were true or false. Power-knowledge: power produces knowledge and the fiends in which knowledge is exercised. Complete objectivity is impossible whenever one human being is studying another.