SOC 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Racial Profiling, Investigative Journalism, Scientific Method
19 Dec 2020
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Where you fall in this epistemological debate affects how you do research. Interpretivists: immerse themselves in the social relations they are studying and interpret. Critical realists: skeptical and critical use of scientific method but generally use it in a self-reflexive manner in combination with critical thinking. Whichever you are, you need to gather data about the social world . Data provide insight into the character of the social world. Observations that capture a characteristic of social relations. Commonly very difficult to get good data. Observation: watch specific types of social relations. Want to know whether police racial profile, so you drive along with police officers and observe. Interview: talk to people about their actions, experiences. Interview police officers and those stopped by police to try to get information about racial profiling. Survey: send out questionaires to get information. Statistical data sets: get police records and assemble a dataset on who is.
