Graduate Journal of Social Science

Articles

• Questioning structurism as a new standard for social scientific explanations

  Jeroen Van Bouwel

  • Abstract

    As the literature on Critical Realism in the social sciences is growing, it is about time to analyse whether a new, acceptable standard for social scientific explanations is being introduced. In order to do so, I will discuss the work of Christopher Lloyd, who analysed contributions of social scientists that rely on (what he called) a structurist ontology and a structurist methodology, and advocated a third option in the methodological debate between individualism and holism. I will suggest modifications to three points of Lloyd’s analysis, without abandoning Lloyd’s intuitions completely. Firstly, the intuitions of the structurist ontology can be made explicit in a different way, without loosing the individual-society dualism. Secondly, opting for a structurist ontology does not necessarily imply opting for a structurist methodology. Ontology and methodology are related, but not as strongly as Lloyd supposes. Thirdly, the idea of a complete explanation, present in the structurist methodology, confuses causation and explanation while denying the pragmatics of explanation. A broader spectrum of explanatory forms can be defended. Criticizing Lloyd on these three points will lead me to the defence of an explanatory pluralism, which I relate to a minimal ontology. The intention of this reconceptualisation of structurism (and related Critical Realist applications) is to broaden possible perspectives on the explanatory praxis of the social scientist, and to question the reunification of the social sciences. It will also stipulate which form of interdisciplinarity is preferable for the social sciences.

  • View Abstract
  • Read Article
  • pp. 204–226

• Studying IT and community. Methodological, ontological and epistemological approaches

  Christina L. Prell

  • Abstract

    In this paper, I offer a summary of an information technology (IT) case study that involved three different approaches: social construction of technology (SCOT), social capital, and diffusion of innovations. Although these approaches first appeared highly different in theoretical and methodological terms, I began to see overlaps during the analysis phase of my study. These overlaps were further emphasized as I began to reflect on the epistemological and ontological similarities that the approaches share.
    The first section of this paper offers the reader a summary of my case study. This summary is then followed by a detailed examination of each approach where I discuss the limitations and advantages of these approaches, along with the epistemological and ontological similarities that they share.

  • View Abstract
  • Read Article
  • pp. 227–252

• Hidden in the small ads. Researching working-class lesbians

  Yvette Taylor

  • Abstract

    This article will consider strategies and difficulties in attempting to conduct research on a ‘hard to reach’ group, working-class lesbians, in the United Kingdom. It is based upon my PhD research which reports on the life biographies, identities and everyday experiences of women who identify themselves as working-class and lesbian, achieved through fifty-three interviews with women living in a range of localities: the Highlands, Edinburgh, Glasgow in Scotland and Yorkshire and Manchester, England. The particular difficulties of researching lesbian lives have been outlined by many (John and Patrick, 1999; Kitzinger, 1987) but I would argue that problems of exclusion are compounded by class, given that working-class women are often absent from support networks and scene space, as well as research agendas. I illustrate the difficulties, and pleasures, both practically and theoretically and include quotes from interviewees as a way of demonstrating these issues. I end with a discussion on reciprocity or irrelevance to those ‘excluded’ participants, the ‘usefulness’ of my research, and the in/competence of the ‘authoritative’, ‘reflexive’ researcher. While my research is situated within Sociology/Women’s studies, I believe that the questions raised, in terms of conducting qualitative research, finding a sample and establishing rapport (or otherwise) with interviewees, are more broadly applicable across disciplinary boundaries. Issues of class inequality and sexuality are relevant across the social sciences and indeed across society as everyone occupies these categories, although only some are ‘marked’ by them.

  • View Abstract
  • Read Article
  • pp. 253–277

• Using secondary statistical analysis to assess the level of 'high risk' behaviours for sexually transmitted infections in Ireland

  Catherine Heffernan

  • No abstract available.
  • Read Article
  • pp. 278–302

• Generalizability and qualitative research in a postmodern world

  Mark C. J. Stoddart

  • Abstract

    In this paper, I will explore the idea of ‘generalizability’ as a methodological concept in the social sciences. First, I will look at how generalizability is depicted as a folk notion of science. In particular, I am interested in how generalizability has been constructed as a problem for qualitative research. Second, I will review the attempts of Robert Prus and Howard Becker to construct a uniquely qualitative model of generalizability. This is a model of ‘generic social processes’, which attempts to generalize about social processes, rather than populations. Third, I will discuss generalizability as an ideal that has been undermined by postmodern theory. Through this discussion, I will argue that the notion of ‘generalizability’ remains useful for qualitative research in a postmodern era.

  • View Abstract
  • Read Article
  • pp. 303–317

• This precious human life. A sociological study of everyday buddhist (and other) belief and practice

  Lilian Duffy

  • No abstract available.
  • Read Article
  • pp. 318–330

Book Reviews

• Science and Politics of Foreign Aid: Swedish Environmental Support to the Baltic States by Björn Hassler

  Jeroen Mimpen

  • Read Book Review
  • pp. 331–335

• Before a return to metatheory. T. Eagleton’s ‘After theory’ by Terry Eagleton

  David Beer

  • Read Book Review
  • pp. 336–339

• Religion and Politics by John T. S. Madeley

  Garrett Wallace Brown

  • Read Book Review
  • pp. 340–343

• Development as Freedom by Amartya Sen

  Siri Terjesen

  • Read Book Review
  • pp. 344–347