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Notes lectures week 2
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Session 3I – Quality Criteria : How can we assess the quality of scientific work ?
> Standards for a positivist perspective (Bryman)
Reliability : concerns the consistency of measurement (if we repeat the measurement, do we get
the same results ?)
Replicability
Validity : concerns the accuracy of measurement (can we make the claims that we make ?)
Internal validity : Is the assumed cause responsible for the variation identified ?
External validity : Can the findings be generalized to other cases ?
Ecological validity : Are the conditions of research matching the natural world ?
> Standards for an interpretivist perspective, parallel criteria (Guba & Lincoln)
Dependability : Can the research be tracked and the interpretations be checked ?
Transferability : Can the conclusions drawn in this situation used for other cases ?
Credibility : Is there a match between the respondents’ realities and the researcher’s ?
Confirmability : Can we be sure the results are not drawn from the researcher’s imagination ?
II – Political phenomena : Are they a result of actions of collectives or individuals ?
Emile Durkheim (1858 – 1917), founding father of sociology, researched on suicide
Causes : psychological stress, depression, unemployment, etc.
How come there are such striking differences between countries ?
Higher rates in individualistic protestant communities than in collectivistic catholic ones.
Characteristic of the context : economic depression, poverty, lack of opportunities, etc.
Social facts have influence on individuals’ actions...
Methodological individualism: privileges individual actions in social explanations, explain macro
phenomena from micro dynamics and requires reductionism (all social/political phenomena can be
understood from the logic and the perspective of individuals and their actions), in other words actors
serve as a basis for explaining political behavior.
The individualistic perspective assumes that any social phenomena can be explained by taking into
account individuals and their choices/actions. Links to positivism.
Methodological holism: implies that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, all social/political
phenomena can be understood from the influence that social structures exert on individual and
collective action, in other words structures serve as a basis for explaining political behavior.
The holistic perspective assumes that social structures precede and are of influence on the behavior of
individuals, cannot be reduced to their actions. Links to realism and interpretivism.
Can approaches that privilege the individual and those privileging the whole be reconciled ?
> Yes, Methodological relationalism
Without taking into consideration a willing and acting agent, nor taking on board the effects of
structures on agency (an explanation of social phenomena on the basis of individuals’ intentions and
power is naïve).
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