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Theory and research

• What type of theory?
• - explanation of observed regularities
• Merton (1967)
• grand theories
• highly abstract
• Butler and Robinson (2001) – Bourdieu’s concept of social capital – gentrification of areas of London
• middle range theories
• useful for empirical research - limited domain

• page 22

• page 21

Theory and research

• Middle range theories - unlike grand ones, operate in a limited domain, whether it is juvenile delinquency, racial prejudice, educational attainment or the labour process
• Labour Process Theory (Knights and Willmott 1990). P. Thompson (1989)
• - the labour process theory having 4 elements
• Cohen(2010)
• - postal questionnaire survey of hairstylist’s relationship with their clients

• page 23

Empiricism

• Philosophical approach to theorising
• Only knowledge gained through sensory experiences is acceptable
• Rigorous scientific testing of theories
• Positivist epistemology
• Accumulation of ‘facts’ as data
• Naïve empiricism?

• page 23

Empiricism

• McKeganey and Barnard (1996) - research on prostitutes and their clients
• Goffman (1963) - notion of ‘stigma’
• Hochschild (1983)
• - concept of ‘emotional labour’

• pages 23,24

Deductive and inductive theory

• Deductivism:
• theory --> data
• explicit hypothesis to be confirmed or rejected
• quantitative research
• Inductivism:
• data --> theory
• generalizable inferences from observations
• qualitative research /grounded theory

• pages 24, 25

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