Originally published in 1974, this book evaluates and compares three important styles of sociological research: positivism, symbolic interactionism and critique.
Originally published in 1974, this book evaluates and compares three important styles of sociological research: positivism, symbolic interactionism and critique. The book describes and evaluates each research technique as an experience for the researcher, and the author explains what they themselves have learned of sociological meaning from engaging in it. The book traces the main ideas through their last generations of sociologists and asks what future there is in a particular method.
Part 1: The Quantitative Method. Introduction.
1. Men in the Middle: A
Reformulation of the Thesis
2. Latent Identities Amongst Lecturers at a
Technological University
3. The Quantitative Method in Theory
4. The Practice
of Quantitative Research Part 2: The Qualitative Method. Introduction.
5.
Observations in a Surgery
6. The Qualitative Method in Theory
7. The Practice
of Qualitative Research Part 3: The Method of Social Criticism
8. Fool or
Funny Man: The Role of the Comedian
9. The Place of Class in Contemporary
Sociology
10. The Idea of Social Criticism
11. The Practice of Critique 12
Postscript: Theory and Practice in the Light of Sociological Method.
Appendices 1: Statements and Correlations
2. For the Record
3. Research Units
and Research Teams.
Colin Fletcher was a lecturer in Sociology at the former University College, Cardiff.
