1.Tuesday 20th May 2025 11:30-13:00 BST Room A5.04 in the IOE

‘The writings of Claude Lévi-Strauss and his followers and antagonists among the "structuralists,” of Louis Dumont, Edmund Leach, and other innovators of modern cultural anthropology have played an indispensible role in preparing anthropology for the kind of self-awareness that a theory based on invention implies. Yet these writers, too, have generally fought shy of completely relativistic conclusions—largely, we might suspect, in the interests of preserving and “protecting” the cultural and scientific perspectives that allow their theories to be communicated.’ (Roy Wagner, 2016 (1975). p.150)

But if theory, like other technologies, is 'based on invention', then what a given theory is saying to us is not 'this is the route to the, or even a truth, but to the implied marketing strategy:

Suppose you look at it like this ...

What is theory?

People know what they do; frequently they know why they do what they do; but what they don't know is what what they do does. 
Michel Foucault (1965). Foucault is making a theoretical claim because it is a generalisation. Such claims may be made at different levels of analysis, the level varying according to the extent of the generalisation. Foucault’s claim is at a high level because it appears to refer to all people irrespective of category or context.

Norbert Elias (2001) claims that there has been a general shift in the we-I balance in favour of I-identity apparent in Western societies, but that this is not as obvious in Japan and in Asian countries generally.

Foucault’s claim invites theoretical interrogation: what might it mean to ‘know’/’not to know’? Elias’s claim suggests empirical investigation, because it is more specific. There is, however, still theoretical work to be done in respect of operationalising the ‘we-I balance’, that is, how do we recognise this category and its dimensionality?

The Guardian of 4th October 2023 reports gender and race inequalities in heart valve surgery. Although this is the product of research, no explanation, ie theory, is offered, but simply empirical correlations. It should be remembered that causality should not be inferred from correlations, no matter how strong. Of course, there is plenty of sociological theory that might suggest causal mechanisms for this finding, but the connections are yet to be made.

Methodological decisions relate to how people know what they know/wish to know and concern strategies of:

• Research design
• Research ethics
• Sampling
• Data collection
• Data analysis

The decision on research design will have implications for sampling strategies. If the intention is to generalise from a sample to the population from which it is drawn, then we will need to construct a sample that is representative of that population in some respect(s). This in turn will have implications for the sample size. Designs that adopt this approach include experiment and survey. It will often be important to ensure that members of the sample are equivalent and that they are treated in the same way or that these variables differ in terms of other defined variables. These requirements will have implications for data collection and analysis strategies.

Research that aims to generalise from sample to population is likely to adopt quantitative methods in order to generate a relation between variables that are known in advance of the data collection process or that are inferred from a statistical analysis such as exploratory factor analysis or principal component analysis. This will involve up-front theoretical work to define and operationalise variables in terms of one or more research questions and will require expertise in statistical methods. Qualitative research does not work like this.

Qualitative research exchanges sample quantity for data detail and so usually does not aim to generalise from sample to population. This relieves us of the need for the sample to be representative. Of course, this entails that the research findings can generate claims only about the sample. However, these findings may generalise in two ways:

1. Firstly, in terms of ideographic knowledge or case studies that broaden our understanding of the world in much the same way that geographical exploration (or travel) broadens our knowledge of the planet;

2. Secondly, qualitative research can develop theory, in terms of conceptualisation that may or may not be linked together as theories per se.

The most popular approach to qualitative research analysisis grounded theory. This was introduced by Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss in the 1960s in response to the dominance of what they regarded as ‘armchair theory’: the production of theoretical concepts and theories analytically without explicit reference to empirical evidence. Grounded theory builds its theoretical concepts from empirical data. This does not mean that grounded theory arises owing nothing to antecedent work, including theoretical work. But the researcher’s knowledge of the field constitutes their ‘theoretical sensitivity’ that enables them to recognise what is significant—for them—in the data.

Prelimnary Reading

Dowling, P.C. 2024. 'SAM: A Language for Education'. Qeios

Additional Reading

Daston, L. (2000). 'The Coming into Being of Scientific Objects'. Biographies of Scientific Objects. L. Daston. (Ed.) Chicago, University of Chicago Press.

Dowling, P.C. 2009. Sociology as Method: Departures from the forensics of culture, text and knowledge. Rotterdam. Sense. c. 1 'From forensics to constructive description'. pp. 1-14.

Dowling, P.C. 2013. 'Social Activity Method (SAM): A fractal language for mathematics.' Mathematics Education Research Journal.  25(3) 317-340 Open Access

Ferguson, H. (2006). Phenomenological Sociology; Experience and insight in modern society (Kindle Edition). London, Sage.

Foucault, M. (1965). Madness and Civilization: a history of insanity in the age of reason. London, Tavistock

Ikegami, E. (2005). Bonds of Civility: Aesthetic networks and the political origins of Japanese culture. Cambridge, |CUP.

Kopytoff, I. (1986). The cultural biography of things: commoditization as process. The Social Life of Things: Commodities in cultural perspective. A. Appadurai. New York, Cambridge University Press: 64-92.

Rheinberger, Hans-Jörg. (2000). Cytoplasmic Particles: The trajectory of a scientific object. In Daston, L. (2000. pp 270-294).

Wagner, R. (2016 (1975)). The Invention of culture. Second Edition. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.

Wagner, R. (2017). The Logic of Invention. Chicago, Hau Books.

Weber, M. (1946 (1919)). Politics as a Vocation. From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology. In H. H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills.(Eds) New York, Oxford University Press: 77-128.

Discussion points (please consider these before the session and prepare a response

Do you always need an interview or observation schedule? Why/not?

What is the meaning of emic and etic categories? Why make this distinction?

Explain (or challenge): "only theoretical objects can be discovered, empirical objects can only be encountered."