Comparative Methods in Political & Social Research > Unit No. 1 > Charles C. Ragin
Charles C. Ragin, Constructing Social Research, Pine Forge Press (Sage), 1994
The Book’s Short Description:
This book offers a broad, integrative overview of social research. It answers the question “What is social research?” with diverse examples that illustrate current thinking about broad issues in social science methodology and the logic of analysis. The primary goal is to show unity within the diversity of activities that are called social research – to make sense of social research in a way that brings it all together. In truth, social research is diverse both in its methods and its goals. Yet, in all of its forms it involves a systematic interplay between ideas and evidence.
Content:
1. What is Social Research?
Chapter 1 discusses the differences between a social research and other forms of representation of social life (such as journalism, documentary film making etc.). It deals with the inability of social researchers to form agreed definitions of basic terms (e.g. society) and critically review the tendency of most social researchers to imitate the methodology and research procedures of the natural science.
2. The Goals of Social Research
Chapter 2 examines the diverse goals of social research, with a special focus on the tensions among different goals. Ragin argues that too often social research is portrayed simply as a process of testing general ideas or theories in an effort to produce generalizations. While generalizations are important goal of social research there are all together 7 goals: (1) identifying general patterns; (2) testing and refining theories; (3) making predictions; (4) interpreting culturally or historically significant phenomena; (5) exploring diversity; (6) giving voice to minorities or marginal groups; (7)advancing new theories.
Generally, the first three goals follow the lead of the natural sciences. The fourth and sixth goals, by contrast, follow from the social nature of social science – the fact that social researchers study phenomena that are relevant to our life. The fifth and seventh goals links up natural and social sciences.
3. The Process of Social Research: Ideas and Evidence
Chapter 3 addresses general features of the process of social research – how social researchers construct representations of social life. Social researchers collect a lot of evidence when they conduct their studies. Which of them is more important than the other?
Ragin answer is that the more explicit the researcher’s initial ideas (or “analytic frame”), the clearer the guidance they offer about what should be studied. It is the interplay of ideas and evidence that is common to all strategies of social research.
4. Using Qualitative Methods to Study Commonalities
Chapter 4 presents the qualitative study of commonalities as a strategy that is best suited for clarifying categories and concepts. Researchers use qualitative methods when they believe that the best way to construct a proper representation of social and political phenomena is through in-depth study.
The chapter clarify three particular goals of the qualitative research: giving voice, interpreting historically or culturally significant phenomena and advancing theory. It than deals with the process of qualitative research and finally presents different qualitative methods.
5. Using Comparative Methods to Study Diversity
Chapter 5 presents comparative research as a strategy oriented toward identifying and unraveling complex patterns of similarities and differences across moderate number of cases.
The chapter argues that the emphases of comparative research on diversity and on familiarity with each case make this approach especially well suited for the goals of exploring diversity, interpreting cultural or historical significance, and advancing theory. It than provides an example of particular comparative research strategy – the truth tables.
6. Using Quantitative Methods to Study Covariation
Chapter 6 discusses quantitative research as an approach that most often focuses on covariation of features across many cases. Focusing on any single case or on a small number of cases might give a very distorted picture. Looking across many cases makes it possible to average out the peculiarities of individual cases and to construct a picture of social life that is purified of phenomena that are specific.
The chapter presents the three goals of social research that are best suited for quantitative research – identifying general patterns and relationships, testing theories and making predictions. It then moves on to (a) contrast quantitative research with qualitative and comparative research; (b) to discuss the process of quantitative research; and (c) demonstrate the use of quantitative methods.
Afterward: The Promise of Social Research
This chapter summarizes and exemplifies the 3 basic social research strategies mentioned above used by social scientists attempting to truly represent social realities, emphasizing that these are the basic approaches however other ones are also used by researchers. Since social researchers have various goals to achieve, they use a variety of research methods. In spite of their differences, all deal with important social phenomena, connect them to social theories and handle large amounts of data which is systematically analyzed to form such representations. Despite the above, social representations are far from perfect and are constantly subjected to criticism.
Appendix: Computing Correlation Coefficients
This chapter explains and exemplifies how to calculate the correlation coefficiency mentioned in Chapter 6 to determine the degree of correlation (such as Pearson’s r), between two given variables which provides a way to make a direct quantitative evaluation of a degree to which phenomena covary across cases in either positive or negative directions.