Knowing the social world: perspectives and possibilities
- Hyderabad Orient BlackSwan 2017
- xvi, 434p. With index
Table of Contents 1 Introduction: Towards Knowing the Social World by N. Jayaram PART I | Positivism and the Canonical Tradition: Generalizing Social Reality Knowing the Social World through Census: Reflections on the Conditions of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Analysing the Economic Effects of Age Structure Transition: Towards a New Methodology Statistical Methods and Political Analysis: Examining the ‘Economic Vote’ in India’s Parliamentary Elections Randomised Controlled Trials and Programme Evaluations: Our Experience and Lessons PART II | Beyond Positivism: Understanding Social Reality Deciphering Development-induced Displacement: Method, Memory and Motive in Empirical Research Ethnography in the Study of Changing Agricultural Practices: Reflections on Research Experiences and Ethnography Studying Youth across ‘Tradition’ and ‘Modernity’: A Multisite, Interdisciplinary Endeavour Exploring the Underworld: Some Methodological Challenges Narrative Analysis in Doctor–Patient Interaction: Reflections on the Context Atlas.ti and Formulation of Grounded Theory: Understanding Entrepreneurship Using Qualitative Data PART III | Forays into Unconventional Sources: Archives, Court Records, Autobiographies and Photographs Use of Archives in Social Research Trials on Record: Understanding Legal Constructions of Violence against Women through Court Records Reading the Social in Autobiographies: A Glimpse into Everyday Life and History Photography’s Methodological Absence in Social Anthropology in South Asia: Some Preliminary Thoughts for Consideration PART IV | The Researcher and the Field: Personal Location and Social Experience Researching the Khasi: Encounter with the Self Fielding One’s Own: Prospects and Dilemmas in Researching Women’s Collective Organising from Within Exploration into the Life and Times of Dalits: My Engagement with Dalit Studies The Predicament of a Madiga Ethnographer: Doing Fieldwork in a Multi-Caste Village in Andhra Pradesh Travails of Doing Research in India: A Korean’s Experience Knowing Journalism and News Work: An Expatriate’s Experience in an Arab Gulf Country
Comprising analyses of how research is conducted in specific areas through examples of problems on which significant work is being, or have been, done and focusing on the underlying theoretical and philosophical assumptions, the essays in Knowing the Social World offer bird’s-eye views as well as in-depth studies of existing research methods and practices of social sciences.This book of twenty essays, divided into four parts, explores a variety of methodological approaches. It focuses on both the ‘canonical’ tradition, which upholds the objective nature of reality and privileges positivistic knowledge, and the ‘non-canonical’ tradition, which believes in the constructed nature of social reality and is concerned with producing an interpretive understanding of it. The book discusses unconventional sources of social science research data, like photographs and autobiographies, and covers a range of topics: changing conditions of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes; changing agricultural practices; youth in organised crime and the underworld; violence against women; journalistic practices; and economic voting, among others. Drawing on case studies from all parts of India, as well as from Sri Lanka, Scotland and the Gulf, this comprehensive and interdisciplinary volume will be invaluable to any student and scholar of sociology, political science, history and social anthropology.