Fresh thinking on methodology
Who says epistemology in the social sciences has to be dull?
by Yves Laberge
Writing a doctoral thesis in the social sciences is as much about methodology as it is about investigating a phenomenon in a specific field, whatever the topic or the disciplines. Graduate students have to learn about methods in general, and not only “theirs.” Among the many epistemological problems that go beyond measurements, they should also think about how we can become aware of “what we do not know” and the ways to reach new knowledge.
After decades of research and thesis supervision, Kristin Luker, a sociologist at the University of California at Berkeley, believes in an intuitive social research that explores other fields in order to gather the best of two worlds, or more. “It is my deepest held conviction,” she writes at the start, “that the very best social science research of the coming era will be exactly this kind of research – research that draws on the kinds of bold and interdisciplinary insights you can get when you salsa-dance.”
One should not be misguided by the elegant couple seen on the cover: this well documented book is neither about dancing nor Latin American culture. Rather, it is a plea for interdisciplinary research and a timely reflection on methodology.
The process of research
The book’s provocative title became crystal clear and seemed appropriate once I finished reading the first of the 11 chapters. Salsa Dancing into the Social Sciences: Research in an Age of Info-glut is a metaphor to express the attitude of a researcher face-to-face with the strict categories of qualitative or quantitative, micro or macro social science.
The book offers a generous discussion of the countless processes of research: interviews, focus groups, historical-comparative methods and various field methods. It is not a how-to guide or manual but rather the result of many personal insights and small discoveries she has made along the way, outside most methodology books. For example, Dr. Luker demonstrates how, in the interview process, methods such as participant observation and ethnography should always lead researchers to theory-building: “Regardless of whether things happened the way people said they did, what interests us is that people chose to tell us that they happened that way.”
Dr. Luker defines her salsa-dancing social science as “holistic and attentive to context, conceptually innovative, methodologically agnostic research that sees itself as socially embedded, is strongly committed to building theory in a cumulative way, and is deeply attentive to questions of power.” She draws concepts from classic authors like Pierre Bourdieu, Howard S. Becker, Charles Ragin, Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss in Chapter 3; then, she revisits the main steps of a standard research project, from the review of literature to “sampling, operationalization and generalization,” which she sees as “the only three core practices,” adding provocatively that “everything else is commentary.”
There are at least two types of texts on methodology: those that teach how to do research and those that discuss some methodological issues and bring the reflection into epistemological considerations. Kristin Luker’s book is decidedly of the second type, which could be called meta-methodology.
Various readers will appreciate this book for different reasons. For advanced graduate students in social sciences, history and maybe other disciplines, Salsa Dancing would be valuable for reflecting on the value and usefulness of research methods. Incidentally, each chapter ends with an exercise and a few tricks of the trade, and pieces of advice are provided throughout the chapters (for example, she poses and answers the question, “when should the researcher stop interviewing?”).
This book might seem a bit too unconventional for students at the master’s level, who perhaps should stick with their discipline’s tradition. But for professors who teach methodology and for those who supervise graduate students, this is a stimulating read. The author dares to bring her own jargon and some eccentric concepts to the book, along with doses of light humour and personal anecdotes. (Who said all books on methodology have to be serious and boring?)
In more than one way, Salsa Dancing into the Social Sciences is an unusual book. You might or might not like its approach, but that’s the price you pay to arrive at an interesting discussion. After all, it takes two to tango.
Salsa Dancing into the Social Sciences: Research in an Age of Info-glut
, by Kristin Luker, published by Harvard University Press, 2008, 323 pages.
Dr. Laberge, a sociologist, serves on the board of five academic journals, including The European Legacy. He lives in Québec City.
