SY281 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Symbolic Interactionism, Social Fact, Grounded Theory
Document Summary
Role of sociology to interpret the meaning of social action not explain cause of social variation. Interpretative sociology relies heavily on symbolic interactionism theories. Conducts research in indigenous and unaffected social settings. Natural socio is qualitative dealing w analysis of symbolic info. Relies on field work sometimes called participant observation. Theoretical bases of natural socio: symbolic interactionism and ethnomethodology. : studies interactions b/w ppl in terms of symbols mostly provided by language. Ethno: concerned about methods, including use of language, in everyday activities to construct/interpret social world. Field work only describes and makes little, if any, theoretical contribution. Field workers attempt to generate grounded theory. Natural socio argues that research techniques of quan. sociology are artificial. Does not study society as it is but rather construct situations which are artificial (ie. - data based on artificial settings reflect research techniques so much the applicability. Goal of causal socio. is to use independent variables to explain dependent variables.
