2.2 Approaches to Sociological Research -Case Studies

Question 1

Westwood’s study of female workers in Stichco factory

case study- participant observation

Answer 1

looks at the way paid employment and family commitments come together to make women’s lives. Westwood’s empirical study focuses attention on the lives of women on the factory shopfloor. Women are subjected to patriarchal and capitalist oppression, and, for a good many of the women she researched, racial oppression as well. She argues that feminist analysis must take account of both class and race as well as gender.

She is unimpressed by critics of participant observation who argue that the method is unreliable, ungeneralisable, intrusive and subjective. For her, it is the only methodic practice that possibly allows one to inhabit and record a cultural space.

Question 2

Lacey’s study of Hightown Grammar School

case study

Answer 2

The study was based on Lacey’s belief that the particularistic (study of a single case) can illuminate the universalistic (other similar situations). That is, case studies are generalisable.

In the study, the school was viewed as a social system which was nevertheless embedded in a wider society. In the case study, Lacey lays bare the social mechanisms within the school in an attempt to explain the disappointing performance of working-class boys in grammar schools.

Question 3

The Census for England and Wales

cross sectional survey

Answer 3

Most countries carry out a census at fixed intervals. A census is a complete count of the population, gathering information from
questions covering a wide range of aspects of family and social life. Censuses are carried out by governments, because they have the resources to carry out research on this scale.

The Census for England and Wales is in effect a very large-scale social
survey, with a questionnaire sent to every household. It is carried out every ten years, on one set day; the most recent one was in 2011. As there is a census every ten years, comparisons can be made over time. Because people can be fined for not completing the census, most people do complete it.

The findings take a long time to analyse but when published provide
valuable information to local and national government, and to sociologists, for whom large-scale government-funded surveys are an important source of secondary data, saving time and money and suggesting areas for further research.

Great care is taken to word questions so that they are clear and that people are able to give the answers they want to. This kind of research is high in reliability.

There are, however, some doubts about its validity, for example it may not count homeless people because they cannot be contacted easily

Question 4

Bolt’s study of Zimbabwe’s migrants and south africa’s border farms

ethnography

Answer 4

Bolt’s account of migrant workers from Zimbabwe on one white-owned farm in northern South Africa, based on 17 months of living among seasonal workers there. Like the best ethnography, Bolt’s account vividly captures the lives of people of the farm, with the
judges saying that it made them feel they had been there. He covers the lives of seasonal workers, permanent black South African workers, their dependents, white workers and farm managers and owners.

Question 5

Barker’s The Making of a Moonie

methodological triangulation

Answer 5

used overt participant observation, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews in her research on the Unification Church (‘Moonies’)

Barker spent close to seven years studying Unification Church members. She interviewed in depth and/or gave probing questionnaires to Unification Church members, ex-members, “non-joiners,” and control groups of uninvolved individuals from similar backgrounds, as well as parents, spouses, and friends of members. She also attended numerous Unification Church workshops and communal facilities.

Question 6

Hey’s study of girl’s friendships

methodological triangulation

Answer 6

Hey’s book makes an important contribution to poststructural feminist work that explores the contradictions and paradoxes of becoming a girl/woman. The Company She Keeps is also a useful exemplar for research methods courses or anyone contemplating doing ethnographic work in schools.

uses a combination of participant observation and personal documentation. some of the girls allowed her to read their diaries and she was also given access to the notes passed between the girls in the classroom.

Question 7

Moonie <3

Answer 7

You’re my moonie baby <3