Influence on research topic Flashcards
Theoretical
perspective & personal
interests/beliefs
Whether someone is a feminist, Marxist, from the New Right, etc. is a major influence on a sociologist’s choice of research topic. A sociologist’s theoretical perspective is intertwined with their own personal beliefs & interests. E.g. a New Right researcher may study the effects of welfare benefits on the growth of lone parent families, since the idea of welfare dependency is central to their standpoint.
By contrast, a feminist researcher is more likely to choose to study domestic violence, as fighting against gender oppression lies at the heart of feminist theory.
A Marxist believes that inequality in society stems from the structure of capitalism, so they may wish to study a topic such as corporate crime to help to demonstrate this. However, although a person’s perspective, interests & beliefs may steer them in a particular research direction, if a funding body is not interested in the same topic it is unlikely that research will go ahead.
Society’s values or public
concerns
Sociologists themselves are part of the society they study & are therefore influenced by its values. As these values change, so does the focus of research. E.g. the rise of feminism in the 1960s & 70s led to a focus on gender inequality & the environmentalist concerns of the 21st century have generated interest in ‘green crimes’ such as serious pollution & deforestation. Public concerns influence these values & a sudden rise in public concern over a topic can generate completely new areas of study for a sociologist. E.g. the current concern over terrorism in the UK after a number of recent attacks will produce a huge amount of new research in this topic area.
However, it may not be straight forward to study certain topics that society values or the public is concerned about & this could hinder research. For example, a sociologist may want to study the radicalisation of young, male Muslims but it would be extremely difficult & dangerous to access a fundamentalist group of this kind.
Funding bodies
Most research requires funding from an external body as very few sociologists would have the money themselves to conduct research, particularly if the demands of it prevent them from also having a job. These funding bodies include government agencies, charities & businesses. As the funding body is paying for the research, it will more often than not determine the topic to be investigated, or at least the details of study within the topic area.
E.g. a focus on the ‘social exclusion’ of some disadvantaged groups by the New Labour government after 1997. This has increasingly limited the topic choices of sociologists over the last 20 years as it has become much harder to gain funding & a sociologist may have to deviate from their own personal interests to fit in with those of the funding body in order to complete detailed research suitable for publication.
Practical factors - access to the research group or context & the availability of data
Practical factors, such as not being able to access certain situations or not being able to gain specific data on the topic area, may restrict what topic a sociologist can study.
E.g. although sociologists may wish to study corporate crimes such as large-scale fraud, this may not be possible as they will be unable to gain access into this world. A person’s personal characteristics such as their gender, age, social class, ethnicity, etc. can easily restrict their choice of research topic.
A sociologist may want to study the reasons for a rise in violent crime amongst black males in a specific location in Manchester, but being a 50 year-old female from London would more than likely prevent access to this particular topic of study.
Access to data can also be a problem such as someone wanting to investigate the differences between teenagers who write diaries now compared to those in the past would undoubtedly come across difficulties in getting a hold of example diaries. Even official statistics which are widely available on a huge number of topics may not cover the area needed for a particular focused piece of research. However, there are often ways around these issues such as a change in the method used to study a particular topic. E.g. the 50 year-old London female may be able to study the group she is interested in by interviewing police officers who deal with these gangs on a regular basis, as opposed to observing the individuals themselves.
