Is Sociology Value Free Flashcards
A value free sociology
Positivists like Comte and Durkheim believe that objectivity is possible and therefore they tried to establish the subject as a science, and such, sociology can then be used to influence social policy and improve the world.
Value free sociology is not possible
It is impossible for any natural or social scientist to avoid the influence of values completely. For example, their academic training, the paradigm or perspective they have learnt for interpreting and evaluating evidence, their assumptions about society, their beliefs about what is important are all sources of values.
Sociological assumptions are value laden:
Positivists believe that society exists as an objective reality - social structures mould and constrain individual behavior, while interpretivists believe society is socially constructed by the actions of individuals. These different assumptions guide the selection of what is regarded as a worthwhile topic or problem, what questions to ask, what data to collect and what data is important to the research. All of which are subjective value judgements.
All involve values to some extent, they are unavoidable. Therefore is it not
possible for sociology to be value free - value freedom is a myth.
Value free sociology is not desirable
Gouldner not only suggests that value freedom in impossible, but that it is undesirable.
Attempting to be value free only serves the career interests of the sociologists (they are doing it for the money), who take funding from the highest bidder and avoid taking any moral responsibility for the uses and consequences of their research.
Pretending to be value free and not taking sides supports the powerful in an unequal society.
The idea of committed sociology is that sociologists should not only state their values but also they should make value judgements especially when they find injustice. Sociologists have a public responsibility to improve the lives of the most exploited in society and take sides against the powerful sources of oppression.
All sociology is influenced by values, by not choosing to take a side the sociologists are favouring the powerful against less powerful. As it is research that will inevitably reduce inequality in society.
Becker poses the question “whose side are we on?”
Becker argues that traditional sociologists especially positivists and functionalists have tended to take the viewpoint of the powerful - police, the state etc. Becker argues that instead of seeing things from the perspective of the
“overdog” a sociologist should be compassionate and focus on the
“underdog”- the criminal, mentally ill and powerless groups. This is partly because the story of these groups needs to be told in order for inequality to be addressed. This allows us to reveal the previously hidden social reality. The emphasis on identifying with the powerless has clear links to the methodology used by interpretivists as they want to reveal the meaning of being an ‘outsider’.
However he is criticised for taking a romantic and sentimental approach to disadvantaged groups.
Relativism
If we think it is impossible to detach our values from our research this leads to a position called relativism. This is often adopted by postmodernist writers such as Lyotard and Baudrillard.
Relativism argues that:
• Different groups, cultures and individuals including sociologists have different views of the world and what is true - everyone sees the world in relation to their own perspectives and concepts.
There is no independent way of judging whether any view is truer than another.
Relativism argues there is no absolute or objective truth - just truths. What you believe is true for you.
Weber
Weber wrote extensively on this issue and alerted us to the fact that the relationship between research and the researcher’s values is a complex one.
His view was that values play a considerable part in the research process.
1: Values can’t (and shouldn’t be avoided when choosing the topic to research, but values and personal prejudices should never be allowed to enter the research process itself or allowed to distort or manipulate data collection.
2: Values and personal prejudices should be considered when examining the ethics of research. Ethical issues rest on the moral values of the researcher, sociologists have to take responsibility for avoiding harm.
3: Findings should be open to inspection, criticism, debate and testing by other researches. So researchers must be open and clear about their own values so that any distortion or manipulation, whether intended or not can be checked and scrutinized by others.
