Essentials of Sociology. George Ritzer
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Название: Essentials of Sociology
Автор: George Ritzer
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Социология
isbn: 9781544388045
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The best-known example of sociological research involving deception and intrusion into people’s lives is Laud Humphreys’s (1970) study of the homosexual activities of men in public restrooms (“tearooms”). Humphreys (1930–1988) acted as a lookout outside tearooms and signaled men engaged in anonymous acts of fellatio when members of the public or the police were approaching. He interviewed some of the men with full disclosure. However, he also noted the license plate numbers of some of those he observed and tracked down their addresses. Humphreys appeared at their homes a year or so later, in disguise, to interview them under false pretenses. In this way, he uncovered one of the most important findings of his study: More than half the men were married, with wives and families. They were active in the tearoom trade not because they were homosexual but because sexual relations in their marriages were problematic.
Humphreys deceived these men by not telling them from the outset that he was doing research on them and, with those he interviewed under false pretenses, by not revealing the true nature of the research. His research had at least the potential of revealing something that most of the participants wanted to conceal. He later admitted that if he had the chance to do the research over again, he would tell the participants about his true role and goal. But the research itself is not without merit. It helped distinguish between same-sex acts and gay identity. It provided much-needed insight into the social construction of sexuality and the difficulties involved in understanding how people develop their sexual selves.
Trending On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City (University of Chicago Press, 2014)
Alice Goffman
© University of Chicago Press
Maintaining a certain level of objectivity and distance from the individuals one is researching can prove challenging, especially when one is immersed in their daily lives for an extended time. Ethical dilemmas can arise when researchers empathize too much with the people being studied. Alice Goffman found herself facing just such a dilemma when conducting fieldwork on how young black men and their families negotiate the criminal justice system in one Philadelphia neighborhood she calls 6th Street. Most of these men were on parole or probation or had outstanding warrants. They spent much of their time trying to avoid the police and incarceration. Law enforcement does not make this easy for them. Goffman observed the police harassing these men in a variety of ways, from stopping and frisking them on the streets to searching their homes, often without probable cause. The courts offer little recourse. Missed court dates and failure to pay court fees make it difficult for these men—and by extension their families and friends—to avoid the legal system.
During the six years that Goffman was in the field, she developed close relationships with two men in particular, Mike and Chuck. For a time, she even became their roommate. While establishing strong connections is important to build trust and gain access to research sites and subjects, Goffman found herself spending more time—and feeling more comfortable—with her friends on 6th Street than she did at the university at which she was studying. She also found herself engaging in legally questionable activities. One night she spent “on the run” with Chuck and his brother Reggie, hiding with them in a neighbor’s house from the police. After Chuck was shot and killed, Goffman drove Mike around to try to find Chuck’s killer. During one of these drives, Goffman waited in the car when Mike, who was carrying a loaded gun, got out and followed a man whom he thought shot Chuck. Luckily, Mike determined that this was the wrong man and returned to the car. If Mike had shot and killed this man, Goffman could have been an accomplice in a conspiracy to commit murder. On the Run reveals that the decision of when to observe and when to participate is complicated both ethically and legally when conducting ethnographic research. ●
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Watch Goffman discuss her research findings from On the Run in her TED Talk, “How We’re Priming Some Kids for College—and Others for Prison.”
Read a critical examination of the reliability of Goffman’s ethnographic methodology in Gideon Lewis-Kraus’s (2016) article, “The Trials of Alice Goffman.”
For 40 years researchers studied the progression of syphilis in hundreds of poor black men in Tuskegee, Alabama. Unethically, they did not tell them they had the disease, nor did they treat them for it. Worse, they simply watched them suffer and eventually die painfully.
Courtesy of ONE Archives at the USC Libraries
Objectivity, or “Value-Free” Sociology
Another issue relating to sociological research is whether researchers are, or can be, objective. That is, do they allow personal preferences and judgments to bias their research? Many argue that value-laden research jeopardizes the entire field of sociology. The publication of such research—and public revelations about researcher biases—erodes and could destroy the credibility of the field as a whole. This discussion is traceable, once again, to the work of Max Weber (Black 2013). Taken to its extreme, value-free sociology means preventing all personal values from affecting any phase of the research process. However, this is not what Weber intended in his work on values.
In fact, Weber saw at least two roles for values in social research. The first is in the selection of a question to be researched. In that case, it is perfectly appropriate for researchers to be guided by their personal values, or the values that predominate in the society of the day. The second is in the analysis of the results of a research study. In that analysis, sociologists can, and should, use personal and social values to help them make sense of their findings. These values are an aid in interpretation and understanding. However, they are not to be used purposely to distort the findings or mislead the reader of a report on the study. ●
Summary
Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Émile Durkheim are the most important classical sociological theorists. Marx focused the majority of his attention on macro issues, particularly the structure of capitalist society. Unlike Marx, Weber did not focus exclusively on the economy but considered the importance of other social structures, particularly religion. Durkheim believed that social structures and cultural norms and values exert control over individuals that is not only necessary but also desirable.
Among other early sociological theorists, Georg Simmel focused on micro-level issues, specifically interactions among individuals. W. E. B. Du Bois was a pioneering researcher of race in America at the beginning of the twentieth century. Thorstein Veblen studied consumption, particularly the ways in which the rich show off their wealth through conspicuous consumption.
Structural/functional, conflict/critical, and inter/actionist theories are the three main types СКАЧАТЬ