Social Research: Nature and Purpose

To evaluate. Did a programme achieve what it was for? This is a question of fact and it is answered by exactly the methods in these chapters.

To diagnose social problems and to identify their conditions, which is the purpose closest to a law student's professional interest.

Pure and applied research

Pure or basic research seeks knowledge for its own sake and aims to develop theory. Applied research addresses a practical problem and aims at a decision.

The distinction matters because the two are judged differently: pure research is judged by whether it advances understanding, applied research by whether it answers the question asked in time to be useful. Action research is the further form in which the researcher intervenes and studies the effect of the intervention.

Objectivity, and the problem it presents here

This is the section that separates a thoughtful answer from a copied one.

The difficulty is real and is not solved by wishing. A sociologist studying caste belongs to a caste; one studying gender has a gender; one studying poverty has an income. Unlike a chemist, the observer is inside the thing observed and has been socialised into its assumptions.

Where bias enters, and naming the points is the useful part: in the choice of the problem, since what is studied reflects what is thought worth studying; in the framing of questions, which can suggest their own answers; in the selection of the sample; in interviewing, through the interviewer's presence and manner; in interpretation, where ambiguous findings are read to fit expectations; and in publication, since findings that disturb a sponsor may not appear.

How the discipline answers it.

• Making the method public, so that others can check the route as well as the result.
• Replication by other workers.
• Standardised instruments, so that the same question is put to everyone in the same way.
• Triangulation: using more than one method on the same question and comparing the answers.
• Peer review.
• Declaring the researcher's own position, so that the reader can allow for it. This is the reflexive answer, and it accepts that bias cannot be eliminated and insists that it be disclosed.

Weber's value neutrality is the classic statement and must be given correctly, because it is usually misquoted. Weber did not say that a sociologist should have no values: he said that values inevitably determine what is chosen for study, and that once the study is under way the researcher must not allow their values to determine what is found. Value relevance decides the question; value neutrality governs the answer.

Social research and legal research

Worth a short section for this audience, because students conflate the two.

Socio-legal research is the field between them, and it is the reason this module is on a law syllabus: it asks whether a legal rule achieves its purpose, whom it reaches, what it costs, and how the machinery actually behaves. Law Commission reports, judicial impact assessments, court delay studies and access-to-justice surveys are all socio-legal research, and every one of them uses the methods in the chapters that follow.

Ethics in social research

Not printed by MU and inseparable from the topic, so it is given briefly.

Informed consent; confidentiality and anonymity, which matter acutely where respondents disclose stigmatised or unlawful conduct; avoiding harm to respondents, including the harm of exposure; honesty in reporting, including reporting findings that disappoint the sponsor; and not fabricating or selectively suppressing data, which is the cardinal offence.

A worked example

The question is empirical, and its shape shows the whole chapter at work.

Purpose: evaluation, and diagnosis of a social problem.

Objectivity risks: the study may be commissioned by the body being evaluated; the sample may be drawn from those who already used the scheme, which excludes everyone it failed to reach, and that is the single most likely fatal flaw; and respondents may tell an interviewer what they think is expected.

How they are met: sample from the eligible population rather than from users; put standardised questions; combine methods, interviews with an examination of the scheme's own records; and publish the method so that the design can be criticised.

And the finding will be of a particular kind. It will not say whether legal aid ought to be provided, which is a question of value that no survey can settle. It will say how many of those entitled knew of it, how many applied, how many obtained it, and what distinguished them from those who did not. That is the proper division of labour between social research and political judgment, and it is Weber's value neutrality in practice.

Quick revision

1. Social research is the systematic, empirical, objective and verifiable investigation of social phenomena. P. V. Young's definition is the one to cite.
2. Nature: systematic, empirical, objective, verifiable and replicable, logical (deductive and inductive), cumulative and self-correcting.
3. Purposes: discover new facts; test existing knowledge and common sense; establish relationships and causes; develop and test theory; predict; inform planning and policy; evaluate; and diagnose social problems.
4. Pure research seeks knowledge and theory; applied research answers a practical question; action research intervenes and studies the effect.
5. Objectivity: the observer is inside the society observed. Bias enters at the choice of problem, framing, sampling, interviewing, interpretation and publication.
6. Answers: public method, replication, standardised instruments, triangulation, peer review, and declaring one's own position.
7. Weber: values decide what is studied (value relevance); they must not decide what is found (value neutrality).
8. Socio-legal research asks whether a rule achieves its purpose, whom it reaches and what it costs.

Test yourself

1. Define social research and state its nature. The systematic and objective investigation of social phenomena by scientific methods, in order to discover new facts, verify existing knowledge, establish relationships between social facts and develop and test theory. It is systematic, proceeding by planned steps; empirical, resting on collectable evidence; objective so far as possible; verifiable and replicable by other workers; logical, whether deductively or inductively; and cumulative and self-correcting.

2. State the purposes of social research. To discover facts nobody previously knew; to test existing knowledge and received common sense; to establish relationships between social facts and, where possible, causal explanations; to develop and test theory; to predict within limits; to provide a basis for planning and policy; to evaluate whether a programme achieved its purpose; and to diagnose social problems and identify their conditions.

3. Why is objectivity harder in social research, and how is the difficulty met? Because the observer belongs to the society studied and has been socialised into its assumptions, so bias can enter at the choice of problem, the framing of questions, the selection of the sample, the conduct of interviews, the interpretation of ambiguous findings and the decision to publish. It is met by making the method public so that the route can be checked, by replication, by standardised instruments, by triangulating two or more methods on the same question, by peer review, and by declaring the researcher's own position so that readers can allow for it.

4. State Weber's position on values in research. That values inevitably determine what a researcher chooses to study, which he called value relevance, since no one can investigate everything and the selection expresses what is thought important; but that once the investigation is under way the researcher's values must not be permitted to determine what is found, which is value neutrality. The position is therefore not that a sociologist should have no values, which is impossible, but that values govern the question and not the answer.

5. What is socio-legal research and why does it belong on a law syllabus? Research that applies the empirical methods of social science to legal questions: whether a rule achieves its purpose, whom it reaches, what it costs, who is excluded from it, and how the machinery of enforcement actually behaves. It belongs on a law syllabus because none of those questions can be answered from the statute book or the law reports, and because law reform, judicial impact assessment, studies of court delay and access-to-justice surveys all depend on it.