Having spent much of the past year writing about research methods, I found myself returning to a book I had not read properly for many years: C. Wright Mills's The Sociological Imagination. Published in 1959, it is still surprisingly fresh, especially when Mills turns from criticising sociology to explaining how researchers should actually go about… Continue reading Revisiting C. Wright Mills and the Sociological Imagination
Category: theory
In praise of theorising
[This entry supports a recent talk on the subject to research students] Over the last couple of years I became interested in theory and theorising in social research. I have done this not because I started with a great deal of confidence, or indeed background knowledge, of theory as a concept but, quite the reverse,… Continue reading In praise of theorising
social theory
For the past few months I have been working with academic and student researcher colleagues on a project to produce an online resource about social theory. It has raised design questions but the most interesting aspect of the exercise has been talking to academic colleagues (again academics and research students) about the role of theory… Continue reading social theory
Social Science and Difficulties With Theory
It is difficult for those not following the field to get the importance given to theory in social research; researchers are continually asked to be theoretical and to align themselves with a position of some sort or another. To be theoretical is to lift your research to a ‘higher plane’; to deal with the world… Continue reading Social Science and Difficulties With Theory
