Social sciences
Question 1
Up until this point we have talked about larger more abstract concepts and challenges to social science research. This week I want to get a bit more concrete.
When reading social science research on almost any topic you will find descriptions of how people vary based on demographic characteristics. The Characteristics that frequently show the most difference, particularly in the U.S., are sex and race. Other common demographic characteristics are age, income, and education.
There are almost always racial or ethnic differences in outcomes in social science research. These differences are socially important and speak to larger social issues of poverty, prejudice, and racism.
However race does not actually exist- there is no genetic race, it is a social construct.
When talking about race and social research there are many viewpoints on what should or should not be done in regards to using race in social science research. There are two main issues- how to categorize race when we use it and if we should use race as a characteristic at all.
Issue 1- how to categorize race
There are many that argue the current categories that we use do not fully reflect the diversity of the population and what we really need is more categories. This would help us more accurately understand differences in the population. Some argue that we should not use race at all but rather ethnicity or region of birth (however others argue that ethnicity and region of birth may not capture the same information as race)
Others argue that the main problem is that people don’t understand the categories and we need to make categories that more accurately reflect how people self identify (of course the challenge with that is that the way people identify changes over time and across geography).
Still others argue that we need to keep a relatively few categories of race- otherwise our samples become too small to say anything meaningful about differences (particularly statistically significant differences) and we are unable to really do good research without a few categories.
Issue 2-
Since race is socially constructed there are those that argue that we should not use it at all because it is arbitrarily assigned by social norms and not objectively real.
There are still others that argue we live in a post-race world and therefore we should not use race as a category.
Some even argue that using race as an explanation or distinction is racist and tantamount to blaming the victim. For example- here are 2 facts that we can find over and over again in research Single mothers are more likely to be poor compared to mothers with a partner. Black women are more likely to be poor. Critics say that research that uses race has the effect of producing ideas that blame people in minority groups for their circumstances- in the case above research finds that poverty is highly related to single parenthood and Blacks are more likely to be poor- so in essence single motherhood is less likely to be causing poverty as poverty is to be causing single motherhood. Since Blacks are more likely to be poor due to discrimination, geographic location and other factors they are more at risk for single motherhood.
However others will argue that because we still see wide disparity even in the categories we have, as imperfect as they are, we still have need to study those differences.
Some researchers claim that by removing race categories from study we would mask important differences that people experience due to inequalities in society and without being able to measure those differences we would be unable to change those circumstances.
What is your take on these two issues? More generally what do you think are the challenges and need for racial categories?
Question 2
Read
Knowledge base design section (all 8 topics) optionally you may read the foundations sampling and measurement sections.
Social research methods knowledge base design section
boundless- determining the research design
What is a research design and why is it important?
What are the elements of a good research design?
In the knowledge base reading there are 4 basic elements in a research design-take your research topic- what design would be best for your topic? Explain each of the 4 basic elements for your design/ Ask for help if you are stuck.
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