Repositioning Documents in Social Research

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2321834
AutoresL Prior (0000-0001-9903-5841, Queen's University Belfast, autor de correspondencia)
Año2008
Volumen42
Número5
Páginas821-836
Fecha de publicación2008-10-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaSociology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0038-0385 • E-ISSN: 1469-8684
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0038038508094564
OpenAlexW2160663868
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas131
Referencias citadas28

In matters of social research sociologists and other social scientists have tended to view documents primarily as sources of evidence and as receptacles of inert content.The key strategies for data exploration have consequently been associated with various styles of content or thematic analysis. Even when discourse analysis has been recommended, there has been a marked tendency to deal with records, files, and the like, primarily as containers - things to be read, understood, and categorized. In this article, however, the author seeks to demonstrate that by focussing on the functioning of documents instead of content, sociology can embrace a much wider range of approaches to both data collection and analysis. Indeed, the adoption of such a programme encourages researchers to see documents as active agents in the world, and to view documentation as a key component of dynamic networks rather than as a set of static and immutable 'things

Content (measure theory) · Content analysis · Data collection · Data science · Documentation · Epistemology · Key (lock) · Political science · Public relations · Qualitative research · Set (abstract data type) · Social science · Sociology · Thematic analysis · Computational and Text Analysis Methods · Computer Science · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics · Social Media and Politics