Julie Zahle
Biographic Data
| ID | 1014617 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Julie Zahle |
| GIVEN NAMES | Julie |
| FAMILY NAME | Zahle |
| SIGNATURE | ZAHLE J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Bergen |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2109-761X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 61 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 18 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Objectivity in social research
Bias and Debiasing Strategies in Qualitative Data Collection
A widespread view has it that qualitative research in the social sciences is of poor quality because it lacks effective debiasing methods. In this paper, I zoom in on researcher bias in qualitative data collection. First, I provide a brief outline of qualitative data collection and develop a suitable account of bias. On that basis, I argue that qualitative researchers may mitigate researcher bias through the combined use of two strategies that ca…
Are ABM explanations in the social sciences inevitably individualist
Agent-based models (ABMs) are increasingly important in social science research. They have two obvious apparent virtues: they can model complex macrosociological phenomena without strong assumptions about agents and without analytic solutions for models, and they seem to instantiate the methodological individualist program in a concrete way. We argue that the latter claim is false. After providing schematic accounts of ABM models and a first intr…
Limits to levels in the methodological individualism–holism debate
Objective data sets in qualitative research
Qualitative researchers sometimes talk about objectivity in relation to qualitative data sets. In this paper, I defend a reconstructed notion of objective qualitative data sets that may serve as a useful and reachable guiding ideal in qualitative data generation. In the first part of the paper, I develop the ideal. According to it, a qualitative data set is objective to the extent that it, in conjunction with true assumptions, possesses a combina…
The Epistemic Role of Science and Expertise in Liberal Democracy
A common argument for the Classical View trades on the distinction between facts and values. Science should only make assertions in matters where it has a special epistemic authority. Science will accept a role of the neutral arbiter of facts, but not if its epistemic authority is constantly attacked for political reasons. H. M. Collins and R. Evans pressed the different charge that science studies reveal that there is no justification for thinki…
Why be a methodological individualist
Data, epistemic values, and multiple methods in case study research
Case study research in the social sciences
Values and Data Collection in Social Research
In this article, I offer a partial analysis of the role of values in qualitative data collection in social research. The partial analysis shows that nonepistemic values have both required and permissible roles to play during this phase of research. By appeal to the analysis, I reject the ideal of value-free science as applied to qualitative data collection, and I demonstrate why two alternative ideals should likewise be dismissed as standards for…
Methodological Anti-naturalism, Norms, and Participant Observation
This chapter discusses a brief presentation of the research technique of participant observation. It examines various proposals as to how the anti-naturalist may specify the notion of method when defending her position. One main motivation for engaging in the methodological naturalism debate has been a concern with the scientific status of the social sciences. The view has consequences for the significance assigned to the methodological naturalis…
Methodological Holism
Methodological holism is the view that social(‐level), macro(level), or holist explanations, as they are variously called, should be offered within the social sciences. This entry discusses different ways in which this position has been elaborated and some of the arguments offered in its support
Rethinking the Individualism-Holism Debate
Practices and the Direct Perception of Normative States
The overall aim of this two-part paper is to provide a supplement to ability theories of practice in terms of a defense of the following thesis: Individuals’ ability to act appropriately sometimes depends on their exercise of the ability directly to perceive normative states. In part I, I presented the account of direct perception. In this part II, I argue that, by the lights of this account, normative states are sometimes directly perceptible. A…
How to Circumscribe Individualist Explanations
In “Redescription, Reduction, and Emergence: A Response to Tobias Hansson Wahlberg,” Elder-Vass takes the opportunity to reply to my criticism of his theory in “Holism, Emergence, and the Crucial Distinction.” In this response, I show how methodological individualists may respond to his argument against their position and I argue that Elder-Vass fails to provide reasons as to why his particular distinction between individualist and holist explana…
Participant Observation and Objectivity in Anthropology
Practices and the Direct Perception of Normative States
The overall aim of this two-part article is to provide a supplement to ability theories of practice in terms of a defense of the following thesis: In situations of social interaction, individuals’ ability to act appropriately sometimes depends on their exercise of the ability directly to perceive normative states. In this Part I, I introduce ability theories of practice and motivate my thesis. Furthermore, I offer an analysis of normative states …
Practical Knowledge and Participant Observation
An important strand of theories of practice stress that individuals' practical knowledge, i.e., their ability to act in appropriate and/or effective ways, is mainly tacit. This means that the social scientist cannot find out about this knowledge by simply asking the individuals she studies to articulate how it is appropriate and/or effective to act in various circumstances. In this paper, I pursue the proposal that the method of participant obser…
The Individualism-Holism Debate on Intertheoretic Reduction and the Argument from Multiple Realization
The argument from multiple realization is currently considered the argument against intertheoretic reduction. Both Little and Kincaid have applied the argument to the individualism-holism debate in support of the antireductionist holist position. The author shows that the tenability of the argument, as applied to the individualism-holism debate, hinges on the descriptive constraints imposed on the individualist position. On a plausible formulatio…
The Individualism-Holism Debate on Intertheoretic Reduction and the Argument from Multiple Realization
The argument from multiple realization is currently considered the argument against intertheoretic reduction. Both Little and Kincaid have applied the argument to the individualism-holism debate in support of the antireductionist holist position. The author shows that the tenability of the argument, as applied to the individualism-holism debate, hinges on the descriptive constraints imposed on the individualist position. On a plausible formulatio…
Why be a methodological individualist
Practical Knowledge and Participant Observation
An important strand of theories of practice stress that individuals' practical knowledge, i.e., their ability to act in appropriate and/or effective ways, is mainly tacit. This means that the social scientist cannot find out about this knowledge by simply asking the individuals she studies to articulate how it is appropriate and/or effective to act in various circumstances. In this paper, I pursue the proposal that the method of participant obser…
Limits to levels in the methodological individualism–holism debate
Objective data sets in qualitative research
Qualitative researchers sometimes talk about objectivity in relation to qualitative data sets. In this paper, I defend a reconstructed notion of objective qualitative data sets that may serve as a useful and reachable guiding ideal in qualitative data generation. In the first part of the paper, I develop the ideal. According to it, a qualitative data set is objective to the extent that it, in conjunction with true assumptions, possesses a combina…
Case study research in the social sciences
Values and Data Collection in Social Research
In this article, I offer a partial analysis of the role of values in qualitative data collection in social research. The partial analysis shows that nonepistemic values have both required and permissible roles to play during this phase of research. By appeal to the analysis, I reject the ideal of value-free science as applied to qualitative data collection, and I demonstrate why two alternative ideals should likewise be dismissed as standards for…
Methodological Holism
Methodological holism is the view that social(‐level), macro(level), or holist explanations, as they are variously called, should be offered within the social sciences. This entry discusses different ways in which this position has been elaborated and some of the arguments offered in its support
Bias and Debiasing Strategies in Qualitative Data Collection
A widespread view has it that qualitative research in the social sciences is of poor quality because it lacks effective debiasing methods. In this paper, I zoom in on researcher bias in qualitative data collection. First, I provide a brief outline of qualitative data collection and develop a suitable account of bias. On that basis, I argue that qualitative researchers may mitigate researcher bias through the combined use of two strategies that ca…
Are ABM explanations in the social sciences inevitably individualist
Agent-based models (ABMs) are increasingly important in social science research. They have two obvious apparent virtues: they can model complex macrosociological phenomena without strong assumptions about agents and without analytic solutions for models, and they seem to instantiate the methodological individualist program in a concrete way. We argue that the latter claim is false. After providing schematic accounts of ABM models and a first intr…
Data, epistemic values, and multiple methods in case study research
How to Circumscribe Individualist Explanations
In “Redescription, Reduction, and Emergence: A Response to Tobias Hansson Wahlberg,” Elder-Vass takes the opportunity to reply to my criticism of his theory in “Holism, Emergence, and the Crucial Distinction.” In this response, I show how methodological individualists may respond to his argument against their position and I argue that Elder-Vass fails to provide reasons as to why his particular distinction between individualist and holist explana…
The Individualism-Holism Debate on Intertheoretic Reduction and the Argument from Multiple Realization
The argument from multiple realization is currently considered the argument against intertheoretic reduction. Both Little and Kincaid have applied the argument to the individualism-holism debate in support of the antireductionist holist position. The author shows that the tenability of the argument, as applied to the individualism-holism debate, hinges on the descriptive constraints imposed on the individualist position. On a plausible formulatio…
Practical Knowledge and Participant Observation
An important strand of theories of practice stress that individuals' practical knowledge, i.e., their ability to act in appropriate and/or effective ways, is mainly tacit. This means that the social scientist cannot find out about this knowledge by simply asking the individuals she studies to articulate how it is appropriate and/or effective to act in various circumstances. In this paper, I pursue the proposal that the method of participant obser…
Participant Observation and Objectivity in Anthropology
Practices and the Direct Perception of Normative States
The overall aim of this two-part article is to provide a supplement to ability theories of practice in terms of a defense of the following thesis: In situations of social interaction, individuals’ ability to act appropriately sometimes depends on their exercise of the ability directly to perceive normative states. In this Part I, I introduce ability theories of practice and motivate my thesis. Furthermore, I offer an analysis of normative states …
Rethinking the Individualism-Holism Debate
Practices and the Direct Perception of Normative States
The overall aim of this two-part paper is to provide a supplement to ability theories of practice in terms of a defense of the following thesis: Individuals’ ability to act appropriately sometimes depends on their exercise of the ability directly to perceive normative states. In part I, I presented the account of direct perception. In this part II, I argue that, by the lights of this account, normative states are sometimes directly perceptible. A…
How to Circumscribe Individualist Explanations
In “Redescription, Reduction, and Emergence: A Response to Tobias Hansson Wahlberg,” Elder-Vass takes the opportunity to reply to my criticism of his theory in “Holism, Emergence, and the Crucial Distinction.” In this response, I show how methodological individualists may respond to his argument against their position and I argue that Elder-Vass fails to provide reasons as to why his particular distinction between individualist and holist explana…
Methodological Anti-naturalism, Norms, and Participant Observation
This chapter discusses a brief presentation of the research technique of participant observation. It examines various proposals as to how the anti-naturalist may specify the notion of method when defending her position. One main motivation for engaging in the methodological naturalism debate has been a concern with the scientific status of the social sciences. The view has consequences for the significance assigned to the methodological naturalis…
Methodological Holism
Methodological holism is the view that social(‐level), macro(level), or holist explanations, as they are variously called, should be offered within the social sciences. This entry discusses different ways in which this position has been elaborated and some of the arguments offered in its support
Values and Data Collection in Social Research
In this article, I offer a partial analysis of the role of values in qualitative data collection in social research. The partial analysis shows that nonepistemic values have both required and permissible roles to play during this phase of research. By appeal to the analysis, I reject the ideal of value-free science as applied to qualitative data collection, and I demonstrate why two alternative ideals should likewise be dismissed as standards for…
The Epistemic Role of Science and Expertise in Liberal Democracy
A common argument for the Classical View trades on the distinction between facts and values. Science should only make assertions in matters where it has a special epistemic authority. Science will accept a role of the neutral arbiter of facts, but not if its epistemic authority is constantly attacked for political reasons. H. M. Collins and R. Evans pressed the different charge that science studies reveal that there is no justification for thinki…
Why be a methodological individualist
Data, epistemic values, and multiple methods in case study research
Case study research in the social sciences
Limits to levels in the methodological individualism–holism debate
Objective data sets in qualitative research
Qualitative researchers sometimes talk about objectivity in relation to qualitative data sets. In this paper, I defend a reconstructed notion of objective qualitative data sets that may serve as a useful and reachable guiding ideal in qualitative data generation. In the first part of the paper, I develop the ideal. According to it, a qualitative data set is objective to the extent that it, in conjunction with true assumptions, possesses a combina…
Are ABM explanations in the social sciences inevitably individualist
Agent-based models (ABMs) are increasingly important in social science research. They have two obvious apparent virtues: they can model complex macrosociological phenomena without strong assumptions about agents and without analytic solutions for models, and they seem to instantiate the methodological individualist program in a concrete way. We argue that the latter claim is false. After providing schematic accounts of ABM models and a first intr…
Objectivity in social research
Bias and Debiasing Strategies in Qualitative Data Collection
A widespread view has it that qualitative research in the social sciences is of poor quality because it lacks effective debiasing methods. In this paper, I zoom in on researcher bias in qualitative data collection. First, I provide a brief outline of qualitative data collection and develop a suitable account of bias. On that basis, I argue that qualitative researchers may mitigate researcher bias through the combined use of two strategies that ca…
Epistemology (18 works) · Sociology (17 works) · Philosophy (16 works) · Political science (9 works) · Social science (9 works) · Law (8 works) · Psychology (8 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice (6 works) · Economics (6 works)