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History of qualitative research:. (a) qualitative research methods not new. (b) scholars at the Chicago school (1892-1918) considered statistical methods & analysis “unsociological.”. Turn of 20 th century:. (a) a period of great social change, e.g., “applied sociology.”
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History of qualitative research: • (a) qualitative research methods not new. • (b) scholars at the Chicago school (1892-1918) considered statistical methods & analysis “unsociological.”
Turn of 20th century: • (a) a period of great social change, e.g., “applied sociology.” • (b) “social survey movement” in both Europe & U.S.—documenting & analyzing social problems, especially among working class and poor. • (c) examples: Frederick LePlay—French working class families; Pittsburg Study (1907)—lives of working poor, etc.
During the same time period • Anthropologists moving to field to gather first-hand data. • Scholars like: Bronislaw Malinowski and Hortene Powermaker (Lesu field study—an island in the Pacific).
Sociology at the University of Chicago in 1920s & 1930s: • Contributed to qualitative study in two ways: (1) Humanistic orientation—in-depth case studies, field methodology (participant observation). • Example: William Foote Whyte--Street CornerSociety (1943a, 1955, 1981). Italian Americans—North End of Boston. • (2) Theoretical perspective of symbolic interactionism, scholars like George Herbert Mead, Robert Park, and W.I. Thomas theorem: “if a man defines a situation as real, it is real in its consequences.” subjective meanings important in understanding human behavior.
1930s-1950s: • Low point—a methodological paradigm shift to quantitative. • Qualitative studies criticized as “soft.”
Renewed interest 1960s-present: • Social upheavals • Theoretical developments, e.g., Dramaturgy, phenomenology, ethnomethodology, labeling theory, etc.
