0Jan 15th

Paradigm -What is paradigm? -Thomas Kuhn: “the structure of scientific revolution (1962) -he was interested in two things. He redefined the word “paradigm” to use in science -These paradigms I take to be universally recognized scientific achievements that for a time provide model problems and solutions to a community of practitioners. -Provide models (in law, theory, instrumentation, application) from which spring particular coherent traditions of scientific research. -Ex. Copernician revolution, Newtonian dynamic (new version of the world-the change of paradigm )

-Ex. Theory of light -today (in the 1960): light is photon. Ie. Quantum-mechanical entities( Planck Einstein) -In the 19th century, light was transverse wave motion (young and Fresnel ) -during the 18th century, light was material corpuscles (Newton) -in each case, research proceed accordingly

-Understanding assumptions -Ontological: what reality is -Epistemological: how to access to knowledge, how knowledge is defined -Define valid knowledge at a time- it is always link on social conventions. Knowledge is never pure knowledge. It is link to the time of what is the social context. -upon which, research problems and analysis are designed
(the questions that we asked are always link to the two term) -accepted view of science, of scientific knowledge at a time and scientific methods

-Competing paradigms -competing visions at any time -winner: never explain all the facts to which it is confronted but -Do the job more effectively, seems more promising recognized as an acute one. -More successful in solving a problem that is recognized as an acute one -becomes normal science (based on underlying accepted assumptions about reality and ways of acquiring knowledge) -Normal science and revolution -a paradigm is a promise predictions -normal science is not oriented towards new theories, new paradigm, conceptual novelties. -but towards the actualization of this promise, the fulfilment of the predictions of one paradigm (Kuhn) -(scientist are not looking for new paradigms, they want thing appear. They want to understand the new things with existing paradigm) -practitioners want to explores the many avenues of a paradigm -to verify the match between prediction and facts and -to establish its validity -explores in depth some problems and solve them

-Normal Science versus Revolution -paradigm define valid research problem, those which are assume to have a solution -those which are worth exploring -Practitioner aim at solving the problem (not discovering new paradigm) -Normal science thus produces many long lasting discoveries inside a paradigm (for instance electricity) -reject competing paradigms, competing knowledge based on a different paradigm can be quite intolerant -Those who do not fit the box are often not seen as all (Kuhn) -since normal science doesn’t aim at new theoretical, conceptual discoveries, how can those emerge? -at time, anomalies appear within a paradigm, many facts not taken into account/not explain by the paradigm surface -(they came up new theories to explain anomalies, which emerge new paradigm) -so numerous that they need to be accounted for -emergence of new paradigms. A scientific revolution (ex. Copernican view) -science is not about discovery. It is about to vilified the existing paradigm

Paradigm in social science research -Lincoln, Lyhnam &Guba (2011) editing of a previsions paper -coherence within a paradigm between: -Ontology: what is real -epistemology: how do we access knowledge -methodology: general approach to the research procedures used to conduct a research; tools (methods and technologies )

Positivism
Post-positivism
Critical theories et al
Constructionism/ interpretative stance
Post-modernism
Participatory research (don’t address this one)

Positivism
-credited to French sociologist, August Comte, 19th century
-Knowledge is based on facts
-science is the analysis and knowledge of verified facts
-will replace religious faith and belief
-dominant paradigm for a long time; still only valid to some sciences
-But based on previous philosophers -two important foundations -Rene Descartes: dualist/ dichotomous thought -Francis Bacon empiricism and importance of facts

-Positivism and dichotomous thought -a dualist or dichotomous thought (philosophical, religious) divides her object into two opposed components
-ex. Body and soul
-Already present in classical western thought (Greek Philosophers defined an opposition between body and soul)
-Modern influence by Rene Descartes

The Cartesian dichotomous thought
-Rene Descartes (French philosopher. 17th century) dualism between mind and body
-Body is associated with nature (biological dimension) mind with human spirit, cognitive faculties (cultural dimension )
-body, biology as nature obey to natural, objective laws
-mind, spirits are cultural, subjective

nature vs. culture body, biology, natural laws, objectivity mind, cognition, subjectivity
(Then create a hierarchy between them. To speak which one is more)
-Different sets of hierarchy between them: mind over body (famous cogito ergo sum : I think therefore I am) hence culture over nature (superiority of human over nature)

-Fancis Bacon empiricism
-Those who aspire not to guess and divine, but to discover and know, who propose not to devise mimic and fabulous worlds of their own but to examine and dissect the nature of this very world itself must go to the facts; themselves for everything
-based on facts
-against religion faith and belief

The Cartesian dichotomous thought
-radical epistemological turn in this Cartesian moment (associated with Descartes but which includes other philosophers)( ref: Michel Foucault)
-Prior to the Cartesian moment and since antiquity the access to knowledge (the philosophical truth) is possible through a spiritual journey. -ie. Spiritual practices (asceticism for instance) rites of purification and renunciation
-The philosopher aim at a spiritual elevation which will grant him access to the philosophical truth.
-he is part of the process to gain knowledge
-Cartesian rupture : the philosopher is no longer involved in the process of research
-he is eternal to it
-he applies a cognitive skills (mind) his reason to the process

-The dichotomous thought and science
-Descartes and bacon highly influential for the enlightenment in the 18th century in France and Grate Britain and then in the 19th century which witnesses the rises of social science( in the second half)

Positivism
-there is a real objective reality ( the nature) and subjective reality ( in human minds)
-science is about the ‘real’ objective reality, about facts that can be verified
-ontology: naïve realism (real reality visible through facts)
-Epistemology: researcher is outside the research process, he/she is neutral, objective, searching for objective truth
-Methodology: Appropriate objective methods give access to facts, the real reality (as opposed to subjective realities)

Positivism and social science
-social science is about social facts, the social logics underlying the social life (as opposed to and more important than individual experiences or meanings)
-social scientist must be neutral, objective and uses reason to deduce the social logics
January 20th * * Post-positivism * -(there is a reality, but it cant be studied completely objectively) * -ontology: critical realism * -there is a real reality out there, but impossible to grasp it perfectly * -epistemology: objectivity is the ideal, but difficult to achieve * -methodology: mixt * -contemporary: form of positivism * -(anthropology has never be positivism) * * Critical theories * -(and critical theory doesn’t mean the same thing) * -Critical Theory: Frankfurt school, in the 1920’ and 1930’ especially * -Max Horkheimen. T.W. Adorno, Herbert Marcuse and Walter Benjamin * -Critical of their time * -Questionings on the limit of knowledge * -Interdisciplinary research program inspired by historical materialism (In line with Marx’s thought) * * Marx-communism * -historical materialism ?? * * -critical sociology, social psychology f domination, art theory, critic of culure and modernity (they creates) * -Links with social movements of the 1960s and 1970s (ie. Decolonization, feminism) * -set of theories, including feminism and post-colonial studies which were critical of domination process * -Foucault: knowledge and power * (There is connection between power and knowledge, knowledge is influenced by the power, which is structure of society. It can not be pure) * -Knowledge is produced by the domination, and reflects domination. Eg, feminism. Knowledge is produced by men, and it reflects the global structure of domination.
Knowledge is made of discourses, which reflects various structure in the society. They can be competing with each others.

Critical Theories
-Scientific knowledge is embedded in domination and reflect the dominant’s point of view (western societies, men)
-Dominant points of views are crystallized in social, cultural, political and economical structure.
-ontology: processes (political, economical, social..)become real, a reality. Domination has become reality. The reality can change as time and culture changes.
-domination has became reality
(the reality of positivism is out there, but we cannot be objectively study it.
The reality of critical theory, the reality is domination)
-epistemology:
-no neutrality nor objectivity
-knowledge reflects a point of view, a standpoint
-non dualism: no separation with research objects which are actually subjects( endowed with subjectivity)
(in positivism and post-positivism, people are actually the objects. In critical theory, people are subject to research, the subjectivity is important. When you want to use a theory, you want to know the experience of the person. Then the researcher is also endowed with the subjectivity. The researcher’s experience is important to understand the experience of the person that is being studies. “Only women understand women”. The researcher could say who he/she is, they will tell the standpoint of themselves in the research)
-standpoint link with the social identity of the researcher
-intersubjectivity
-Methodology: qualitative
-aim at education, social changes and rise of consciousness

Constructivism/Interpretativism
-No objective reality, independent from humans.
-Reality is a construction, a representation or interpretation (it has practical side.it is made of experience, meaning, concert relationship…etc. all of these build the realiy of people)-reality is constructed based on different experience. It is different for different for individuals, cultures.
-Multiple “realities”
-Contradictions between constructions/representations/interpretation
-Constructions/interpretations are individual or collective, depending on social, political, economical, cultural contexts.
-Local and specific (against universal truth)
-Ontology: relativist
-No absolute truth, but relative truths
-Epistemology: transactional and subjectivist
-co-creating findings (encounters between the inquires and people in the research)
-researcher are no longer outside their research but part of it, of the co-construction
-still is the final author
-Methodology: qualitative
(the field of education is dominated by constructivism, they use both qualitative and quantitative methods. On the ontological level, they are constructivism. On epistemological level, they are positivism) * -key words: interpretation. Connecting the meaning to social world

Postmodernism
-born in the 1970’ in arts, then spread in social sciences and to sciences to some extent
-at his highest in the 1980s
-Ontology: radical (their position is radical.)
-there is no reality
-only fictions, more or less convincing discourses
-Multiples discourses, potentially contradictory
-the end of great theories era
-Deconstructions (look how truth and authorities and truth was build, then they deconstructed it)
-Partial truths there can only be partial truth)
-Epistemology: the research doesn’t talk about an external reality, but through who(s)he is
-Textual strategies: dialog, polyphony (one author in the report but try to have multiple voices in the report, without interpreting the different voices)
-Methodology: multisite research, texts analysis.

Selected Issues
-Inquirer posture
-positivism: distant and disinterested
-post-positivism: distant but interested in the results (ethical consideration, doesn’t want the result to be used against population)
-critical theories: activism and transformation
-constructivism: co-construction (author)
-post-modernism: author and co-author
-Results’ uses
-positivism: non relevant for researchers
-post-positivism: non relevant
-critical theories: aim at social changes
-constructivism: aim at social relevance * -post-modernism: social relevance for a specific time and context * -Relationships to foundations of truth and knowledge * -positivism: one truth, knowledge is the understanding of nature * -post-positivism: one reality but never fully grasped * -critical theories: fights against oppression, underlying oppressed people’s point of views * -constructivism: constructed truths, context-dependant * -postmodernism: fictions (constructed truths) * -Validity (consistency) * -positivism: paramount criteria is the quality of methodology; reproducibility.(importance of methodology; quality of the research is all in methodology. Validity of truth is when we have many researches finding the same results) * -post-positivism: in data which can be approximations of the real (predictability and quality of methodology) * -critical theories: when entail actions, social changes and emancipation (the research have a good result when it create social actions) * -constructivism: if it has meaning for at least group of people * -postmodernism: local relevance * * * Jan 22nd * * The debate between qualitative and quantitative methods. Quantitative is being accused for not being scientific. * * Qualitative or Quantitative? * -Heated debates in the past over the scientific validity of qualitative method (in connexion with paradigms) * -(Quantitative use the data to get the correlation, and they will say the correlation is social fact. No interpretation, no interference of meaning or anything. That’s way they say Quantitative method is more objective) * -Rise of qualitative methods in sciences, especially since the 1990s, not only in social sciences but also in the health field or education for instance. * -Both approaches complement each other * -Depend on what you want to achieve (see many examples in Silverman) * * Features of qualitative method * -lived experiences * -In concrete situations, settings * -importance of the meanings given by people * -in relation to a social, cultural, economical, political context * -best to answer questions such as ‘how’ instead of ‘how many’; ’why’ instead of ‘what’. * * What is the researcher doing in qualitative method? * (In quantitative method: start with question-data-analysis (SPSS software)-report) * -two ways of considering qualitative research * 1.same as the quantitative process, only difference in material (different in data) * 2.The researcher is applying techniques (approach, different in analysis) * -Huge difference with quantitative methods: actually it is doing a qualitative analysis (making meaning from what people said. Creating links. Interpretation can be different from what people said, because you put the information into context, then say this is how it make sense from my interpretation) * -Human analysis faculty is the essential tool * -the researcher is the main instrument of the research (reflective process) * * Qualitative analysis * -at any stage of the process * -Vastly dominated in our academic culture by language (equation between meaning and words) * -Hence the domination of interviewing as the main qualitative technique * -but other ways: experiences, bodily sensations, emotions.. * * Criteria of quality * -not only in the application of techniques * -but also in the capacity to reflect on what we are doing: reflexivity * -distinct from opinion * -chase prejudice * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Jan 29th
Question you need to answer when reading an article? -What is the question of research? -What is the theoretical framework? -What are the assumptions? -Can you recognize the paradigm in use? -What is the methodology? -What are the results? -What is the argumentation?

Lecture
-Main general approaches -deductive approach -inductive approach

-Deductive approach -Associated with quantitative research -Hypothesis-testing (see Hammersley p.10/ course pack page 26) -Use of numerical data -Procedural objectivity -Generalization (Sampling) -Identifying systematic patterns of association (the correlation between two factors) -Controlling variable -Transposition of hypothesis-testing to the qualitative research -Theory-driven/conceptually driven -Theory: abstract approximation/ model of the empirical reality; an explanation of what is going on -Concept refers to a specific phenomenon (eg, social mobility. Refer to the phenomenon of people from social group to another. Theory is to explain how)

-Ex: First Nations (FN)’ access to higher education (FNE)
-Statement: FN is under-represented in higher education
-Why is it s? Often translates into: What are the obstacles to FNE?
-Review of literature: identification of potential explanations, factors
-Economical, social, cultural (they don’t fit in white society, they are culturally different), geographical…
-Qualitative data
-Analyse interviews to abstract from them the content of each factor, to fit your pre-existent theoretical or conceptual framework (eg. When someone says when they get into the society, they can’t make friends or find a job. Which related to cultural and social obstacle.)
-Same general process as quantitative research but with qualitative data
-Clear process with identified steps. Reassuring
-(Start with theory/concept, then split concepts into factors which can be measured, such as social, cultural, economic.. etc. then you take what people said to fit into the factors)-

Inductive Approach * -Data-driven process * -Ex: Continuity of health and social services in Quebec * -2000s reform in Health * -One responsible organization of each territory: CSSS * -Services: identification and hierarchy * -Availability, accessibility of services * -Continuity of services * -(In the health reform Quebec gives the responsibility of health service to the organization called CSSS. In order to do so, the organization creates hierarchy (line) within different faculties, such as hospital, rehabilitation centre. SASS has to make sure the health services is available to people and accessible. SASS has to ensure the continuity of services, there should be some one who is responsible for diagnosis, and someone is responsible for referring to specialists. How people circulating from different lines that is the continuity concept. However, the patients care more about the continuity of their relationship with the specialists. They don’t want to tell their stories every time they got circulate to other line. The Interview in this case didn’t get answer; they don’t want to answer the answer the researcher asks. It means your theory is not relevant to the people you want to interview) * -you will start with literatures and theory, then you use the theory you ask question. When you realize that your theory and question is not answered by the people, in other words, the questions is not relevant to their experience, them you will have to change your questions. You will have to change you theory based on the information you collect from people. * -Don’t stick to the concept; follow the lead that people give to the researcher. * * -Follow people’s experiences, meanings * -Forget/Bracket for a while your own theoretical and conceptual framework * -Build a new framework adapted to people’s experiences, meanings and connections between them * -General inductive approach theorised in sociology by Strauss and Glazer as the ‘grounded theory’ * -Theory is data-driven * -Movement from theory/concept to empirical theory and back to new or adjusted abstractions * -Iteration: no longer a linear process, back and forth * * Quality of Iterative qualitative research * -Not in the strick application of a protocol of research * -In the capacity to adjust your project * -To plunge in the complexity of real lived-life * -To question at each stage if you understand properly * -Not only an intellectual, logical activity; requires sensibility * (The sensibility to allow people to trust you, and let you get into their lives. ) * -Responsibility toward people, not to betray them * (If people trust you tell you their secret, you have the responsibility to not to betray them) * -To be reflexive about what you are doing * (Researcher and the analysis can also create meaning.) * * * Feb 3rd * * * -Relevance of the question/problem * -Not all questions are research questions * -Fundamental (aiming at providing general knowledge, to understand social phenomenon broadly)/ Applied /Utilitarian（lose connection to theory, more about practical solution to specific problem) ’ research. (There is no difference between applied and utilitarian in nature, they are different in term of degree). * -What is a relevant question/problem of research? * -Social relevance (distinct form utility) : social relevance means dealing with serious social issues, not to solving specific issue for specific people * -Scientific relevance * -allows you to dig deep (when it is relevant,, it allows you to dig deep social phenomenon. Deep means underlying phenomenon) * -requires intellectual sharpness and sensibility (to design good questions) * * -A workable question * -Organize the project and give it direction and coherence * -Delimit the project, showing its boundaries * -keep the researcher focussed * -points to the methods and data that will be needed ( method come after the research problem) * -Weigh deep social logics against a workable, realistic question (narrow down the question. How to narrow down the question to get both deep social logic and workable questions) –ask the question about the important factor in their lives. * -Workable, narrowed down question, not to be confused with a limited question * * Keys * -Don’t cut through people’s connections (don’t miss important connection people make) * -Don’t limit yourself to one dimension unless you know it is extremely important and others are already well-developed * -Aim at social logics/trends beyond individuals even through a narrow case * -Narrow down your question through other means (limited group...) * * To operationalize the concepts * * Feb 10th * Literature Review 10-12 pages due Feb. 24th * -not to demonstrate your own ideas. * - * Feb 12th * -To operationalize the concepts * -Concept versus empirical phenomenon * -how does it manifest itself in concrete lives? * -to operationalize: from abstraction to empirical realities * -Philosophy express or define (something) in terms of the operations used to determine or prove it ( how is this concept manifested in real life) * -Quantitative and qualitative * * Feb 26th * Semi-structured interview * -Guide of interview: * -Depends on your concepts’ operationalization * -Opening up question * -Few leading questions * -Follow-up questions * -Verification questions * * Set of questions. For each set of questions, there should be a systematic way of questioning( financial, family, professional, personal, psychological, physical…) * -background * -mindset-how-why * -now- current experience from different aspects * -future-influence *