Imaginative Methodologies in the Social Sciences
eBook - ePub

Imaginative Methodologies in the Social Sciences

Creativity, Poetics and Rhetoric in Social Research

Michael Hviid Jacobsen, Michael S. Drake, Anders Petersen

Share book
  1. 288 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Imaginative Methodologies in the Social Sciences

Creativity, Poetics and Rhetoric in Social Research

Michael Hviid Jacobsen, Michael S. Drake, Anders Petersen

Book details
Book preview
Table of contents
Citations

About This Book

Imaginative Methodologies in the Social Sciences develops, expands and challenges conventional social scientific methodology and language by way of literary, poetic and other alternative sources of inspiration, as sociologists, social workers, anthropologists, criminologists and psychologists all rethink, provoke and reignite social scientific methodology. Challenging the mainstream orthodoxy of social scientific methodology, which closely guards the boundaries between the social sciences and the arts and humanities, this volume reveals that authors and artists are often engaged in projects parallel to those of the social sciences and vice versa, thus demonstrating that artistic and cultural production does not necessarily constitute a specialist field, but is in fact integral to social reality. As such, it will be of interest to scholars and students in the social sciences and across the arts and humanities working on the philosophy of social science, methodology, social theory, creativity, poetics, pedagogy and other related topics.

Frequently asked questions

How do I cancel my subscription?
Simply head over to the account section in settings and click on “Cancel Subscription” - it’s as simple as that. After you cancel, your membership will stay active for the remainder of the time you’ve paid for. Learn more here.
Can/how do I download books?
At the moment all of our mobile-responsive ePub books are available to download via the app. Most of our PDFs are also available to download and we're working on making the final remaining ones downloadable now. Learn more here.
What is the difference between the pricing plans?
Both plans give you full access to the library and all of Perlego’s features. The only differences are the price and subscription period: With the annual plan you’ll save around 30% compared to 12 months on the monthly plan.
What is Perlego?
We are an online textbook subscription service, where you can get access to an entire online library for less than the price of a single book per month. With over 1 million books across 1000+ topics, we’ve got you covered! Learn more here.
Do you support text-to-speech?
Look out for the read-aloud symbol on your next book to see if you can listen to it. The read-aloud tool reads text aloud for you, highlighting the text as it is being read. You can pause it, speed it up and slow it down. Learn more here.
Is Imaginative Methodologies in the Social Sciences an online PDF/ePUB?
Yes, you can access Imaginative Methodologies in the Social Sciences by Michael Hviid Jacobsen, Michael S. Drake, Anders Petersen in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Sociology. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Publisher
Routledge
Year
2017
ISBN
9781317118688
Subtopic
Sociology
Edition
1

PART I
Reading

Chapter 1
Chicago Vice and Virtue: The Poetic Imagination Meets the Sociological Imagination

Michael Hviid Jacobsen, Rasmus Antoft and Anja JĂžrgensen
We don't give a damn for logic around here. What we want to know is what people do!
Robert E. Park

Introduction: The Art of Sociology

There can be little doubt that one of the most influential currents in the early and formative years of sociology, as well as through most of the 20th century, has been the sociological tradition evolving at the University of Chicago in the late 1900s and early 20th centuty. The hallmark of this tradition, to be presented in more detail below, was its combination of a unique perspective on how to practice sociology and a unique style of communicating sociological knowledge. Over the years, the Chicago School of Sociology has been subject to many and varied interpretations and evaluations. However, it is a fact that the Chicago School strongly emphasized the importance of venturing out into the empirical reality to explore it there. And although most tend to associate the Chicago School with primarily qualitative methods like observations, interviews or analysis of diaries and letters (Kurtz 1984: 84ff), there was in fact a considerable interest in using quantitative data in the Chicago School as well (Piatt 1995). Thus, the Chicago School was a positivistic-naturalistic science preoccupied with fieldwork and direct observation, as well as a creative, artistic and poetically inspired tradition, which in addition to its emphasis on empirical fieldwork, argued in favour of as well as practiced a more literary approach to sociology. Martin Bulmer said about diis inherent duality:
[All the Chicago sociologists were] in some ways empiricists, keen upon the use of hypotheses and experimental verification ... Axioms, postulates, rational deductions, ideas and ideals are all deemed valuable when they can be made to function in actual experience, in the course of which they meet with constant modification and improvement ... All display the attitude of enquirers rather than of expositors of absolute knowledge; their most confident affirmations are expressed in a tone that shows that they do not regard them as final.
(quoted in Bulmer 1984: 32)
Another characteristic of the Chicago School was. and still is, its emphasis on understanding and writing - and especially communicating - sociology in a way that unites communicative and analytical aspects in a unique stylistic, aesthetic and poetic text format not merely as superficial embellishment of the text, but actually being a 'hybridization' of sociological and literary imagination (Toscano 2008: 201). Referring specifically to the Chicago School sociologist Harvey Warren Zorbaugh's book The Gold Coast and the Slum. Andrew Abbott remarked on the effect such a work may have on the reader:
He [Zorbaugh] rather looks at a social situation, feels its overpowering excitement and its deeply affecting human complexity, and then writes a book trying to awaken those feelings in the minds - and even more the hearts - of his readers. This recreation of an experience of social discovery is what I shall here call lyrical sociology.
(Abbott 2007: 70)
This description - and the term 'lyrical sociology' - more or less sums up the hallmark of so many of the other Chicago School sociologists, explaining their unparalleled ability to portray and communicate human conditions in such a way that their readers feel and truly comprehend the research findings presented. That this was in fact an ability characteristic of the Chicago School of Sociology was also the conclusion that Carla Cappetti arrived at in her book Writing Chicago (1993). in which she describes the origins of the Chicago School of Sociology with particular emphasis on the various 'extra-scientific' sources of inspiration that many of the early Chicago School sociologists relied on and were influenced by. In fact, much of early sociology was inspired by literature and journalism, and this is particularly true of many of the Chicago School sociologists (Strong 1988/2006: 119ff).
Obviously, sociology did not begin with the Chicago School of Sociology, even though the School is often regarded as the launch-pad of institutionalized sociology. At least half a centuiy before the foundation of the department of Sociology at the University of Chicago in 1892 - that is. in the early and mid-1800s - sociology was already beginning to establish itself as an academic discipline in Europe. But the seeds of sociology can be traced even further back. One of the characteristics of very early sociological reasoning was that, contrary to what later turned into sociology, it had no qualms about manifesting its scientific status by relying on a wide variety of inspirational sources (White 1975). Karl Marx, for instance, often turned to Honore de Balzac. Emile Zola. Bernard Mandeville. Charles Dickens and other great contemporary writers for inspiration. Also Emile Durkheim used literary sources as inspiration in his studies of suicide; Georg Simmel's writing style was clearly inspired by contemporary essayists, and Max Weber was well versed in the literary works of his day and drew inspiration for his ideal types from the way novelists were able to capture their fictional universes. In his book Between Literature and Science, Wolf Lepenies (1988) analyses the budding sociology as a hybrid between science and literature, describing the delicate balancing act that the emerging scientific discipline sociology had to perforin:
From the moment of its inception sociology became both a competitor and a counterpart of literature. On the one hand, when sociology desired to be sociography it came into conflict above all with the realistic novel over the claim to offer an adequate reproduction of the 'prose of everyday circumstances'; when, on the other, it claimed to be social theoiy it incurred the suspicion of degenerating into a 'closet' science.
(Lepenies 1988: 12-13)
Robert E. Park, one of the most central figures of the Chicago School, whom we will return to later in the chapter, commented on the debt owed by many of the early Chicago School sociologists to literary writers: 'We were particularly indebted to the novelists for our intimate knowledge of contemporary urban life; but understanding urban life requires a far more distanced and investigative attitude than what Emile Zola has to offer in his 'experimental' novels' (Park 1915/1974: 3). Park also said it was reading Goethe's Faust that inspired him to study sociology, and later in life he developed a keen interest in the works of Walt Whitman. So. in a way literature and early sociology were Siamese twins as well competitors - a source of initial inspiration and a distant relative, but not immediate family.
Just as many have sought to trace and map sociology's literary beginnings (Irving 1983; Lepenies 1988: Nisbet 1976/2002), over the years others have pointed out that social science and journalism are two disciplines whose paths have often crossed and enriched each other (Lindner 1996; Marx 1972; Schudson 2003; Svith 2006; Zelizer 2004). Some of the best sociologists display a decidedly journalistic flair in their style of communicating, while some of the best journalists base their work on sociological concepts and methodology. Just think of GĂŒnther Wallraff. the archetypical investigative journalist; his approach basically involves using conventional sociological methods to explore conventional sociological themes. Park, who had a background in journalism, used to recommend his sociology students to use their senses and 'write down only what you see. hear and know, like a newspaper reporter' (Park in Cappetti 1993: 24).
In this chapter we will demonstrate how the poetic imagination stemming from the Chicago School's reliance on literature and journalism for inspiration can be traced across several generations of Chicago sociologists, and how the intersecting circles of sociology, journalism and literature have resulted in the unique way in which Chicago sociology is practiced and communicated, which justifies its lasting impact on and relevance to contemporary sociology.

The 'Chicago School' and Chicago Poetics

Before presenting a number of specific examples of the poetic sense of the Chicago School of sociology, we would like to give a brief outline of the origins of the Chicago School, the persons behind it and what it stood for. Starting with the term itself, the 'Chicago School', it needs to be pointed out that the term is often used as an umbrella for a number of social scientists who. linked through their association with the University of Chicago, produced a wide range of empirically-based urban studies of Chicago and its inhabitants during the period of its urban expansion from the 1890s up through the first half of the 20th century. It was in Chicago that Albion W. Small (1854-1926) in 1892 opened the world's first department of sociology, and it was here that the sociologists carried out their studies on social conditions in the following decades. The 'Chicago School of Sociology' is sometimes referred to as the 'School of Human Ecology' because it aimed to study and understand people in relation to and as conditioned by their physical surroundings; also, several of the Chicago sociologists were interested in evolutionary thinking. Some of the most important members of the Chicago School tradition include Louis Wirth (1854-1926). William I. Thomas (1863-1947). Robert E. Park (1864-1944), Ernest W. Burgess (1886-1966). Florian Znaniecki (1892-1958) and Everett C. Hughes (1897-1983). In addition. George Herbert Mead (1863-1931). Erving Goffman (1922-1982) and later Howard S. Becker (b. 1928) must be included as some of the outstanding sociologists who found inspiration in and later contributed substantially to the development of the Chicago School (Andersson 2003: Bulmer 1984; Harvey 1987; Tomasi 1998).
The starting point for most of the sociology practised at Chicago School was a perception that sociological knowledge should make a difference and have practical consequences. Many of the early sociologists were inspired by pragmatic philosophy, just as many of them were deeply involved in voluntaiy social work. The most important works from the early Chicago School include The Polish Peasant in Europe and America (1918-1920) by Thomas and Znaniecki, and The City (1925) by Park and Burgess. Chicago sociologists also conducted research into alcoholism, gambling, homelessness, suicide, homicide, leisure, poverty and immigration into the big city - generally speaking, they were mainly interested in exploring deviancy and differentness. After the Second World War. a 'Second Chicago School' of researchers emerged, who. from a starting point primarily in symbolic interactionism, continued and further developed the Chicago School perspective in sociology. In general, the Chicago School is characterized by having a distinct qualitative and ethnographic orientation, focusing on studying people in their natural surroundings (the city), being critical of non-empirical research and theory, and being driven by a desire to uncover and understand patterns of human interaction. There are different strands within the Chicago School: the human ecology strand, the (dis)organization strand, the social psychology strand, and the action research strand used especially within social work (Jorgensen 2005). Thus, it would seem relevant to ask whether the Chicago School was. in fact, one school. since the scope of the work that the Chicago sociologists were involved in seems to indicate a high degree of internal heterogeneity, despite some overlap and shared platforms. According to Howard S. Becker (2003). the Chicago School should not be seen as an institutionalized school, but rather as an 'activity group' sharing a specific mind-set and certain research interests. This is also how we understand the Chicago School in this chapter: a shared mind-set spanning several generations of sociologists associated for a shorter or longer period with the University of Chicago, and not as a firmly rooted paradigm.
One of the characteristics of the work of the Chicago School sociologists was their methodological openness towards a diversity of documentary material: letters, diaries, newspaper articles, various statistical materials and transcripts from courtrooms, associations and organizations, as well as autobiographies, literary and other types of fiction and poetry (Cappetti 1993: 22-3). The Chicago School sociologists let themselves be inspired by journalism, literature and literary criticism, treating these sources as supplements to their sociological knowledge. As Carla Cappetti noted: 'Beneath their [the Chicago sociologists'] scholarly practice lay the perception that sociological life history and literary autobiography, sociology and literature, belong on the same continuum rather than separate spheres' (Cappetti 1993: 31). As the opening quotation of this chapter by Robert E. Park reveals, the main purpose of the Chicago School was not to develop a highly abstract logic about social life but rather to assist in understanding what people actually do.
In short, the Chicago School sociologists were interested in anything that might give them an insight into human life, without religiously swearing by the dogmatic rules on legitimate source material. Another characteristic of these sociologists was fact that they often looked outside their own discipline to find inspiration for their analyses. To give a few examples: Thomas was originally a teacher of classical and modem languages. Park worked as a journalist. Robert Redfield had poetic aspirations and wrote novels. Becker cultivated his jazz career alongside sociology. Herbert Blumer used to be a professional American football player, while Goffman originally worked in the Canadian film industry. All in all. this should give an idea of the multifaceted creativity and variety of inspiration from all walks of life that these sociologists brought with them into their research into sociology. Moreover, there was an open-minded tradition for and fascination among many of these sociologists to mingle and socialize with a variety of literary Chicago writers during the first half of the 20th century - for example, the story goes that when Park met with the Chicago-based African-American and Communist novelist Richard Wright (who became famous for his detailed depiction of racial issues), he muttered: 'I want to shake hands with a great writer. I don't agree with much that you write but it's honest and great writing' (Park in Bone 1986: 446). In fact, the Chicago sociologists - and most notably Park, see below - had a strong aversion to abstract intellectualism and academic thinking detached from concrete social conditions, dissociating themselves from deductive logical and philosophical claims. As Fred H. Matthews said. Park's work was permeated by his abhorrence for 'the pretentious ... the self-conscious intellectuals and social climbers who deliberately separated themselves from the majority' (Matthews 1977: 17). Like most of the Chicago School sociologists. Park sympathized with and was interested in ordinary men and women. In general, from the earliest representatives via Hughes and up to and including Goffman and Becker, the Chicago School has been imbued with a profound humanism, understood as a broad humanistic understanding of applicable methods, a desire to describe and communicate with ordinaiy people as well as an ambition to contribute towards solving the concrete societal problems experienced by real human beings. As Ken Plummer stated about what he perceived to be a particular 'Chicago Vision':
The approach of the Chicagoans shunned analytic abstractions, deductive logic, philosophical dualisms or truths ripped from their very contexts: in place of the philosophical games which philosophers play (and which may or may not be true, we have no way of telling) the Chicagoans substituted a concern with concrete experience embedded in problem-solving.
(Plummer 1983: 53)
However, this deliberate distancing from abstract or academic science and deductive logic that a number of the Chicago School sociologists enjoyed cultivating through their impressionistic and poetic creativity, positioning themselves in opposition to the positivist line of thinking predominant in the first half of the 20th century, also attracted criticism. As Stanislav Andreski stated in his Sociology as Sorcery about the relationship between on the one hand methodology fetishism and worship of rigid scientific standards, and on the other more impressionistic methods of analysis and communication: 'The worshippers of methodology turn like a vicious hunting ...

Table of contents