EDITORIALS & ARTICLES
How does a researcher achieve objectivity in interpretative resarch? (10 Marks) UPSC MAINS 2022
- Interpretive research in Sociological studies is a research paradigm that is based on the assumption that social reality is not singular or objective, but is rather shaped by human experiences and social contexts, and is therefore best studied within its socio-historic context by reconciling the subjective interpretations of its various participants
- Objectivity means striving as far as possible to reduce or eliminate bias in the conduct of research. Weber argued that while sociologists should be interested in the subjective views of their subjects, they should remain objective in their research; others (such as postmodernists) argue that objectivity is impossible at all stages of research.
- Value neutrality, as described by Max Weber, is the duty of sociologists to identify and acknowledge their own values and overcome their personal biases when conducting sociological research. In order to be value-neutral, sociologists must be aware of their own moral judgments and values, and avoid incorporating them into their research, their conclusions, and their teaching.
- By value free sociology Weber meant that researchers’ personal values and economic interests should not affect the process of social scientific analysis. If such factors affected the research process then the social action could not be represented as objective. Objective analysis were possible if sociologists use a rational method in which the research process is systematic that is
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- empirical data must be categorised in terms of clearly formulated concepts
- proper rules of evidence must be employed, and
- only logical inference must be made.
- With the help of his methodological orientation Weber implied that value-free sociology could not be a moral science and thereby distinguished between ‘what ought to be’ that is the sphere of values from ‘what is’ the sphere of science and that social science should focus only on the latter. He also implied that new science of sociology contributes to an ongoing historical process in which magic and other forms of inherited wisdom become less acceptable as means for explaining events. Weber referred to this change as the process of rationalisation.
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