The difference between information and data in social science is subtle. Comment. SOCIOLOGY (Paper 1) UPSC – CIVIL SERVICES MAIN EXAM 2022 QUESTIONS.
- Science is a body of knowledge that entails various facts and theories. Despite certain limitations like lack of laboratory experimentation, lack of objectivity and universalization, sociological research relies upon basic tools of scientific method.
- Research is at the base of such theories and the main motive of any sociological research is collection of data and its analysis to interpret the information that the data holds.
- Any kind of social studies thus rely primarily an empirical observation which are recorded in the form of data. Such data collected is raw and must be subjected to analysis and interpretations, to derive a meaningful conclusion.
- Such a derived meaningful conclusion is termed as information in a contextualist manner. Processing of data into information is hardly value neutral though it is desired. The value disposition of a social scientist will essentially decide the kind of processing a set of data undergoes in its metamorphosis to an information.
- Eminent sociologists like Durkheim, Weber have collected large amounts of data to inter and interpret the information to provide concrete theories.
- Scholars have cited various reasons such as monsoon failure, climate change, high debt burdens, government policies, mental health, personal issues and familial issues among the reasons for farmers’ suicides in India. But in Durkheimian terms the contemporary farmer suicides can be attributed to two of his types namely egoism and anomie reasoned with lesser integration and lesser regulation respectively. Durkheim in his theory of suicide collected data from various perspectives (i,e.) cosmological factors, standard of living, social institutions, like religion. Having collected such data Durkheim deduced his informative theory of suicides grouping suicides in to four types namely egoistic, Altruistic, Fatalistic and Anomie. Durkheim interpreted that suicides are as social as they are psychological, through his regulation – integration Matrix.
- For instance, the causation factor w.r.t. Moplah rebellion was found and documented in two ways, by two different researchers. While the researchers with communist ethics informed the cause to be the exploitation by landlords, the researchers with religious subscription informed the cause to be the Hindu – Muslim riots.
- Hence the difference between data and information in social science is dependent on the value disposition of social researcher.
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