Читать книгу Essential Concepts in Sociology - Anthony Giddens - Страница 55

Quantitative research was central to sociology from the discipline’s inception. Durkheim’s use of official statistics to quantify suicide rates and make comparisons across societies is typical of the kind of technique sociologists adopted. Given the desire in the nineteenth century to establish sociology as the ‘science of society’, it is not surprising that sociologists turned to quantitative methods, which held out the promise of accurate and reliable measurement. Such methods also offered the potential for comparative and historical studies which could yield insights into the extent of social changes, both geographically and over time.

Qualitative research began as a more specialized form, acting as a kind of under-labourer to supposedly more significant, large-scale quantitative studies. Qualitative work was often seen as an important prerequisite which took the form of small pilot studies aimed at clarifying meanings. From the 1970s, though, this situation began to change, and qualitative research gradually came to be seen as a method of inquiry in its own right. For a growing number of sociologists today, qualitative research is actually superior to quantitative methods, being a more appropriate, object-adequate type for the study of human beings and social life.