- Tamara
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Week One
In class today, a question was posed regarding our upcoming research proposals, and what we were all planning to do. I had mentioned that I wanted to look into user-centered design - specifically design elements that make websites successful. I too am wondering what everyone else was thinking of doing.
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Not a clue at this point ... something about libraries, I guess? Looking forward to doing the readings and hearing what others have to say. Maybe I'll get inspired.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure whether to consider the method I want to use, or the question I'd like to explore - it seems a chicken-and-egg problem of which comes first. I'm attracted to ethnography and surveys, but am not sure which topics they'd apply to best. I suppose all will be revealed....
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ReplyDeleteAs far as the readings go, I'm quite enjoying the Luker book thus far. I'm always interested in where things come from historically, so I find it fascinating reading about the early origins of social research and the ways in which the academic landscape—and, more broadly, the information landscape—has changed in a few short decades.
ReplyDeleteWhen Luker talks about coming of age in a world of information scarcity (11) as opposed to a world of information abundance like the one we have today, she is speaking to a problem I'll be thinking about as I develop my research proposal: what's the point of doing social research today? With so much information already out there—she mentions the estimated billion documents in the LexisNexis database alone (9)—what can we possibly add? Do we narrow our research to some very specific as-yet-untapped niche subject or do we broaden it, somehow pulling in thoughts and information from other disciplines? How can we go about finding information that can be of some use to humanity instead of just adding to the noise?
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ReplyDeleteI keep having problems! sorry if my msgs keep popping up in your emails
ReplyDeleteKnight Readings Week-1 and Luker Readings-Week 2
ReplyDeleteI just had a few points to contribute with respect to the readings for this week and last:
1. Keeping a journal: I noticed that both Knight and Luker talk of creating a research journal and mind mapping as a way to record thoughts as you go along. Luker made a really valid point that thinking about something and writing it down are two entirely different things. New aspects of your topic might become apparent if you just write your ideas down. You never know what's in the back recesses of your cobwebbed mind that could be of some use! I will start recording my thoughts.
Research bias: I noticed that they have both touched on some similar points with respect to research bias and the idea that because people are so much a part of their society (ideology, discourse, assumptions, beliefs, and even the scientific method itself) that their findings will likely be biased in some way or another, (ie. by what the researcher chooses to include or omit, by different methods of inquiry and analysis, by the literature/resources at their disposal, by the linearity of the study, by assuming correlation or causation etc.). It is important to both acknowledge that all research is in some way bias, but perhaps if individuals become aware of their methods of information gathering and analysis they can eliminate some of the bias or factor it into their results. I hope to find Luker's 'sweet spot' between qualitative and quantitative methods in my research strategy!!
Narrowing the focus: I like Knights point about narrowing down the focus to make the research more manageable and results more likely. I have been thinking about how I can phrase my research question/topic into something that will both yield sufficient results and not become a big infinite monster!!
That's all for now,
Desiree.
p.s. I had problems signing up, so I think I have two profiles on here. I tried to delete one, but am having problems. sorry about the confusion!
Interesting observation, Greg, about how nascent researchers can hope to possibly make a contribution in the face of info-glut. I think the key is that human insight into all that data is what is essential – data is just data till it’s enlivened with interpretation to produce meaning. I have to say that after dipping into Luker and Knight, that we’re approaching research at an interesting time. All the budding ideas I have for Research Questions (RQ) seems to revolve around the net, and Luker points out (p. 12) how filters on information have been removed, and the expert somewhat dethroned, and transformed into a polymath. I watch this process in my own two young adult children at university – they chart their own course when pursuing knowledge. It begs the question of whether traditional disciplines even make sense anymore. If learning is best done in an open-ended interdisciplinary fashion, perhaps a degree in Social Sciences is as specific as we should get. My question now is, how do we design an RQ that is both focused enough, but allows for real “discovery” (Luker, 18).
ReplyDeleteMost of my questions centre around human behaviour because of my background in cultural
ReplyDeleteanthropology. I avoided primary research in undergrad because of the pitfalls described
by Luker, but I am excited to make the attempt in this course to tackle these key
research issues. In 1002 we talked a lot about truth construction, meaning-making and
the impossibility of objectivity. I think that as a researcher, the true object of study
will be myself, not just the population under observation!
Hi Leslie and Greg,
ReplyDeleteI struggle with finding the point of social science research, particularly studies done by one researcher or team. I feel that many social scientists neglect to use the greatest information and research tool out there-- the Internet. It seems that all answers are out there, and that with the right amount of aggregation and interpretation, all may be revealed. This is a very limited perspective, naturally, but it begs the question, what does modern research look like in the face of ubiquitous computing? With more and more blogs, databases, and even e-healthcare, why couldn't research be just the writing of an algorithm and the querying of a database. If so, what information would this type of research yield? Would it be more or less relevant? Representative?
Hello All,
ReplyDeleteApologies for the delay in responding to last week's thread but I will comment now!
Desiree - I was also reflecting on how both Luker and Knight suggest keeping a journal. I've got to say that I have never done so in my personal or professional life so the thought is a bit daunting (I always worry about if it was found people would know my secret thoughts!) However, I know that in this context it is not as frightening as a personal diary/ journal but think that often I don't spend enough time providing myself the margin of error and exploration around a topic. So this notion of writing every day is quite encouraging as a way to watch ideas grow and change. [ As a side, and related note, I'm really enjoying doing the exercises that Luker suggests at the end of each chapter - it really is helping me flesh out some of my ideas and understand my specific topic but is also assisting my understanding of the topic in a broader context of research too]
Catherine: I thought it was funny that keeping a journal would come up again with the Daisy exercise... The author herself recognizes the fact that people have a hesitancy to keep a journal or practice the exercises. I have been guilty of reading a book and not doing any of the exercises despite how valuable I know they can be. In the main text she asks us to do a Daisy diagram. I hadn't done it, and then in the conclusion of that chapter(5) she says "you guessed- the exercise for this chapter is to draw yourself a daisy. I know I asked you to do this earlier in the chapter, but I bet you didn't" (Luker, Chapter 6, p.98). She caught me. I did it (:
ReplyDeleteThe daisy exercise is SO useful. Did it help you at all Desiree?
ReplyDeleteIt helped somewhat. I couldn't think of that many things to put in it though, maybe I could use a little more clarification as to how it works.
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