Challenges of methodological issues in social science research

Research methods are a central part of the social sciences. They constitute an important part of their curricula and provide a means through which their intellectual development is enhanced. Indeed, their status as ‘sciences’ is often justified by alluding to the technical aspects of research methods, while the very term ‘science’ carries with it ideas of areas of study which are accessible only to those who have undergone a lengthy training process in order to understand their inner workings. At the same time there are also those within these disciplines who might characterize themselves as ‘theorists’ rather than ‘researchers’. The latter concentrate on the process of research, while the former might argue that they gain an advantage in having a distance from the empirical world in order to reflect upon those processes and their products.

A narrow attitude to research practice perpetuates the idea that theory, ethics, values and methods of social research are distinct topics and that researchers, despite living and participating in the societies that they study, are somehow distinct from the social world which is the object of their investigations. This distance between them and the subjects of their study permits a limited notion of value-freedom to be maintained. As will become evident, this is open to considerable debate for our very membership of a society, it can be argued, is a necessary condition for understanding the social world of which we are a part, as well as being a fact of life from which we cannot escape. Indeed, such participation may be a prerequisite of objectivity. In having an understanding of these debates and the applicability of different methods of research, improved research and more inquiring and confident researchers will be the end result. To this extent, it is important to be aware of not only the strengths of particular methods of social research, but also their limitations.

There is a degree of confusion over the relationship between the concept of methodology and methods. Most of the time new researcher use both terms interchangeably but methodology, however, is prior to method and more fundamental. It provides the philosophical groundwork for methods.