OrientationObservationIn-depth interviewsDocument analysis and semiologyConversation and discourse analysisSecondary Data
SurveysExperimentsEthicsResearch outcomes
Conclusion
2.4.1 The development of critical social research Critical social research is not a new alternative to positivism and phenomenology. On the contrary, it derives from the very foundations of sociology. The dialectical analysis of Karl Marx is the earliest example of critical social research.
Dialectical analysis is a process of locating events or actions in a wider social and historical context and involves conceptually moving backwards and forwards between the specific part and the contextual whole. This is initially difficult to understand and is explained in more detail in Section 2.4.2). (See also Critical Social Research section 2.3.2)
Critical social research is diverse and is also found in the work of subsequent Marxists, feminists, anti-racists, black sociologists, structuralists, cultural theorists and post-colonialists (Harvey, 1990).
