The coming crisis of empirical sociology

Mike Savage; Roger Burrows

doi:10.1177/0038038507080443

The coming crisis of empirical sociology

Mike Savage, Roger Burrows

Sociology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

This article argues that in an age of knowing capitalism, sociologists have not adequately thought about the challenges posed to their expertise by the proliferation of 'social' transactional data which are now routinely collected, processed and analysed by a wide variety of private and public institutions. Drawing on British examples, we argue that whereas over the past 40 years sociologists championed innovative methodological resources, notably the sample survey and the in-depth interviews, which reasonably allowed them to claim distinctive expertise to access the 'social' in powerful ways, such claims are now much less secure. We argue that both the sample survey and the in-depth interview are increasingly dated research methods, which are unlikely to provide a robust base for the jurisdiction of empirical sociologists in coming decades. We conclude by speculating how sociology might respond to this coming crisis through taking up new interests in the 'politics of method'.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	885-899
Number of pages	15
Journal	Sociology
Volume	41
Issue number	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038507080443
Publication status	Published - Oct 2007

Keywords

descriptive sociology
geodemographics
history of sociological methodologies
in-depth interviews
politics of method
survey methods
transactional data

Access to Document

10.1177/0038038507080443

Cite this

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