|
July 18th, 2003 Wolfson College Oxford University |
|
Four
Basic Questions In the Social Sciences
Often the most inspiring
thinkpieces are attempts to answer very basic questions such as these. Consider rounding off your thinkpiece by
devoting one solid paragraph to answering each of these questions.
|
1. What is this a case
of? |
The answer to this question helps us
understand the domain of relevance or area of generalization |
|
2. Why these cases but
not those, which have more or less of some feature, or followed one path over
another? |
The answer to this question gives us a rich description
or causal pattern. |
|
3. How did it happen? |
The answer to this question gives us a
storyline, a sequence of events with a beginning, middle and end. |
|
4. What were they
thinking? |
The answer to this question teaches us about
motives and cultures. |
Charles Ragin,
Constructing Social Research (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1997)