Archives
Personal troubles, public issues, and the reflexive practice of research
Deborah Warr
School of Public Health, La Trobe University, Bundoora VIC
Abstract
The common-sense world is not a reified and unreflexive praxis. It is full of art and humour, it is explored in literature, art, song, film, and comic strips. Common-sense knowledge is far from being a poor version of science. (Neill, 1995: 172)
In defining `the sociological imagination', C. Wright Mills invokes the interrelationship between history and biography: `the personal troubles of milieu and the public issues of social structure' (Mills, 1959: 8). Troubles are located in individual biographies and their immediate milieu, a seemingly private experience, while public issues are those that are linked to the institutional and historical possibilities of social structure. In Mills' vision the task of sociology is to articulate the connections between these planes. Social research is a significant activity by which the links between personal troubles and public issues are elaborated, and which brings together common sense understanding with theoretical and empirical insight. What distinguishes social research from assorted opinions, anecdotes and hearsay is the systematic way in which life worlds are investigated. Sociology begins with individuals' experiences in order to explore the collective themes and patterning of human behaviour (Chase, 1996). This collectivisation of experience enables broader substantive claims to be made about the relationship between milieu and personal circumstance. Mills argued that situating personal troubles within public issues, ropes biography to history and this forms the characteristic perspective of sociology (Mills, 1959).
In sustaining a methodological practice that produces insightful analysis of this relationship between personal troubles and public issues, there is a tendency to conceive of subjectivity and objectivity as mutually exclusive research perspectives. This proves to be overly simplistic and unhelpful. In this paper I want to explore what I view as a misconception of this relationship between subjectivity and objectivity in research. A reflexive approach to research methodology allows researchers to link milieu with individual experience while at the same time resolving the tensions between subjectivity and objectivity through a focus on common sense knowledge.
References
Alcoff, L. (1989) 'Justifying feminist social
science'. In N. Tuana (ed) Feminism and Science,
Indiana University Press, Bloomington.
Bourdieu, P. (1990) The Logic of Practice, Polity
Press, Cambridge.
Bourdieu, P. & Wacquant, L. (1992) An Invitation
to Reflexive Sociology, The University of Chicago
Press, Chicago.Chataway, C. (1997) 'An examination of the
constraints on mutual inquiry in a participatory
action research project', Journal of Social Issues,
53, 4: 747-66.
Chase, S. (1996) 'Personal vulnerability and
interpretive authority in narrative research'. In R.
Josselson (ed) Ethics and Process in the Narrative
Study of Lives, Sage Publications, California.
Collins, P. (1998) Negotiating Selves: Reflections
on 'unstructured' interviewing, Sociological
Research Online, 3(3):
http://www.socresonline.org.Uk/socresonline/3/3/2.h
tml.
Hammersley, M. (1995) The Politics of Social
Research, Sage Publications, London.
Harding, S. (1992) 'After the neutrality ideal:
Science, politics, and "strong objectivity"', Social
Research, 59, 3: 567-587.
Jenkins, R. (1992) Pierre Bourdieu, Routledge,
London.
Josselson, R. (1996) 'On writing other people's
lives. In R. Josselson (ed) Ethics and Process in
The Narrative Study of Lives, Sage Publications,
California.
Lather, P. (1991) Getting Smart: Feminist research
and pedagogy with/in the postmodern. Routledge,
New York.
Maynard, M. (1994) 'Methods, practice and
epistemology: The debate about feminism and
research'. In M. Maynard & J. Purvis (eds)
Researching Women's Lives from a Feminist
Perspective, Taylor & Francis, London.
Mills, C. W. (1959) The Sociological Imagination,
New York, Oxford University Press.
Personal Troubles, Public Issues, and the
Reflexive Practice of Research
Mirvis, P.H. & Louis, M.R. (1988) 'Self-full
research: Working through the self as instrument
in organizational research'. In D. Berg & K. Smith
(eds) The Self in Social Inquiry, Sage Publication,
California.
Oakley, A. (1981) 'Interviewing women: A
contradiction in terms'. In H. Roberts (ed) Doing
Feminist Research, Routledge, London.
O'Neill, J. (1995) The Poverty of Postmodernism,
Routledge, London.
Reay, D. (1996) 'Dealing with difficult differences:
Reflexivity and social class in feminist research',
Feminism and Psychology, 6, 3: 443-456.
Stacey, J. (1990) Brave New Families, Basic
Books: U.S.A[give town] -
Stanley, L. (1990) 'Feminist praxis and the
academic mode of production: An editorial
introduction'. In L. Stanley (ed.) Feminist Praxis,
Routledge, London.
Warr, D. & Pyett, P. (1999) 'Difficult relations:
Sex work, love and intimacy', Sociology of Health
and Illness, 21, 3: 290-309.
eContent Home