Research
Research is the primary tool for the social scientist. For social scientists like myself, social research is about providing empirical or observable evidence for the purpose of describing or explaining social phenomenon or what people experience in their everyday social interactions or for the purpose of offering some type of answer to a particular inquiry related to them. The bases for all social research then is inquiry.
This site is dedicated to inquiry. The over-arching question that serves as the basis for this inquiry is what is the social reality of individuals related to the concepts of spirituality and religion, economic and politics, money and finance, and sexuality?
Earl Babbie explains reality in this way:
“Ultimately, you live in a world of two realities. Part of what you know could be called your agreement reality: the things you consider to be real beacause you’ve been told they are real. Another part is what could be called experiential reality: the things you know as a function of your direct experience.”
It is the experiential reality of members of society that this website is concerned with measuring and examining.
The foundation of this and any other research is the notion of science. What is science? The definition I often give my students in class is:
The systematic application of methods to inquiry with the intent of formulating some objective understanding about given phenomenon.
My mentor Charles Ragin wrote in his book Constructing Social Research that:
"Social research involves the interaction between ideas and evidence. Ideas help social researchers make sense of evidence, and researchers use evidence to extend, revise and test ideas".
Read more about science and social research here.
Therefore, with social research, social scientists attempt to create or validate theories about the reality of the social world by collecting or recording data and analyzing it with the major goals being exploration, description and explanation.
Based on these fundamentals of science and social research, this website takes as its purpose:
- The fostering and development of topics of human and scientific inquiry, many of which are seen as taboo and hence are not encouraged to be the focus of conversation at the dinner table
- The observation and recording of experienctial reality to serve as true data for understanding in order to lesson assumptions about the human social experience
- The utilization of social media in the scientific process
A number of methods will be emplyed in an effort to achieve this purpose. However, all of these methods together can be classified as Ethnography. Read more about ethnography here.
The ethnographic work that is performed via this site will take the form of interviews, surveys, questionnaires, and polls involving readers and viewers like yourself.
Your participation is is extremely valuable to our research effort and we would like to thank you in advance for offering your valuable time.
Click the links below to initiate your participation in the current research projects listed.
In addition to the opportunities for participation found here, we are in the process of scheduling interviews in other parts of the world. If you are interested in being a co-host for these traveling interviews, please contact us at your earliest convenience.
