The Open UniversitySkip to content
 
Skip My preferences

My preferences

Skip Learning ToolsSkip Rate and Review

Rate and Review

Unit rating: 5 stars.
Rated by 1 user(s)
Skip Alternative FormatsSkip TagsSkip Share this unit with a friend

Share this unit with a friend

Help with sending a link to this unit (new window)
Permalink to this unit:
 

Topic outline

 

The circuit of knowledge

  • Time: 12 hours
    Level: Introductory

 
 

Introduction

  • Introduction Resource
  • Social scientists collect evidence to support their claims and theories in different ways. Such evidence is crucial to the practice of social science and to the production of social scientific knowledge....
 

1 The importance of evidence

  • 1 The importance of evidence Resource
  • The gathering, presentation and assessment of evidence are crucial and indeed inescapable parts of the practice of social science, hence the crucial role of evidence in the circuit of knowledge (see Figure...
 

2 Quantitative evidence

  • 2.1 What evidence are we reading? Resource
  • Although we live in a society where a huge amount of information is available in the form of numbers, some of us still feel a mental fog descend when we are asked to deal with them. This is because numerical...
  • 2.2 Stages in reading numbers and diagrams Resource
  • Having established roughly what we are looking at when we see a table of numbers or a diagram, how do we read it systematically? It may be best to think of this as a process with several stages.
  • 2.3 Summary Resource
  • What we must do to understand numbers as they are used as evidence in social science is to practise and so become familiar with them, and to understand the conventions which determine how they are used....
 

3 Qualitative evidence

  • 3.1 What evidence are we reading? Resource
  • Social scientists use particular methods to gather qualitative evidence, from observation to interview, but they also use autobiographical accounts, journalism, and other documentary material to flesh...
  • 3.2 Stages in reading qualitative evidence Resource
  • As with numbers, we need to approach qualitative evidence systematically and with purpose, and not just assume we know what it means.
  • 3.3 Summary Resource
  • We can learn to use writing of all sorts as evidence by practising how to interpret it and by becoming aware of the conventions attached to its primary purpose for example as personal testimony, journalism,...
 

4 Conclusion

  • 4 Conclusion Resource
  • The aim of this unit has been to try to draw together work on numbers and text, and to try to be helpful to those who, like me, find numbers and statistics rather unapproachable. Evidence is used in social...
 

References and Acknowledgements

Skip Log inSkip Related educational resources