08.04.2020
Methods of Cultural Anthropology and Geography
– Prof. Dr. Judith Schlehe/ Prof. Dr. Annika Mattissek (Thursday, 16.00-20.00)
Consequences of the limits of knowledge
- We cannot necessarily always trust our senses
- People tend to believe and/or see/understand what they believe to know already and thus
expect to experience:
o Influence of social belief-systems and stereotypes
o Feminist and postcolonial perspectives
Scientific knowledge production = combination of scientific theories and methods
Science as a process of knowledge construction
Paradigms in social science research
- Postpositivism/ critical rationalism
o Search for universal, causal explanations
o Reproducible (objective) empirical data
o Quantitative methods
- Interpretative and hermeneutical approaches
o Human action as meaningful behavior
o Understanding of subjective experiences
o Qualitative methods, interpretation
- Structuralist and Marxist approaches
o Social structures (capitalism) as determinants of social processes
o Historical analysis of the social condition
- Post-structuralism
o Social organization as the result of collective productions of meaning
o Discourses as power-knowledge formations
o Discourse analysis and deconstruction as critique
1
, 08.04.2020
Example: Immigration to Europe
Predecessors to Critical Rationalism: Positivism
- Auguste Comte (1798-1857): Knowledge is gained through pure observation and the
collection of data as detailed as possible (e.g. experiments), Generalization and induction:
formulation of general theories and laws from observations
Critical Rationalism
- Karl Popper (1902-1994): All knowledge is provisional, dogmatic thinking needs to be
prohibited, every observation is guided by theories (consciously or unconsciously)
Verification and falsification according to Popper
Hypotheses are assumptions that state a relationship between at least two variables
which is supposed to be tested empirically.
2
, 08.04.2020
Types of scientific hypotheses
Exercise: formulating hypotheses
Factors:
- City level: geography, topography, weather, urban design and density, costs, texture of
roads, safety, infrastructure
- Individual level: income, gender, children, age, health, environmental consciousness,
perception of safety, schedule, purpose, distance, social status
3
Methods of Cultural Anthropology and Geography
– Prof. Dr. Judith Schlehe/ Prof. Dr. Annika Mattissek (Thursday, 16.00-20.00)
Consequences of the limits of knowledge
- We cannot necessarily always trust our senses
- People tend to believe and/or see/understand what they believe to know already and thus
expect to experience:
o Influence of social belief-systems and stereotypes
o Feminist and postcolonial perspectives
Scientific knowledge production = combination of scientific theories and methods
Science as a process of knowledge construction
Paradigms in social science research
- Postpositivism/ critical rationalism
o Search for universal, causal explanations
o Reproducible (objective) empirical data
o Quantitative methods
- Interpretative and hermeneutical approaches
o Human action as meaningful behavior
o Understanding of subjective experiences
o Qualitative methods, interpretation
- Structuralist and Marxist approaches
o Social structures (capitalism) as determinants of social processes
o Historical analysis of the social condition
- Post-structuralism
o Social organization as the result of collective productions of meaning
o Discourses as power-knowledge formations
o Discourse analysis and deconstruction as critique
1
, 08.04.2020
Example: Immigration to Europe
Predecessors to Critical Rationalism: Positivism
- Auguste Comte (1798-1857): Knowledge is gained through pure observation and the
collection of data as detailed as possible (e.g. experiments), Generalization and induction:
formulation of general theories and laws from observations
Critical Rationalism
- Karl Popper (1902-1994): All knowledge is provisional, dogmatic thinking needs to be
prohibited, every observation is guided by theories (consciously or unconsciously)
Verification and falsification according to Popper
Hypotheses are assumptions that state a relationship between at least two variables
which is supposed to be tested empirically.
2
, 08.04.2020
Types of scientific hypotheses
Exercise: formulating hypotheses
Factors:
- City level: geography, topography, weather, urban design and density, costs, texture of
roads, safety, infrastructure
- Individual level: income, gender, children, age, health, environmental consciousness,
perception of safety, schedule, purpose, distance, social status
3
