This course focuses on two interlinked issues: the philosophical questions that arise in social science research, and research methods. Social inquiry attempts to take a scientific approach to explaining the complexity of everyday experiences, but in practice there are many pitfalls. The course reviews common issues that arise, including language, culture, survey methods and the problems of distinguishing between facts and values, understanding and explanation, theory and observation, and induction and deduction. The central tenet is that philosophical thinking and practical research go hand in hand. This material is taken from The Open University Course D820 The Challenge of the Social Sciences.

Latest episodes of the podcast Challenge of the Social Sciences - Audio

• A discussion of housing issues
• Transcript -- A discussion of housing issues
• How policy affects housing issues
• Transcript -- How policy affects housing issues
• The experiences of homeless women
• Transcript -- The experiences of homeless women
• Being a scientist
• Transcript -- Being a scientist
• The scientific idea
• Transcript -- The scientific idea
• How we quantify social science
• Transcript -- How we quantify social science