Feminist Methodologies For Critical Researchers / Edition 1

by Joey Sprague

Overview

This brief text on social research methodology teaches students of sociology and related disciplines how standard methods can be adapted toward critical ends by thinking more carefully about the links between epistemology and methodology. Written in a clear, balanced fashion, Joey Sprague's treatment of qualitative and quantitative methods shows that all can be used effectively by progressive researchers. She describes and evaluates a wide array of methodological options for the production of knowledge. Unique to this volume, Sprague avoids the stereotype that tarnishes all quantitative research as inherently anti-feminist, showing— through an analysis of model studies— how surveys and experimental designs are being used by critical scholars. She traces how the social organization of the academy has produced a bias against feminist methodology and proposes a program to overcome these limitations. Sprague's book will be of value to scholars of many disciplines, and a essential text or supplement for methods classes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780759109032
Publisher:	AltaMira Press
Publication date:	08/28/2005
Series:	Gender Lens Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.13(w) x 9.13(h) x 0.63(d)

About the Author

Joey Sprague is professor of sociology at University of Kansas.

Table of Contents

Series Editors’ Foreword
Acknowledgments

Chapter 1: The Field of Vision
Chapter 2: Seeing through Science: Epistemologies
Chapter 3: Authority and Power
Chapter 4: How Feminists Count: Critical Strategies for Quantitative Methods
Chapter 5: Qualitative Shifts: Feminist Strategies in Field Research and Interviewing
Chapter 6: Whose Questions? Whose Answers?
Chapter 7: Changing Sociology/Changing the World

References
Index
About the Author

Editorial Reviews

Sprague presents her work in a scholarly manner that is accessible to all readers, regardless of their level of competence in feminist methodologies. Her approach allows readers to think critically about feminist issues and the ways they can contribute to the field in the future ... As mentioned, it presents a valuable framework for any reasearcher to use in community-based research.

Sex Roles

Sprague writes exceptionally clearly and expresses difficult issues in language that undergraduates can easily grasp. At the same time, her ideas are sufficiently sophisticated that readers who are well read in feminist research in sociology also have a great deal to gain from reading this book.
— Mary Jo Neitz

Sociologists For Women In Society

Sprague presents her work in a scholarly manner that is accessible to all readers, regardless of their level of competence in feminist methodologies. Her approach allows readers to think critically about feminist issues and the ways they can contribute to the field in the future ... As mentioned, it presents a valuable framework for any reasearcher to use in community-based research.

Sex Roles: A Journal of Research

Sprague writes exceptionally clearly and expresses difficult issues in language that undergraduates can easily grasp. At the same time, her ideas are sufficiently sophisticated that readers who are well read in feminist research in sociology also have a great deal to gain from reading this book...Sprague has given us a vision of standpoint metodology that has come of age.

Gender & Society

Sprague presents her work in a scholarly manner that is accessible to all readers, regardless of their level of competence in feminist methodologies. Her approach allows readers to think critically about feminist issues and the ways they can contribute to the field in the future ... As mentioned, it presents a valuable framework for any reasearcher to use in community-based research.

Sex Roles: A Journal of Research

Joey Sprague has built a sturdy guide to understanding the linkages between epistemology, methodology, and method in the practice of social science. She makes clear that the production of science is not about formal method, so much as methods are about the social production and implicit standpoint of science in practice. Graduate students and practitioners in all of the social sciences, feminist and non-feminist alike, will profit from reading and discussing this book.

Donald Tomaskovic-Devey

Seeing Through Gender is an excellent introduction to feminist methodology, with a clear and accessible treatment of epistemological issues, examples drawn from a wide range of actual studies, and an even-handed treatment of both qualitative and quantitative research approaches. Sprague has a forthright point of view and a lively feminist voice appropriate for students as well as more experienced researchers.

Marjorie DeVault

Sprague writes exceptionally clearly and expresses difficult issues in language that undergraduates can easily grasp. At the same time, her ideas are sufficiently sophisticated that readers who are well read in feminist research in sociology also have a great deal to gain from reading this book.

Sociologists For Women In Society - Mary Jo Neitz

This is the best book on feminist methodologies in sociology and the social sciences to come along in some time. Although the book is accessibly written and suitable for a text, it is never the less a sophisticated discussion why methodology matters and how it affects the impact of social science research on society. Sprague defends the social scientific project and then proceeds to show us how to engage in this project in a manner that embodies feminist values while producing first rate social scientific knowledge. Avoiding polemics, Sprague charts a clear, carefully reasoned argument that resists easy answers to questions such as the qualitative/ quantitative split, the issue of relativism, or of subjectivity. Instead, she offers a nuanced critique of both qualitative and quantitative methods and develops a carefully reasoned strategy for doing high quality, useful social research that also furthers fairness and justice in society.

Cecilia L. Ridgeway