Can Sociology ever be Value-Free?

• Positivism


  Social facts are observable, evidenced ideas that are free of values and are entirely objective.
• Interpretivism


  Values cannot be kept out of research as there is only interpretations
• 1. Modern Positivism


  Studying society in the most scientific manner possible, testing hypotheses using falsification and objectivity. Involves strict operationalisation and prefers using official statistics and questionnaires.
• Evaluating Modern Positivism


  Fails to be truly sociological as it doesn't challenge power structures. Choosing the topic has to come from the researcher. Gouldner refers to modern positivists as 'soulless technicians' saying that they only collect data and don't do anything meaningful.
• 2. Values should reflect research 


  Believes that our values should be based around research - not the other way around, particularly reflected through Marx or Durkheim, whose views were supported by research data.

  • Marx believed that, by studying history, he could tell that communism was inevitable
• Evaluating values reflecting research

  Postmodernists argue that Durkheim and Marx's data happens to reflect exactly what they already believe, because the data collection simply reflects the researcher.

  • Lyotard rejects the idea that research tells us anything about the world, because it purely reflects researcher's pre-existing beliefs
• 3. We cannot be truly value free


  Weber says though we should try to have value-free research to be representative, but we will never be successful because we cannot 'ignore' our values. We must do everything to minimise the impact of our values, e.g. operationalisation, focus on individuals, remove human participants.
• 4. It's not desirable to be value free

  Goffman argued that the point of Sociology is to defend the underdog and challenge power structures, which cannot be done without our views on who the underdog is and where the power lies. He believed a good sociologist is guided by their values, as well as their societal context.
• Evaluating value free is undesirable

  Goffman is a social action theorist, who are criticised for coming from a position of privilege, questioning if their values are correct to challenge power structures.

  Feminists and Marxists feel that this marginalises the 'real' voice of society's underdogs, by allocating rich white men as their spokesperson.