I've really been struggling lately with who I am as a sociologist. There are so many different "camps" and ideological positions within the discipline. Much of the debate centers around a methodological divide - the difference is between "quantitative" analysis, using surveys, statistics, etc and those who do "qualitative" analysis, using interviews, content analysis, etc. Normally, the questions you ask determines the methods you use. This leads to another debate over what kinds of questions sociologists ought to be asking. I've really been struggling this semester to find where I am located in all of this mess.

Last night, I was talking to Josh about my frustration with the discipline. I heard it through the grapevine, that some of my classmates were complaining that our discussion in family this week got rather "normative". I took this personally, as I was leading the discussion. BUT - here's what it comes down to. We were discussing a book about single mothers in the ghettos of Philly - and why they have children young and out-of-wedlock. The discussion turned to policy objectives - how should we fix this, was essentially the question. Nobody wants children being reared in dangerous, desitutely poor neighborhoods - so I mistakenly believed that this would be an appropriate discussion that wouldn't ruffle too many ideological feathers.

Someone please explain to me - why no one will accuse you of being "normative" when you condemn rape, murder and incest, but as soon as you imply that maybe it isn't a good idea to have children in this way, all of a sudden you are imposing your moral values on someone else's "culture"??? What the problem is, in reality, is not that I'm being "normative", but that I'm drawing on my conception of what is "moral" as opposed to someone else's. I made a rather definitive statement last night that articulated clearer than ever what camp I am finding myself in. I said this: "I honestly feel that it is probably impossible, and certainly meaningless to conduct social science without appealing to anything normative." What good is it for me to know what percentage of women are single mothers?? What is the point in knowing how many children are living in poverty?? Isn't the point of all of this to ask "Why?" and "Is this a good or a bad thing for society??"

So, I find myself more and more necessarily falling into the "qualitative" camp, where it is appropriate to ask questions of meaning and make normative statements. The scary thing is, I know that this puts me on the fringe of my discipline. I've always been a person who really tries to not be defined - but, as I grow as a scholar, I realize that pretty soon I won't be able to escape definition. I guess I will continue to struggle until I am comfortable with how I define myself and how I am defined by others.