ATS3222 Chap.3 Knowledge, Data and Positionality
Knowledge, Data and Positionality
Week 3 starts from the idea that, in the humanities and social sciences, a project grows out of a view of what knowledge is, and that view settles what may count as data.
The class questions ask what counts as evidence of social knowledge, whether natural-science approaches can be reproduced in HASS, and which approaches HASS uses to produce knowledge.
The chapter compares the three positions named on the slides, positivist, interpretivist and critical realist, across what each treats as real, what counts as good evidence, its typical aim and how far it can borrow scientific methods.
It then works the five-minute workshop activity: identify a unit of analysis, then choose and justify a research purpose (explanatory, exploratory or descriptive), a position on knowledge, and an inductive or deductive logic, using a study of renters in a regional town.
The final section turns to positionality, the focus of the Week 3 group activity: where you stand in relation to your topic and participants and how that shapes what you notice.
Practice tasks ask for a positionality statement with a named risk and safeguard, and for a judgement on whether a design described as deductive and exploratory is consistent.
Many students find this the most abstract week of the unit. The chapter therefore keeps every idea tied to a concrete choice in a project: who or what you study, what you are trying to do, what you assume, and how you reason from evidence.
Those four choices recur in every assessment, so time spent here pays back later.
What this chapter covers
- 01
What counts as data in HASS
- 02
Positivist, interpretivist and critical realist positions
- 03
Choosing a unit of analysis
- 04
Explanatory, exploratory and descriptive purposes
- 05
Inductive and deductive logic
- 06
Positionality statements
- 07
Keeping choices consistent
Worked example · free
Choose and justify a position for a study of online learning
- +1Unit of analysis: the individual mature-age student, because the experience is lived and reported person by person.
- +1Purpose: exploratory, since the aim is to discover what matters to these students rather than test a known relationship.
- +1Position: interpretivist, because experience is a matter of meaning that students construct and can describe.
- +1Logic: inductive, building categories from interview accounts before comparing them with existing research.
Key terms
- Positivism
- A position treating the social world as having regularities that can be measured and tested much as in the natural sciences.
- Interpretivism
- A position treating social reality as meanings people create and share, studied through accounts and practice in context.
- Critical realism
- A position holding that real structures shape events but are only partly visible, so research explains the mechanisms behind patterns.
- Inductive reasoning
- Building categories or explanations from the data upward, rather than testing a prior theory.
- Deductive reasoning
- Starting from a theory, deriving an expectation, and testing it against data.
- Exploratory research
- Research that maps a little-known area to identify what matters before anything is measured or tested.
Knowledge, Data and Positionality FAQ
Do I have to choose a single paradigm?
The Week 3 activity asks you to select one position and justify it for your research interest. What matters most is consistency: your sample, data and claims should follow from the position you name.
Can social research use scientific methods?
Sometimes. A positivist position allows measurement and testing; an interpretivist one treats meaning as something that cannot simply be counted; a critical realist one combines patterns with explanation of causes. The choice must be argued.
What is a unit of analysis?
It is the main thing your study examines. The slides give people, objects, organisations and theories as examples, and choosing it first helps you pick a position and data that fit.
What makes a good positionality statement?
It names how your background relates to the topic, one specific way that could shape your reading, and one concrete step you will take to check it, such as independent coding or a reflective journal.
Which position should I choose for my project?
Choose the one that matches your question. Questions about how many or how strongly usually suit a positivist design; questions about meaning suit interpretivism; questions about why patterns occur in some settings suit critical realism.
Assessment move
Write your three choices of purpose, position and logic on one line each, with a reason beside every choice, and test them against each other. Then draft a positionality statement of two sentences for your own topic. Revisit both after Week 9, when the unit asks how your status as a university student shapes access and ethics. If two choices pull against each other, change the weaker one rather than defending both.
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