One of the Notes on "Corner Society"
William? Feet? White is a sociologist of Chicago School in America. With the support of Harvard Youth Scholarship Fund, White passed the "Right" plan from 65438 to 65438 to 0940. Conaville? (an Italian slum in Boston) conducted field research and wrote the book "Street Corner Society". This book gives a detailed and vivid account of this observation process, the information obtained and the conclusions. Society on the Corner is White's most important work and his famous work.
First, empirical research methods
The Corner Society was written by the Corner Gang in Cornwall. As a member of the street gang, White put himself in the environment and life of the observed object, and introduced participatory observation into the study of urban communities for the first time. White observed the living conditions of young people on street corners, the internal structure and activities of informal organizations, and their relationship with the surrounding society, mainly illegal gang members and political organizations, and made records and analysis in time, and finally reached an important conclusion about the social structure and interaction mode of the community.
1, an attempt of a new method
White mentioned in the appendix that by reading the Lindes' Midtown with great interest and Caroline? Greenwich Village in Weil is very profitable for White. However, with the deepening of the research, he realized that the community research he was engaged in did not follow the research path in the above book. ? Many other sociological documents that can be read at that time often look at the community from the aspect of social problems, so there is no organized social system of community at all. ? Later, White found that although the research contents and fields are different, the research methods in Malinowski's Primitive Tribe Research are worth learning and can be implemented.
By participating in the observation, can White really? Enter? Community, and extend this method from anthropology to sociology. This is of great significance to the development of social research methods. If the previous research is a photo of the overall situation of the community, then the White Corner is a film of the dynamic process of the community. As the saying goes, you can see the leopard in the tube. In Conaway, White attaches great importance to the study of specific people and groups, and analyzes the social structure of the whole community through the living conditions, interaction methods and rules of specific people and groups, rather than describing the overall situation of the block. White's attempt at this research method is also very inspiring to me. Is the method of social research limited to what is introduced in books? Stones from other mountains can attack jade, and sociological research can also cite research methods from other disciplines. When facing the specific research object, we should choose the method flexibly.
2, research and design small key points.
Desire is always beautiful, but reality is often cruel. At first, White wanted to do his own research, involving history, economy, politics (living standards, housing, trade, distribution and employment), politics (the structure of political organizations and its relationship with illegal gang activities and the police), education and entertainment models, churches, public health care, and especially social attitudes. However, this is obviously not a job that one person can complete. When White took the advice and asked for it, someone threw cold water on it. ? Henderson threw cold water on my masterpiece from the beginning. He told me that I had hardly done anything in this respect, so I shouldn't just have such a huge plan. It is reasonable to enter this field first, and then gradually establish a work team as the work progresses. ? Fortunately, White revised his research design. This revision was accompanied by his research. The revised research plan is more in line with sociological research, focusing on some social measurement research on people's friendship patterns. But White's last action was simpler and more effective, and he gradually found that he could directly study the social structure by observing people's actions.
This inspired me that when learning design, we should focus on small things and do our best. When we are writing papers and doing research, we are often blinded by various macro theories, so that the research design is biased and the research becomes empty. We want to study social changes, social structure and social mobility, but with our current time, energy and ability, it is almost impossible to complete a large-scale investigation. Then why not start with something simple? White can study social structure by observing people's actions. Why can't we simplify our design and analyze society from the most intuitive and grassroots point of view?
3. Find a deep breakthrough.
Finding the breakthrough of intervention is very important for data collection. It is very important for researchers to enter the research environment, understand the environment, deal with the research objects and get the support of important people in the environment. Is white all right? Break in? Inside Conaville, Doc's introduction is indispensable.
At the beginning of the research, White was also interested in how to get into Conneville. Countless in my heart? . Convale is right in front of you. white thinks he's still a? An outsider in this world who knows nothing about it? . So White tried to enter this block by contacting the community cultural and educational center. However, White's research didn't really begin until he was introduced to Doc.
Doc is a young man on the corner of Cornwall and the core figure of Norton gang. Doc's extensive network resources have provided powerful help for White's research. Doc knows Konavo's rules, so he gives some advice to White and introduces him to other members of Norton's gang. White met Sam through Doc, a Miller gang belonging to Sam of Norton gang, and later Tony, a famous illegal gang member of Konawo? Qatar is more. In this process, the relationship between Doc and White has also changed, from the role of guarantor and important information provider at the beginning to the role of collaborator in White research. They often discuss together how to investigate, who to look for and how to obtain materials.
It can be said that the support of Doc has played a vital role in White's smooth entry into the streets. In research, we often have to find an important person through whom we can really enter the research environment. Taking community research as an example, contacting community talents and establishing good relations can help us to obtain favorable information effectively. Community experts can not only ensure our contact with other people in the community, but also have a clearer understanding and observation of the community than others in the community because of their strong ability. Their views are also an inspiration and guidance for our research.
4. Interaction between researchers and research environment.
We always say that the research process should be objective, neutral and worthless. However, the situation under study may be much more complicated. Take white people entering the street corner as an example. In order to collect information, White needs to make the Norton gang and other groups accept him and try to make himself likable so that people want to be with him. At the same time, he tried to avoid affecting the research group, hoping to get a situation that would not affect the research group because of his appearance. This requires researchers to concentrate on finding a balance among researchers. This is not an easy job. We see that young people on street corners try to show their best when communicating with white people, and always try to beautify their image. This situation may also happen in the investigation we are going to conduct. The state that the research object shows you may be a processed state of hope that he has constructed. When we analyze the data, we should pay attention to restoring this construction and try our best to explore the true colors of things.
Second, the understanding of the hidden rules of Conaway small society
White mentioned that the middle class regards Konawo as a mess, unorganized, full of crime and showing a state of social chaos. However, can anyone who knows the real situation in Konaver know it? A highly organized and complete social system? .
In The Real Game in the History of China written by Mr. Wu Si, it is proposed that the hidden rules are unwritten rules that actually dominate the social operation under formal rules. In real life, social operation is not always dominated by formal rules because of the influence of specific environment and interest game. What keeps the society running is actually the hidden rules system under the balance of various forces.
The middle class thinks Konaver is disorderly, because it is not the norms recognized by the middle class that dominate Konaver's operation. What governs Konaver's operation is another set of rules, namely the hidden rules mentioned above.
(1) Social mobility
The middle class believes that the correct way of social mobility is for workers to start from the bottom and climb the ladder of success with wisdom and diligence. Konavers has a hard time climbing this ladder, even at the bottom. The stereotype of Conaway and Italians makes people feel that it is a disorderly and lawless society. It is difficult for Italians to develop by social mobility, so Italians have to establish a hierarchy of their own industries. When this system is gradually improved through the development of time, it is more difficult for people to break through this system and find promotion.
(2) Public safety
White mentioned in the book that the observation of Conaway shows that the important function of the police department is not to enforce the law, but to manage illegal activities. This is also intolerable by the middle class view. The middle class thinks that illegal organizations must be cracked down and punished, while in Konaver, people and landscape itself think that the police should trust the people in his area so that they can solve many problems in a personal way without arresting people. This grey rule of Konawo is the product of the interaction of its environment, the personal interests of the police and the benefit rate of Konawo people. This is the real rule of Konaver's public security management.
White showed us a different street corner society by participating in observation. It is not a chaotic, very organized and structured society as people used to think. It can be said that the choice of qualitative research methods has played an important role in White's successful research and provided methodological guidance for future generations.
Notes on "Corner Society" (Ⅱ)
Since I came into contact with the major of social work, I have been very interested in the research methods involved in sociology, especially field investigation. I am curious about how to make a plan for field research, how to make local people accept themselves, how to integrate themselves into the local area and become a part of it, and how to record everything happening around them with a truly objective attitude. I am eager to get in touch with fieldwork as a social research method more personally, but I have never found a book that can really let me know the actual situation of fieldwork until I first came into contact with William, a sociologist of Chicago School in the United States. Feet? The Street Corner Society written by White gave me a deeper understanding of fieldwork.
Street Corner Society mainly observes the living conditions of Italian youth wandering in the streets, the internal structure and activities of informal organizations, and their relationship with the surrounding society (mainly illegal gang members and political organizations), and gives a detailed and vivid description of this observation process, information obtained and conclusions. The most unique feature of this book is that the author White is based on the group he studied. Corner gang? As a member, he conducts his research in the environment and activities of the observed object, that is, field research, while White adopts a typical method of participating in observation, that is, he obtains the most authentic first-hand information through personal contact with the observed object. This is what attracts me most about this book.