IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/socres/v8y2003i1p81-91.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Problem of Representation: Realism and Operationalism in Survey Research

Author

Listed:
  • Malcolm Williams

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the question of representation in survey research, specifically in respect of the operationalisation of variables. In sociology, empiricist explanations of the social world are largely discredited and some form of realism is now commonly favoured by researchers. Here I will argue that whilst realism has made theoretical progress in sociology, in survey research there has been an unfortunate accommodation between empiricist operationalism and a naive methodological realism. I will argue that operationalism is not a viable strategy and instead will put the case for a realist approach to definition and measurement in survey research.

Suggested Citation

  • Malcolm Williams, 2003. "The Problem of Representation: Realism and Operationalism in Survey Research," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 8(1), pages 81-91, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:8:y:2003:i:1:p:81-91
    DOI: 10.5153/sro.779
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.5153/sro.779
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.5153/sro.779?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cheung, Chau-kiu, 2017. "Police and social work preventions of offending among at-risk youth in Shanghai," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 112-118.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:8:y:2003:i:1:p:81-91. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.