Change of methodological features in the research papers in Croatian sociology

Predstavnici znanstvenih disciplina, uključujući i sociologe, trebaju biti refleksivni prema svom radu i prema vlastitim istraživačkim aktivnostima. Metodologija, kao jedan od aspekata tih aktivnosti, predstavlja skup pravila o korištenju različitih metoda i tehnika istraživanja. Autor ove disertacije krenuo je od pretpostavke da je moguće identificirati obrasce korištenja različitih metodoloških pristupa u sociologiji te da istraživači trebaju proučavati širi društveni kontekst da bi mogli utemeljeno objasniti pojavljivanje različitih obrazaca korištenja metodoloških pristupa. Slijedom navedenog, da bi se objasnio predmet istraživanja, u ovoj se disertaciji daje pregled teorijskih koncepata iz sociologije znanosti i sociologije znanja te iz refleksivne sociologije. Predmet istraživanja u ovoj disertaciji može se opisati kao proučavanje promjena u metodološkim obilježjima istraživačkih radova u hrvatskoj sociologiji od 60-ih godina prošlog stoljeća pa sve do danas, uključujući i analizu društveno – političkog konteksta u kojem su proučavana obilježja nastajala. Da bi se dobila opširnija slika o istraživanoj problematici, korištene su metode dvaju metodoloških pristupa. Prva metoda predstavljala je kvantitativnu analizu sadržaja istraživanih radova, koja je dala uvid u karakteristike metodoloških obilježja samih radova. U drugoj metodi, korišteni su polu – strukturirani intervjui koji su provedeni na uzorku sociologa, zaposlenih u znanstveno – istraživačkim institucijama. U intervjuima se raspravljalo o društveno – političkom kontekstu u kojem su istraživani radovi objavljeni. Rezultati istraživanja potvrdili su da je došlo do promjena u metodološkim obilježjima radova u promatranom razdoblju, odnosno da je došlo do porasta u kompleksnosti korištene metodologije u hrvatskoj sociologiji te da su opisi te metodologije s vremenom postajali sve detaljniji. U drugom dijelu istraživanja, identificirana su i objašnjena četiri potencijalna faktora pomoću kojih se može opisati društveno – politički kontekst, s naglaskom na 90-e godine prošlog stoljeća. Ti faktori su sljedeći: političke promjene, institucionalne promjene, generacijske promjene i vanjski utjecaji na razvoj sociologije na ovom području. Iako se ne može tvrditi da su identificirani svi elementi na temelju kojih se može jednoznačno objasniti veza između četiriju spomenutih društvenih faktora i promjena u metodologiji, može se dobiti osnovni uvid u njihov odnos, čime se otvara plodonosan prostor za daljnje diskusije i istraživanja na temu ove disertacije. It can be considered important that members of scientific disciplines, including sociologists, have a reflection on their work and their research activities. Methodology as one aspect of these activities is a set of rules on the use of different research methods and techniques. The author of this dissertation started from the assumption that it is possible to identify patterns of use of different methodological approaches in sociology and that some broader context is needed to explain their occurrence. Regarding the theoretical framework of this dissertation, concepts from the sociology of science and knowledge and concepts from social theory about reflexivity were used to explain the research subject. Theoretical concepts from the sociology of knowledge and the sociology of science were used to explain and define the research subject in this dissertation. Also, concepts from these disciplines were used to explain what it means for a sociological community to have a scientific tradition that depends on the broader social context that needs to be explained. As for the concepts from the sociological theory of reflexivity, they were used to explain why it was important to conduct the research about the topic from this dissertation and which factors needed to be taken into account when explaining it. The main subject of this dissertation can be described as observing the changes in the methodological characteristics of research papers in Croatian sociology from the 1960s to the present time. Another subject of this dissertation was to explain the connection between the observed changes in the methodology of the analyzed research papers and the socio – political context in which these changes took place. To obtain a broader picture of the investigated problem, methods from two methodological approaches were used. The first method was a quantitative analysis of the content of the observed scientific papers and on this basis, an insight into the characteristics of the methodological characteristics of these papers was obtained. A total of 2526 papers were analyzed, of which 702 were estimated to be primarily sociological papers. For the second method, semi – structured interviews were conducted with a group of sociologists employed by research institutions. A total of 17 participants from 8 different scientific research institutions positioned in Zagreb, Osijek, and Zadar participated in the interviews. The discussion in the interviews was about the socio – political context in which the analysed papers were published. Specifically, five thematic blocks were represented in the interviews: (1) the state of sociology during the observed period; (2) the socio – political context during the 1990s, which could have influenced the development of sociology; (3) discussion about the results obtained in this dissertation; (4) discussion about the implications of the results; (5) and discussion about the guidelines for the future development of sociology. The research confirmed that there were changes in the methodological features of the papers. In the observed period, there was an increase in the complexity of the methodology used in Croatian sociology. Also, the descriptions of the used methodology were becoming more detailed. This means that in the observed period, more and more different methodological approaches and statistical tests began to be used. Both quantitative and qualitative solutions to research problems began to be part of the methodology used in the papers. Also, the authors of the research papers have progressed from the use of primarily descriptive statistics on their data and began to use different tests from the corpus of bivariate and multivariate statistics. Regarding the progress on the detail of the methodological descriptions, the authors of the research papers began to provide more and more new pieces of information about the procedures they used in their research. Based on this finding, the first hypothesis from this dissertation was confirmed. In the second part of the research, four potential factors that can serve to describe the socio – political context were identified and explained. These factors are political changes as the main factor; institutional changes; generational changes; and international influences on the development of sociology in this area. Based on the results it can be concluded that identified socio – political factors may have had an impact on the increased number of research papers and the greater thematic diversity of these papers during the observed period. Also, it is necessary to conclude that no completely clear link was found between these factors and the development of more complex methodologies in the observed papers. These results only partially support the second hypothesis. It can be considered that all the results from this dissertation represent a fruitful space for further research and discussions on this or similar topics.