Dissertation
CONTRIBUTING A VERSE TO THE POWERFUL PLAY: THE INTERSECTION OF QUANTITATIVE SOCIOLOGY, DISCOURSE, AND MEANING
Washington State University
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
01/2022
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000004381
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/118855
Abstract
Sociology is synonymous with the study of sociality; it encompasses uncovering the fundamental relationships tying individual behavior to group behavior. Considerable labor by countless past scholars has been invested in building the groundwork for a quantitative sociology that is able to cope with the “duality of persons and groups.” But neither persons nor groups are devoid of culture, cognition, or meaning. Recent work from practitioners of relational sociology has encouraged scholars to look at social life with fresh eyes and has proposed the need for analytical methods that are attendant not only to persons and groups, but to culture as well.
Sociologists routinely make use of language as data. However, they have begun to lag behind other disciplines in pioneering approaches that are able to make use of the ever-growing availability of such data. This study provides researchers with an overview of two quantitative text analytic techniques—topic modeling and mental modeling—and encourages them to use such approaches to innovate beyond their more familiar methodological territory. These techniques do not supplant earlier tried and true methodologies, or the trained expertise and domain knowledge of researchers, but provide scholars with more tools to gain leverage over important research questions in an era of data saturation.
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Details
- Title
- CONTRIBUTING A VERSE TO THE POWERFUL PLAY
- Creators
- Nathan Charles Lindstedt
- Contributors
- Erik W Johnson (Advisor)Thomas Rotolo (Committee Member)Jennifer Schwartz (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Sociology, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 175
- Identifiers
- 99900883135501842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation