Responses To The Methodological Turn Of Social Science In The Big Data Era

The theories,quantitative construction and dichotomy of subjectivity and objectivity in the methodology of social science already existed when social science itself was differentiated from natural science.Besides,its methodological tendency also became diversified with human developing history.Now the proposal of the concept "big data" and the following global wave,however,have begun to have great impact on the quantitative research.Specially,huge database(It is approaching total data)makes its way of research no longer rest on traditional sampling and hypothesis testing gradually,providing the aim and content of the research with the unprecedented convenience.Meanwhile,some theory researchers criticize the quantitative way,emphasizing the role of theory in the research of social science,when facing the fact that the quantitative research dominates.This paper describes the reasons why the quantitative methodology in the social science is getting increasingly popular,beginning with the appearance of big data,what they feature and their venation.And the author tries to give responses to the limits of the quantitative research in this era,thus staying away from those who excessively prefer the quantitative way and the tendency in sociology by systematic statements of the duty of methodology and its construction of the theorists from the classical to contemporary periods.What should be reflected ultimately can be as follows.On one hand,due to the fact that researchers often show us a dichotomic mindset so that it is a kind of epistemological "Sociological Breakthrough" how to leave the either-or framework and deeply search for the meanings and problems in social life world.On the other hand,does it mean the end of the methodology and theory in traditional researches in the light of the coming of big data and the changes of life style and the global structure?From the perspective of the meaning of human social life,the answer is undoubtedly no.This paper totally consists of five parts except the beginning introduction,the first chapter.The first chapter,from the macro perspective,is a kind of summary depiction to the big data era.In this part,especially,are as follows.On one hand,this part aims to give relatively explicit explanations of the concept of the word "big data",the reason why it has appeared,how it spreads globally and its characteristics.Thus,the reason why big data are becoming more and more popular and start to be chased after or praised highly.On the other hand,the methodological turn or preference that has something to do with this paper is extracted from the practical application or use of big data,which,to some extent,is used to be the precondition and background as a response.In the second part,nevertheless,in the light of the viewpoint of Zhigang Xie,a researcher of Institute of Economics Chinese Academy of Social Sciences,the praise and refutation of the quantitative research in the big data era are regarded as one more methodological debate.And therefore,starting with this sense,the author tends to give summary systematic statements to the three methodological debates from the historical perspective respectively.In this sense,even if it is nothing but a phenomenon in recent years that big data has caused the methodological debate,but in another way,the basic problem is still a kind of continuation of history itself.But this debate,in another sense,is much different from the previous two according to its specialty.In the third part,the existing limits of quantitative research are intensively discussed,which is from Weber's sociology of "Verstehen" in the classical period to Foucault's view of humanities in the contemporary period.But in fact,Weber and other theorists' critiques about the way of research in positivism don't mean the fact that all of their points have no defects or shorts,and the differences and critiques between them have also come into existence.After the methodological debates and the various statements from the theorists in different periods,the fourth part aims to have a foundation of great significance,which means what the way of quantitative research is supposed to do,in other words,the duty.The purpose of differentiating the way is to reflect the social phenomenon that the practical circumstance of quantitative research is,to some extent,distinct from what it should have been.In consideration of the social fact,the author at last put much emphasis on the importance that theory cannot be ignored in social science in Weber's way from the constructivism and in the light of the agency in playing go.Be that as it may,the ultimate intendancy ought to be reiterated and responded,which means that it is not merely shown the methodology of subjects from the classical to contemporary periods.The reason why it is essential is that' the inner distinction is not so clear in this form of debate;besides,in a epistemological way,it is still of much extremism and dichotomous.