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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Armchair Empiricism: A Reassessment of Data Collection in Survey Research in Africa |
Authors: | Russell, Margo Mugyenyi, Mary |
Year: | 1997 |
Periodical: | African Sociological Review (ISSN 1027-4332) |
Volume: | 1 |
Issue: | 1 |
Pages: | 16-29 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Africa |
Subjects: | social research Bibliography/Research |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/24487461 |
Abstract: | This article is concerned with a practice that has become standard in sociological research in Africa, namely the employment of poorly paid, poorly trained, temporary enumerators for the central and sensitive task of data collection. This practice is applied both in social surveys which use official figures and in research projects that solicit original data. The authors analyse the historical forces - both political and economic - behind this practice. They examine the typical social relationship between the researcher and the data collector, emphasizing the production of socially structured misunderstandings. They argue that the gap between data collection and analysis constitutes a weakness in survey research, which is likely to undermine its results. This is illustrated on the basis of the authors' own experience in Swaziland. Bibliogr., notes., sum. in English and French. |