John writes:
>
>There appears a similarity here with identifying trends through mapping the
>outcomes of a number of 'experiments' (for which we can read 'personal
>narratives') We end up with a large number of 'way points' on a chart where
>their location is identified by their relationship to the X and Y axis. If
>anything is to be concluded at all depends if there is a band of high
>concentration of these way points, which allows the experienced researcher
>to throw a graph throug this high density zone. Soon this graph line will be
>assumed to be the result of the experiment, and all the way points outside
>this graph will be ifgnored or forgotten.
>Observation one: In the case of the social model we are probably dealing
>with more than two dimensions.
>Observation two: There is a tendency to freeze the result in time, ie no new
>narratives are included, and hence its validity does not adjust to evolution
>Observation three: The validity in the first instance is very much affected
>by the high density of the graph zone, and low density of 'scatter'
>Observation four: to assure validity we must be open to adding new narrative
>so we maintain the time line in the present and immediate past, and we must
>also revisit the assumptions the graph is based on.
>
Actually John, I agree with all of this. My initial subject at university
was biological science and we had it pretty much drummed into us to
organise data in this way. I think the point I wanted to make was that when
we use such approaches to analysing the social world, we inevitably end up
distorting the data. This is well documented in feminist literature. So,
yes, it is important to revisit models and theories and to look at how the
incorporation of 'new' narratives effects them. I do see this happening in
other disciplines, since most disciplines struggle with this issue, and in
some cases the discussions and debates are quite civilised. I can't see why
disabled people should feel so threatened by it if the reason behind it is
engagement and inclusion. There are undoubtedly some people who 'trouble'
the social model for less egalitarian reasons, but I don't include myself
or Simon in that group.
Best wishes
Mairian
Mairian Corker
Senior Research Fellow, School of Education and Social Science, UCLAN;
Visiting Senior Research Fellow, School of Education, Kings College London.
Address for correspondence:
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