SOC 531: Community Organization

Oral History

Oral History

• Morris uses a method that has come to be called oral history– this is used by historians who are now allowed

to study the recent past– the interviews with key informants are often

not as formal as sociologists might like• historians sometimes act more as journalists than

as social scientists• there is, in fact, a fair degree of interdisciplinary

confusion if not animosity on this point

Historians vs. Sociologists

• Historians insist that names and dates are recorded accurately

• sociologists are often inclined to disguise the identity of their sources

• historians complain that sociological data are thereby useless– can't identify names– can't connect names and dates

Historians and Sociologists (continued)

• historians often claim that they use waivers to protect against lawsuits (which satisfies universities and publishers)

• sociologists often complain that historians– violate the rights of their subjects– ask leading questions– produce potentially embarrassing information– that can be directly attributed to the

respondents

Sociological Oral History

• Morris (and Hogan) offer more or less open-ended interviews with key informants

• they use snowball samples to identify knowledgeable sources

• but they also acquire considerable background before conducting interviews

• Morris uses archival materials and secondary sources

Key Informants

• Hogan uses participant observation (beginning with his friend, "Tom")

• In both cases, as sociologists, they– had specific questions they wanted to ask– had considerable knowledge of who the

subject was and what their experience was• based on organizational records and secondary

sources, for Morris• based on observation, for Hogan

Key Informants (continued)

• Morris explains (p. 328) how he acquired this background knowledge before conducting interviews

• Morris explains (p. 329) how he triangulated sources to guard against selective memory and bias, more generally

• Hogan (Appendix A) describes his observations and independent sources

Archival Sources

• Aside from these sociological tricks of the trade (or research methods)

• Morris and Hogan rely on multiple methods, including organizational records available in local archives or from the organizations themselves

• multiple methods are characteristic of community studies (Whyte is the exception here)

Archival Sources (cont.)

• Archival methods have, traditionally, been somewhat mysterious– historians require that graduate and even

undergraduates use archives– but they rarely teach course on archival

methods

Sociologists are now incorporating archival methods in their methods courses, both quantitative and qualitative

Archival Methods

• We will talk more about archival methods when we read Walton

• Aside from this, there is some discussion of archival methods in Hogan (1990)– better sources in sociology include Charles

Tilly, From Mobilization to Revolution (1978), Roberto Franzosi, From Words to Numbers (2004)

Oral History (sum)

• Oral history combines– interviews with key informants– archival material for context

• Sociologists and historians agree on issues of validity – need to triangulate sources– need for background information and context

before interviewing

Oral History (sum)

• Sociologists and historians disagree– on anonymity and protection of respondent– on reliability and bias associated with

• ad-hoc or undocumented methods of selecting subjects or asking questions

• journalistic as opposed to sociological methods of probing for information (directive or nondirective)

• legalistic versus sociological approach to problems of interviewer effects

Oral History (parting comments)

• Morris offers a questionnaire from his interview with Rev. Ralph Abernathy (Appendix C)

• Hogan will pass around his fieldnotes from an interview with Tom's Boss (more focused: good development, enlightened developers, your project, changes over time, the city, and the Natural Community Conservation program).

Oral History (final)

• You who envision yourselves doing participant observation

• should think about using key informants

• should think about using archival and secondary sources– before you interview your informants– before you participate