THE MEANINGS OF METHODOLOGYthe test of an explanation is not static. Testing the-
ory is a dynamic, ongoing process of applying and
modifying theory. Knowledge grows with the use
of an ongoing process of eroding ignorance and en-
larging insights through action.
CSS separates good from bad theory by put-
ting the theory into practice and then uses the out-
come of these applications to reformulate theory.
Praxismeans that explanations are valued when
they help people understand the world and to take
action that changes it. As Sayer (1992:13) argued,
“Knowledge is primarily gained through activity
both in attempting to change our environment
(through labor or work) and through interaction
with other people.”
Critical praxis tries to eliminate the division be-
tween the researcher and the people being studied,
the distinction between science and daily life. For
example, a CSS researcher develops an explanation
for housing discrimination. He or she tests the ex-
planation by using it to try to change conditions. If
the explanation says that underlying economic re-
lations cause discrimination and that landlords re-
fuse to rent to minorities because it is profitable to
rent only to nonminorities, then political actions that
make it profitable to rent to minorities should
change the landlords’ behavior. By contrast, if the
explanation says that an underlying racial hatred
causes landlords to discriminate, then actions based
on profit will be unsuccessful. The critical re-
searcher would then examine race hatred as the
basis of landlord behavior through new studies com-
bined with new political action.
8.What does good evidence or factual infor-
mation look like?
PSS assumes that there are incontestable neutral
facts on which all rational people agree. Its dualist
doctrine says that social facts are like objects. They
exist separately from values or theories. ISS sees the
social world as made up of created meaning with
people creating and negotiating meanings. It rejects
positivism’s dualism, but it substitutes an emphasis
on the subjective. Evidence is whatever resides in
the subjective understandings of those involved. The
critical approach bridges the object–subject gap.
It says that the facts of material conditions exist
independently of subjective perceptions, but that
facts are not theory neutral. Instead, facts require an
interpretation from within a framework of values,
theory, and meaning.
For example, it is a “fact” that the United States
spends a much higher percentage of its gross na-
tional product (GNP) on health care than any other
advanced industrial nation, yet it ranks as the
twenty-ninth lowest for infant death rate (7 deaths
per 1,000 live births). A CSS interprets the fact by
noting that the United States has many people with-
out health care and no system to cover everyone.
The fact includes the way the health care is delivered
to some through a complex system of for-profit in-
surance companies, pharmaceutical firms, hospi-
tals, and others who benefit greatly from the current
arrangement. Some powerful groups in the system
are getting rich while weaker or poor sectors of so-
ciety are getting low-quality or no health care. CSS
researchers look at the facts and ask who benefits
and who loses.
Theory helps a critical researcher find new facts
and separate the important from the trivial ones. The
theory is a type of map telling researchers where to
look for facts and how to interpret them once they are
uncovered. The critical approach says that theory
does this in the natural sciences, as well. For example,
a biologist looks into a microscope and sees red blood
cells—a “fact” based on a theory about blood and
cells and a biologist’s education about microscopic
phenomena. Without this theory and education, a bi-
ologist sees only meaningless spots. Clearly, then,
facts and theories are interrelated.
CSS notes that only some theories are useful
for finding and understanding key facts. Theories
rest on beliefs and assumptions about what the
world is like and on a set of moral-political values.
CSS states that some values are better than others.^21
Thus, to interpret facts, we must understand history,
adopt a set of moral-political values, and know
where to look for underlying structures. DifferentPraxis A way to evaluate explanations in critical so-
cial science by putting theoretical explanations into
real-life practice and the subsequent outcome is used
to refine explanation.