2.1. The impact of sociological and geographical
imaginations on the research methodology.
The geographical imagination or "spatial consciousness"
enables an individual to understand and recognize the
effect the role of the environment plays in his/her life.
A sociological imagination is the common bond of social
sciences, which includes anthropology, psychology,
economics, social philosophy and history. (3) The
sociological imagination has an extensive literature. It
has results of surveys conducted all over the world and
theories which have been well-articulated. (4)
The sociological processes of Anglo-Indians in these
geographical spaces, although investigated in the past, had
not recognised the link between a sociological imagination
and a geographical imagination. Since previous research
had completely neglected this analysis, the researcher was
in uncharted waters .
The geographical space and the sociological implications of
the history of the community and its schools had its roots
in the fifteenth century. The researcher attempted to
understand disadvantage in the Anglo-Indian community by
investigating the link between the geographical and
sociological imaginations of Anglo-Indian schools.
The historical disadvantage in Anglo-Indian schools linked
the school and the community. The school and the community
were historically affected by the environment. (5) The
community lived in microcosmic ethnic colonies. The
processes of parochial and inward-looking "competition and
accommodation" (6) in these ethnic colonies had to be
investigated. The ethnicity of the Anglo-Indian determined
"the size and ecological organization" (7) of the community
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