CHAPTER VII
METHODOLOGY
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7.1 Introduction
Schutz (1973:58) discusses methodological problems peculiar
to the social sciences and comes to the conclusion that
... a theory which aims at explaining social reality has
to develop particular devices foreign to the natural
sciences in order to agree with the common sense
experience of the world.
The observational field of the social scientist - social
reality - has a specific meaning and relevance structure
for the human beings living, acting and thinking within
it. By a series of commonsense constructs, they have
pre-selected and pre-interpreted this world which they
experience as the reality of their daily lives. It is
these thought objects of theirs which determine their
behaviour by motivating it. The thought objects
constructed by the social scientist in order to grasp
this social reality have to be founded upon the thought
objects constructed by the common sense thinking of men,
living their daily life within their social world.
...the constructs of the social sciences are, so to
speak, constructs of the second degree, that is constructs
of the constructs made by the actors whose behaviour
the social scientist has to observe and to explain in
accordance with the procedural rules of his science.
The object of this study is to seek to give understanding of
everyday life in the ,world(s)* where Aborigines seek to construct
an Aboriginal identity.
The researcher sets out to explore "the common sense thinking
of men living their daily life within their social world", but seeks
to order this reality in a more coherent manner than is readily
available to the actors themselves. The purpose of this ordering is
to enable the actors themselves to interact with their world to change
it in ways which seem purposeful and profitable to them.
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