Fox, N.J. orcid.org/0000-0003-2037-2664 and Alldred, P. (2021) Doing new materialist data analysis: a Spinozo-Deleuzian ethological toolkit. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 25 (5). pp. 625-638. ISSN 1364-5579
Abstract
With growing social science interest in new materialist and posthuman ontologies, it is timely to explore how these may translate practically into social research methodologies. This task is complicated by differing interpretations of how new materialist precepts should shape research. This paper aims to fill a gap in the literature by setting out a methodology using one specific thread within the new materialisms: Deleuzian ‘ethology’. Inspired by Spinoza’s Ethics, Deleuze established a conceptual toolkit for ethological inquiry, comprising ‘relation’, ‘assemblage’, ‘affect’ and ‘capacity’. We show how this toolkit translates into a design for analysing empirical data. Effective data analysis also depends on the adequacy and appropriateness of earlier stages in the research process. We therefore also consider an ethological approach to setting a research question, choosing data collection methods and presenting study findings. We conclude with some reflections on the challenges of translating philosophical theory into social science methodology.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. |
Keywords: | Assemblage; data analysis; Deleuze; ethology; new materialism; research assemblage |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health (Sheffield) > School of Health and Related Research (Sheffield) > ScHARR - Sheffield Centre for Health and Related Research |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 30 Jul 2021 13:06 |
Last Modified: | 26 Jun 2024 07:43 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Taylor & Francis |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/13645579.2021.1933070 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:176696 |
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