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Who theorizes age? The “Socio-Demographic Variables” device and age-period-cohort analysis in the rhetoric of survey research
In this paper we argue that quantitative survey-based social research essentializes age, through specific rhetorical tools. We outline the device of ‘socio-demographic variables’ and we discuss its argumentative functions, looking at scientific survey-based analyses of adult scientific literacy, in...
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| Format: | Default Article |
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2015
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/2134/18861 |
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| _version_ | 1818172655971336192 |
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| author | Cosima Rughinis Bogdana Huma |
| author_facet | Cosima Rughinis Bogdana Huma |
| author_sort | Cosima Rughinis (7188749) |
| collection | Figshare |
| description | In this paper we argue that quantitative survey-based social research essentializes age, through specific rhetorical tools. We outline the device of ‘socio-demographic variables’ and we discuss its argumentative functions, looking at scientific survey-based analyses of adult scientific literacy, in the Public Understanding of Science research field. ‘Socio-demographics’ are virtually omnipresent in survey literature: they are, as a rule, used and discussed as bundles of independent variables, requiring little, if any, theoretical and measurement attention. ‘Socio-demographics’ are rhetorically effective through their common-sense richness of meaning and inferential power. We identify their main argumentation functions as ‘structure building’, ‘pacification’, and ‘purification’. Socio-demographics are used to uphold causal vocabularies, supporting the transmutation of the descriptive statistical jargon of ‘effects’ and ‘explained variance’ into ‘explanatory factors’. Age can also be studied statistically as a main variable of interest, through the Age-Period-Cohort (APC) disambiguation technique. While this approach has generated interesting findings, it did not mitigate the reductionism that appears when treating age as a socio-demographic variable. By working with age as a ‘socio-demographic variable’, quantitative researchers convert it (inadvertently) into a quasi-biological feature, symmetrical, as regards analytical treatment, with pathogens in epidemiological research. |
| format | Default Article |
| id | rr-article-9474551 |
| institution | Loughborough University |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| record_format | Figshare |
| spelling | rr-article-94745512015-01-01T00:00:00Z Who theorizes age? The “Socio-Demographic Variables” device and age-period-cohort analysis in the rhetoric of survey research Cosima Rughinis (7188749) Bogdana Huma (1257846) Sociological methodology and research methods Sociology and social studies of science and technology Sociology not elsewhere classified Other human society not elsewhere classified Other language, communication and culture not elsewhere classified Age Aging Rhetoric of inquiry Socio-demographic variables Survey Public Understanding of Science Language, Communication and Culture not elsewhere classified Studies in Human Society not elsewhere classified Sociology Sociological Methodology and Research Methods Sociology and Social Studies of Science and Technology In this paper we argue that quantitative survey-based social research essentializes age, through specific rhetorical tools. We outline the device of ‘socio-demographic variables’ and we discuss its argumentative functions, looking at scientific survey-based analyses of adult scientific literacy, in the Public Understanding of Science research field. ‘Socio-demographics’ are virtually omnipresent in survey literature: they are, as a rule, used and discussed as bundles of independent variables, requiring little, if any, theoretical and measurement attention. ‘Socio-demographics’ are rhetorically effective through their common-sense richness of meaning and inferential power. We identify their main argumentation functions as ‘structure building’, ‘pacification’, and ‘purification’. Socio-demographics are used to uphold causal vocabularies, supporting the transmutation of the descriptive statistical jargon of ‘effects’ and ‘explained variance’ into ‘explanatory factors’. Age can also be studied statistically as a main variable of interest, through the Age-Period-Cohort (APC) disambiguation technique. While this approach has generated interesting findings, it did not mitigate the reductionism that appears when treating age as a socio-demographic variable. By working with age as a ‘socio-demographic variable’, quantitative researchers convert it (inadvertently) into a quasi-biological feature, symmetrical, as regards analytical treatment, with pathogens in epidemiological research. 2015-01-01T00:00:00Z Text Journal contribution 2134/18861 https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Who_theorizes_age_The_Socio-Demographic_Variables_device_and_age-period-cohort_analysis_in_the_rhetoric_of_survey_research/9474551 CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 |
| spellingShingle | Sociological methodology and research methods Sociology and social studies of science and technology Sociology not elsewhere classified Other human society not elsewhere classified Other language, communication and culture not elsewhere classified Age Aging Rhetoric of inquiry Socio-demographic variables Survey Public Understanding of Science Language, Communication and Culture not elsewhere classified Studies in Human Society not elsewhere classified Sociology Sociological Methodology and Research Methods Sociology and Social Studies of Science and Technology Cosima Rughinis Bogdana Huma Who theorizes age? The “Socio-Demographic Variables” device and age-period-cohort analysis in the rhetoric of survey research |
| title | Who theorizes age? The “Socio-Demographic Variables” device and age-period-cohort analysis in the rhetoric of survey research |
| title_full | Who theorizes age? The “Socio-Demographic Variables” device and age-period-cohort analysis in the rhetoric of survey research |
| title_fullStr | Who theorizes age? The “Socio-Demographic Variables” device and age-period-cohort analysis in the rhetoric of survey research |
| title_full_unstemmed | Who theorizes age? The “Socio-Demographic Variables” device and age-period-cohort analysis in the rhetoric of survey research |
| title_short | Who theorizes age? The “Socio-Demographic Variables” device and age-period-cohort analysis in the rhetoric of survey research |
| title_sort | who theorizes age? the “socio-demographic variables” device and age-period-cohort analysis in the rhetoric of survey research |
| topic | Sociological methodology and research methods Sociology and social studies of science and technology Sociology not elsewhere classified Other human society not elsewhere classified Other language, communication and culture not elsewhere classified Age Aging Rhetoric of inquiry Socio-demographic variables Survey Public Understanding of Science Language, Communication and Culture not elsewhere classified Studies in Human Society not elsewhere classified Sociology Sociological Methodology and Research Methods Sociology and Social Studies of Science and Technology |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/2134/18861 |