Blackwell Reference Online

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It is in part through their methodologies that sociological studies of deviance are distinguished from other disciplinary interests (e.g., philosophical, legal) in troublesome or otherwise offensive aspects of human group life. Questions of method are fundamentally questions related to our theories of knowing: how we claim to know what we know, how we go about the work of supporting our knowledge claims, and how we construct the intersubjective realities we share. The process of doing research involves a critical assessment of our theories of the social world in light of the empirical world that we are claiming to represent. Sociology is a discipline that is marked by internal controversies about the preferred ways to conceptualize the social world and to study it. Unlike many of the traditional disciplines within the natural sciences, sociology is not dominated by one theoretical tradition, but is best understood as a discipline that is home to multiple paradigms. Of the various understandings of deviance that are to be found in the extended literature, this author's commitments are best contextualized relative to interactionist understandings of deviance. Deviance is understood therein as a negative quality that is attributed to any social act or social object by some audience. From these perspectives, deviance is not a quality of any thought, act, or object, but rather is a quality ... log in or subscribe to read full text