Knowledge about the society can be obtained both through exposures to social activities, and readings from newspaper or academic articles. Without essential knowledge about the society, one cannot understand how different people interact and their concerns, how organizations operate and different from each other, how social order is maintained or challenged. Data, whether is qualitative or quantitative, never tell you the causal mechanism. It is the researcher who digs it out. Moreover, without knowledge about the society, one cannot judge the significance of a research project. As a result, he/she may focus on trivial phenomena that do not have little contribution to the social or theoretical world.
On the other hand, there are too many explanations to a single phenomenon in social science, while there are too few proofs. No matter how great an idea one has, without any proof, it only results in paying lip service, and we have no way to conduct critical tests towards different explanations. Data processing is a way to put forward one’s idea in a logical manner, and it provides grounds for the academia to make a comparison between different ideas.
On the other hand, there are too many explanations to a single phenomenon in social science, while there are too few proofs. No matter how great an idea one has, without any proof, it only results in paying lip service, and we have no way to conduct critical tests towards different explanations. Data processing is a way to put forward one’s idea in a logical manner, and it provides grounds for the academia to make a comparison between different ideas.