On the current position of empirical social research in Germany
Theodor W. Adorno gave a speech on the current position of empirical social research in Germany in 1952, in which he deals with the importance of this research method for critical theory . He considers this debate to be relevant because, in particular, opinion research as a branch of empirical social research only gained sociological importance in Germany after the Second World War .
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Adorno emphasizes the importance of this area of sociology, since in particular the social situation of people after the Second World War must be analyzed. Social analyzes within the framework of the Marshall Plan are mentioned as examples . In this context, Adorno refers to the cooperation between the Institute for Social Research (IfS) in Frankfurt (am Main) under Max Horkheimer with the occupying powers and commercial enterprises. However, in empirical social research, Adorno also sees the risk of malfunctions, even manipulation of the population, and calls for the democratic potential of opinion research to be recognized as a top priority .
- “ We have to be careful not to see the people with whom we deal as mere quanta, whose thinking and behavior are subject to blind laws. We know that they remain people with the possibility of free self-determination and spontaneity even when they are caught in opaque contexts themselves, and that the law of large numbers has its limit on this element of the spontaneous and conscious . "
It is important to him that people do not remain a figure in theory, but that theory is brought into harmony with practice. He sees human action in the “delusion context”, d. H. that the client can influence the result in a certain way without the individuals involved noticing. With its quasi-scientific approach, empirical social research can make a contribution to democratization , but it will always have to start with a certain degree of fuzziness. The spontaneous action of people relativizes the laws of large numbers .
Adorno sees another task of empirical social research in de-ideologizing sociology .
- Sociology is not a humanities. [...] It refers in advance to the conflict between man and nature and to objective forms of socialization, which can by no means be traced back to the spirit in the sense of an internal constitution of people.
Adorno combines this claim with the hope that empirical social research can contribute to naive theses, e.g. B. to refute the assumed conservatism of peasants, which have been developed on the basis of social phenomena , but arise without consideration of socialization in social roles and contexts, i.e. without consideration of social conditions .
- “ The usual objection that empirical social research is too mechanical, too coarse, too unspiritual, shifts responsibility from the subject of science to it. The much criticized inhumanity of empirical methods is still more humane than the humanization of the inhuman. "
However, it would be misleading to see Adorno as a representative of purely empirical social research, even one that is based on scientific methodology. Rather, he advocates a connection between sociological theory and empirical social research. The goal of sociology , if it is committed to the Enlightenment , must be to uncover what is “technologized” in our society, in our culture, in every part of our life as such. Adorno also sees the duty of science not simply to accept the level of appearance of society, but to analyze the underlying conditions as part of the social totality and - this is the core of critical theory: - to criticize. Critical theory is expressly not concerned with optimizing the existing order, but with criticizing the existing society itself with the aim of establishing sensible conditions.
See also
- Theodor W. Adorno: Sociology and empirical research
source
- Theodor W. Adorno: On the current position of empirical social research in Germany . In: Heinz Sahner (Ed.): Fifty years after Weinheim. Empirical social research yesterday, today and tomorrow. (1st edition 1952) Weinheim 2002, pp. 13-22.