Some questions on the relationship between theory and research in the application of method of observation

The article discusses the gradual abandonment of the efforts to verify hypotheses and complex theoretical assumptions in the social sciences by observation. The first section shows the classical understanding that emphasized the importance of the theoretically directed observation. The second section shows the efforts towards inclusion of the observed in the interpretation of observations. The third section contains an analysis of the impact of today’s strict division on the qualitative and quantitative methodology. This influence can be seen in a complete separation of the structured observation and participatory observation, the disintegration of observation as a research procedure, its replacement by ethnography and case study method, as well as abandoning more general theoretical ambition within qualitative methodology. The fourth section analyzes the epistemological consequences of efforts to understand the fieldwork primarily as a power relationship and to transform the observed into the subjects of research. Development of the attitudes on the relationship between theory and research in the application of methods of observation in social sciences is associated with theoretical eclecticism in the field of contemporary sociological theory and distancing from philosophy of science with its understanding of the role of research programs and research traditions in the field of growth of scientific knowledge. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 179035: Izazovi nove drustvene integracije u Srbiji: koncepti i akteri]