Positivism and its Discontents: Why researchers need to talk to people

In the contemporary culture wars there's a crop of commentators who insist that 'science' is on their side.  They're talking about falsification, replication, quantitative methods, and randomised-control trials - the buzzwords of positivism - and they insist that what their opponents say is invalid because it doesn't meet positivism's standards for what counts as 'knowledge'. Sensing an opportunity for ePODstemology to discuss epistemology, we invited Rod Graham of Old Dominion University  to the show.  Rod is high school biology teacher turned sociology professor who teaches research methods and works on interdisciplinary, multi-method research projects. He is also one of twitter's most thoughtful and genuine commentators on the culture wars. Rod helps us to understand positivism, interpretivism, critical theory, and why we're going to need all three to 'know' much at all in social science.