Statistics tend to be favoured by macro sociologists, its advocates seek to infer findings to the wider population from the data they have gathered.
Official statistics are defined by www.gov.uk as statistics that are 'produced impartially and free from political influence'. The government gather huge amounts of statistical data, e.g. exam results, crime rates, prison population and the number of flu cases within a certain period of time.
Discuss with the class the extent to which they trust the claims made in the below clip link: - Blake Lively L'Oreal shampoo and conditioner
Discover More Do you trust the claims made in this advertisement or any you see on the internet?
After watching the clip, discuss who pays for surveys like this to be conducted? What might this tell us?
As an extension task students could then find newspaper articles which refer to official statistics, such as on crime, and analyse the extent to which they trust the claims being made.
An example of a newspaper article can be found here:
Discover More Crime rates 'lowest for 20 years'
Absolutism is a political theory that suggests that power should be vested in a single individ...
The infamous ‘Anarchy in the UK’ by the Sex Pistols could be playing as students e...
A good overview of conservatism is provided by the Encyclopaedia Britannica:
Elite theory is the notion that power is concentrated in the hands of a small, minority elite....
A range of resources are available to help with an introductory series of sessions of UK polit...
Here students could be set the task of ‘teaching the teacher’ on liberalism. This ...
Robert Dahl (1961) suggested that modern societies are characterised by pluralism. This means ...
Political protests have and do exist on a continuum from the peaceful to violent. Ten historic...
Pressure groups play a key role in the political system. They tend to campaign on a specific t...
The World Socialism organisation provides an account of ‘what socialism is’
Research suggests that whilst membership of mainstream political parties has decreased in rece...
Politics are an important part of society, which, even though many may not realise it, has a cruc...
Brought to you by the British Sociological Association