Last week, walking up and down Flora Avenue, I overheard two women talking as they got out of their cars. One was telling the other about seeing a friend and realizing that she'd been vaccinated long enough that they could hug. I could hear in the tone of her voice even more than in her words her excitement and relief. Experiencing human contact has become all too fraught over the last year.
In her turn to speak, the other woman lamented that even after getting vaccinated, we still have to follow "all these rules." I shook my head and sighed to myself. I think of a rule as something we obey because we are told to do so, despite our own wishes. We've chosen our COVID protocol again and again because we care about the safety of our families and our community. I don't see these as rules, but instead as choices I make to shape systems.
Systems were especially on my mind as I strolled along this street divided by trees, because I had been listening to an episode each from two different podcasts: Short Wave and Code Switch.
In the Short Wave episode, I learned that the purple sea urchin population has grown so big off the coast of northern California that their appetites threaten the existence of the kelp forests. The podcast hosts talked through how we have reached this situation, and they traced it, of course, back to climate change. They talked about how scientists and entrepreneurs alike are trying to protect the kelp from the urchins who have thrived too much.
In the Code Switch episode, I followed the hosts' journey processing their thoughts and interviewing experts on the undeniable presence and intersection of anti-Asian hate, sexism, and stigmatization of sex work in the United States. They talked about how complicated it can be to address these problems, and how some people believe pursuing legal action against racially-motivated crimes is necessary, while others point out the risks and failure of legal action so far.
Although each episode had ostensibly different topics, hearing them back to back reminded me of one of the debates presented in Michael Crotty's The Foundation of Social Research (which I mentioned in last week's Finding Out issue).
Some researchers are known as positivists. They have argued that research of the social world and the natural world are inherently different, and therefore, must use different methods. Researchers known as interpretivists, on the other hand, argue that the natural and the social are inherently linked.
Crotty seems to agree with the latter group, pointing out that ultimately, all research is social, because research is conducted by humans, and humans are social. There's more nuance to it than that, but I’m summarizing here in a few sentences what he takes chapters to explore.
On my walk, it was fascinating to encounter three variations of possible research subjects: a podcast episode about how plants and animals interact, a different episode about how people interact, and a conversation about how people and diseases interact. Here they were, side by side by side: social, natural, and social & natural systems. These systems are complex sets of connections where one player—whether urchin or person or virus—affects another, and that leads to another connection, and so on, branching out in a web. From learning about these and so many other systems over the years, I know that in each, the health of the individual affects the health of the whole.
These are the systems I strive to understand as a researcher and as a human. By recognizing systems, we researchers are better able to plan our research and use our findings to support decisions. By recognizing systems, we humans are better able to understand our world and make our own decisions, whether they be about the seafood we eat, the company we keep, or the precautions we take. Systems are complex, and through them, we each affect the whole.
Mentioned in this issue: Code Switch episode "Screams and Silence," published March 24, 2021; Short Wave episode "The Purple Urchins Don't Die," published 26 March 2021; and Michael Crotty's The Foundations of Social Research.