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Generalisable
An important judgement about any piece of sociological research is whether its conclusions are only applicable to the specific groups that have been studied, or whether they can be generalisable to the wider public.
The need to access a representative sample is because it is only then that conclusions might be generalisable. Micro sociologists tend to be less concerned about this than macro ones. This is because they are interested in particular phenomena rather than in broad judgements about the structure of society as a whole. However, macro theorists would tend to question the value of data that can only be applied to a very narrow case study or group in society.
The more representative a sample, the more generalisable the results.
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12th April 2021