Mauri Yambo: Classification

9. Representativeness.

I say something about each of the nine standards in separate posts, as shown in the links above. What I want to briefly talk about here is the measurability standard.

Measurability

Measurability means susceptibility to measurement. It means, in other words, that what is to be measured must embody quantities and/or qualities -- or have features, dimensions or characteristics -- that can be subjected to appropriate or 'true' measurement. Concerning the defining characteristics of a measurement, Bell (1999) notes that:

"A measurement tells us about a property of something. It might tell us how heavy an object is, or how hot, or how long it is. A measurement gives a number to that property. Measurements are always made using an instrument of some kind. Rulers, stopwatches, weighing scales, and thermometers are all measuring instruments. The result of a measurement is normally in two parts: a number and a unit of measurement, e.g. ‘How long is it?... 2 metres."

The measurability rule is anchored on the above conceptions, and so requires that the variables around which the researcher intends to collect data should be measurable, or susceptible to acceptable ‘measurement’ (Leedy, 1980: 46)[1]. This is easier done in the natural sciences than in the social sciences; in quantitative studies than in qualitative. Still, one must, in the social sciences too, endeavor to quantify, measure and evaluate. Indeed, the guiding principle of the measurability rule -- its corollary, in other words -- is this: "What can be measured must be measured." Thus, not measuring what can be measured is not an option allowed anyone.

In quantitative research, the measurability standard features prominently in all methodological procedures that revolve around, or build up to, hypothesis testing. The testability of a hypothesis is indeed a function of the measurability of the variables that constitute it. Such measurability is, in turn, dependent on the indicators chosen to represent them; but one is not entirely free to choose just any indicator(s). They must be such as most peers or reviewers or supervisors or sponsors can be persuaded to accept as valid and reliable. Still, one has some leeway in choosing the indicators one wishes to use, so long as the reviewers, supervisors or funding entities are prepared to see or accept one's findings “in the light" of the chosen indicators.

Viswanathan (2010: 285-210) has interrogated in depth the challenges encountered in "Measure development procedures," particularly in connection with quantitatively-oriented social science research. Among these challenges, which he believes are not sufficiently appreciated, is the underpinning assumption, which he faults, that "a construct can be [readily and invariably] isolated and examined." Here is his line of thinking:

"By measuring or manipulating individual constructs, relationships between constructs are studied and substantive hypotheses about these relationships are tested. The very notion that numbers can be assigned to attributes of people, objects, or events is presumed on being able to study attributes or constructs separate from other constructs. After all, measurement relates to rules for assigning numbers to attributes of people, objects and events. [But] this is not the case for many phenomena. A complex network of constructs may influence a phenomenon and may not be separable into individual constructs for purposes of measurement."

Measurability procedures implemented in qualitative -- that is, 'non-numerical' -- research attempt, not always successfully, to overcome or circumvent such intractables as Viswanathan has pointed out. These procedures include, for example, “comparative judgement (arranging factors in a hierarchy of importance)” or “scaling (correct versus incorrect responses to a given set of questions)” (Leedy, 1980: 46). Other ‘non-numerical’ strategies that have been used, according to Worsley (1992: 113)[2] include: “careful classification[3], organizing and combining of field-notes [which] requires patient checking and cross-checking and the application of systematic techniques.” But he acknowledges that “numerical methods are sometimes applied to field-data too” (Worsley, 1992: 113). Indicators are often used as proxies/surrogates for more fuzzy or abstract concepts, such as status (Worsley, 1992: 96). Such indicators are inevitably numerical.

One may also, in connection with the nominal level of measurement (the simplest level), and even with the ordinal level of measurement, calculate frequencies/percentages, and cross-classify in qualitative research. Scaling, moreover, is not just about correct v. incorrect. Incorporating comparative judgement, one may also use scales of: high v. low, do v. don’t, very high to very low, very good to very bad, strongly agree to strongly disagree.

To be fair to everyone, no one is quite attempting stubbornly to square the circle in this measurability conversation. Still, the challenges of measuring require, and will surely be tempered with, constant and open-minded vigilance -- as well as an abundance of capacity to deal with critiques and contrary views, including (so be it) one's own self-criticism. Bell (1999: 1), like others before her, subsumes this conversation under the theme "uncertainty of measurement". Thus:

"Uncertainty of measurement is the doubt that exists about the result of any measurement. You might think that well-made rulers, clocks and thermometers should be trustworthy, and give the right answers. But for every measurement - even the most careful - there is always a margin of doubt. In everyday speech, this might be expressed as ‘give or take’ ... e.g. a stick might be two metres long ‘give or take a centimetre’."

^{^[1]} Sarantakos talks of the need for precision in measurement (pp. 18-26)

^{^[2]} Peter Worsley, ed. 1992. The New Introducing Sociology. Revised Third Edition. London: Penguin Books.

^{^[3]} Another word for classification, given by Worsley (1992: 97) is categorization; and both, he argues, are an often overlooked “form of measurement” – even if they are “the simplest level” (that is, the nominal level) of measurement. There are in total four levels of measurement, the others being, in an ascending order of complexity: Ordinal (or rank-order), interval and ‘ratio’ scale (Worsley, 1992: 97-98).

REFERENCES

Bell, Stephanie (1999) Measurement Good Practice Guide: A Beginner's manual to Uncertainty of Measurement. (No. 11, Issue 2). Taddington: National Physics Laboratory

Leedy, Paul D. (1980) Practical Research: Planning and Design. Second Edition. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co.,
Sarantakos, Sartirios (1994) Social Research. London: The Macmillan Press

Viswanathan, Mathu (2010) "Understanding the Intangibles of Measurement in the Social Sciences," pp. 285-312, in Geoffrey Walford, Eric Tucker and Mathu Viswanathan, Eds. (2010) The SAGE Handbook of Measurement. Los Angeles: SAGE

Worsley, Peter, ed (1992) The New Introducing Sociology. Revised Third Edition. London: Penguin Books

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Yambo ya Bosolo: A Lingala Movie from Nollywood

Found this movie, titled Yambo ya Bosolo -- Before the Truth, in English -- and tweeted about it on October 4, 2015. It's a Nollywood movie shot in Lingala, a language widely spoken in the two Congos (DRC and Congo Brazzaville). This particular video version was published on October 14, 2014, and so far has 8,679 YouTube views.

I was surprised and even intrigued by, and do cheer, this new movie category from Nigeria, which is already the cutting edge of movie and musical production in Africa. Still, that's a huge leap of faith by Nigeria's movie producers. If this category grows, and there's no reason why it shouldn't, Nigeria may well become better known than DRC itself for Lingala cinema.

Of course, the movie also has Yambo, my name, in its title, so I'm being very objective in touting it here, right? Wouldn't say I know Lingala, except for the unmistakable sounds of many, many words, picked and recognized from decades of listening to Lingala music. I can tell Lingala from 'a mile' away, so to speak.

The words in the movie are practically leaping, a dozen or so a minute, off the video and into my remembering ears. Still, got to decide what I make of the movie as a whole. Read somewhere that this is and adult movie, but I'm not seeing that. Surprise! The Nollywood one knows is pretty reticent about that sort of thing.

In the same way we that have come to understand Lingala/Congolese music, with its great tradition spanning more than a half century and regardless of where it was produced, so must we, from this very moment, treat Yambo ya Bosolo as an integral part of Lingala cinema, or better still perhaps, Congolese.

It is of course one, far lesser, thing to dub a movie, already shot in one language, in yet another language -- and not state so explicitly, prior to the dubbing or subsequent distribution. It is quite another thing to dub nothing more than subtitles and to label the whole product a movie in the dubbed language. The original language of the movie, as of all creative texts (novel, poem, play), determines the language under which it is to be classified, if the process is to be concluded without dismay and ultimate rejection.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Remembering the Chinese Earthquake of May 2008

As we mark the first anniversary of the Great Sichuan Earthquake of May12, 2008, and as we remember rather more particularly what happened in and around the city of Chengdu (capital of Sichuan Province), there are images to look at (or look at again), and there are lessons to learn and re-learn:

1. Two Photo Specials:
a) Click Here for the first photo special
b) Click Here for the second photo special

2. A YouTube Footage, in which a most severe quake appears doubly so from its "shaking" effect on a CCTV (surveillance) camera whose routine and continuous gaze captures the quake's high moment -- as well as the real-time drama of (unscripted?) self-evacuation by apprehensive "office workers": Click Here

3. Click Here for lessons to learn and re-learn, and hazard/disaster classifications to ponder, as certain observers and I see them. Besides, of course, the great toll in human life and property, the phenomenon of quake lakes , and how it was responded to, as well as the ease with which apparently modern schoolhouses were, unlike older and more "traditional" ones, nearly everywhere flattened, were to me among the most attention-grabbing aspects of the Sichual Earthquake.

4. Click Here for a conversation about the environmental challenges that the Great Sichuan Earthquake wrought.