Quantitative and Qualitative Methods to Social Science Enquiry Econometnc Methods and Interdisciplinarity

Social Science Enquiry Econometric Methods and Interdisciplinarity Introduction THIS is an essay on selected methods lor social science enquiry. We have taken econometrics and raised issues regarding inierdtsaplinaruy, with illustrations from ethnography in order to bring home what seem to be increasing divergences in methods to study essentially the same problem: the human condition or behaviour. One increasingly finds that a singular approach, for example, economic theory postulating relationships among economic variables alone, will remain incomplete since a purely economic1 being could not exist. Rather, a holistic encompassing economic, social, ethnographic approach is essential to understand fully the determinants of human behaviour in the context of social sciences. Social sciences are not natural sciences and all branches of the former must recogise this fundamental aspect. Otherwise, any approach to enquiry would fall short of finding meaningful answers to the questions that are set out to be addressed.