ABSTRACT

Stages one through three of this methodological scheme are generally focused on one social site or one cultural group. Stages four and five concern the complex relationships existing between the social site (or group) of focal interest and various other social sites (groups). These relationships have to do with system factors. In stage four the idea is to discover specific system relationships, such as relationships between a school and its surrounding community, or a youth culture and the popular media. In stage five the idea is to consider one's findings in relation to general theories of society, both to help explain what has been discovered in stages one through four and to alter, challenge, and refine macrosociological theories themselves.