The Difference Between Exploratory, Descriptive and Explanatory Research in Patel's Article

Purpose of Patel's Article

Patel’s article has three objectives. Firstly, it is aimed at providing insight into selected aspects of poverty and the gendered nature of poverty in a poor urban community in South Africa. This serves to unmask the social and human dynamics that underlie national statistics. Secondly, it is aimed at demonstrating how the poor survive, and also to illustrate the role and contribution of social assistance to the reduction of poverty and vulnerability in very poor households with women and children.

It seeks to identify key challenges in the development of gender-sensitive and social protection strategies and to highlight key challenges that are pertinent to policy research and practice locally and internationally. Therefore, the research is aimed at providing a new body of knowledge that will be useful in the understanding of poverty dynamics in the poor urban communities and the impact of social assistance in addressing poverty

Descriptive, Explanatory and Exploratory Research

Social research serves to answer different questions.

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In her article, Patel has used descriptive, explanatory and exploratory research.

1. Descriptive – descriptive research seeks to answer the following questions: How many?, what is the incidence of x?, and are x and y related? For example, Patel’s research surveyed Doornkop Township which had a population of 25000. The research looked at the incidence of poverty among the people as well as the correlation between poverty and gender.
2. Explanatory – this question looks at the cause and effect of the research problem. For instance, it looks at the question of why x is happening as well as what the causes of y are.
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   In the case of Patel’s article, the research seeks to explain why the incidence of poverty and vulnerability is mainly prevalent on women.

3. Exploratory – This explores what the research problem as well as the key factors affecting the problem. For example, the article examines selected aspects of poverty and the gendered nature of poverty in a poor urban community in South Africa and identify key challenges in the development of gender-sensitive and social protection strategies.

Theories That Guided Patel's Research

The following theories guided Patel’s research:

Social support theory - Social support is the perception and actuality that one is cared for, has assistance available from other people, and most popularly, that one is part of a supportive social network. These supportive resources can be emotional, informational, or companionship; tangible or intangible. Social support can be measured as the perception that one has assistance available, the actual received assistance, or the degree to which a person is integrated in a social network. Support can come from many sources. In this article, the assistance to the poor households comes from the government.

Behavioral theory - an attempt to explain behavior through generally-accepted principles. The initial assumption is that behavior can be explained and further described using behavioral theories. One of the objectives of the Patel article as indicated is the study of how the poor survive, or rather, the behavior of poor people.

The balance of power theory is a core tenet of both classical and neorealist theory and seeks to explain alliance formation. The article examined the role and contribution of social assistance to the reduction of poverty and vulnerability in very poor households with women and children. Patel observes that instead of focusing on women and their condition in society only, development policies now take greater account of gender which is socially acquired notions of masculinity and femininity and how these gender relations and power inequalities shape development outcomes

Unit of Analysis and Unit of Observation

The concepts “unit of analysis” and “unit of observation” are used to specify and identify where and from whom data are to be generated. The term “unit of analysis” is generally associated with quantitative research, and could be a social sector such as an individual person, a household, a political party or any other type of organization. It could be a social process such as a riot, an election, a sporting competition or a revolution. It could also be a human creation such as a book, a painting, a feature film or a motorised vehicle. In Patel’s article, the unit of analysis are the poor households in Doornkop Township in Soweto who are affected by the gendered nature of poverty. The term “unit of observation” is generally associated with the research of aspects of social dynamics of organizations. In this article, this might refer to the decision-making process of government, particularly the Department of Social Development, in the granting of social assistance to poor households.

Difference Between Concepts and Variables

A concept is a logically developed idea about a particular phenomenon. Understanding a concept is important for an understanding of a theory, as a theory relates concepts to one another as a way of looking at a particular phenomenon. A concept is abstract, and in order to make it measurable, the concept is turned into a variable. In Patel’s article, poverty reduction is the concept or logical idea that is being studied. A variable is a concept described as an attribute that can be observed and measured. There are two types of variable, namely the dependent and independent variables. In Patel’s article, the reduction of poverty and vulnerability in very poor households with women and children is the dependent variable, while social assistance to the poor households is the dependent variable.

Method of Data Generation in Patel's Article

In Patel’s article, a quantitative research design was used that involved a household survey. The target population for the survey was households with children age 15 and younger in the area of Doornkop, Soweto, which had the highest number of beneficiaries based on previous research in the poorest areas in Johannesburg. A systematic sample of 10% of all the households with children in the area was drawn consisting of 440 households with children under 15 years. Data was collected for 343 households, which constitutes a 78% response rate.

Johannesburg. Doornkop has a population of 25,000 people with large numbers of children. A total of 64% of households in Doornkop had children under the age of 19 years, which was higher than the overall number of children across the poorest eight wards in Johannesburg. A systematic sample of 10% of all the households with children in the area was drawn consisting of 440 households with children under 15 years. Data was collected for 343 households, which constitutes a 78% response rate.

A household questionnaire was developed and modelled on the formatting and structure of previous household questionnaires in Johannesburg and a study on the use and impact of the child support grant. The questionnaire consisted of 14 sections of closed-ended questions broadly covering the following areas: background household information; livelihood activities and income; food security; use of and views of the grant; partner relationships; household decision-making and care responsibilities; and dimensions of women’s empowerment. Data is presented in this article on only some aspects of the survey. The field work was conducted by fourth-year students from the Department of Social Work at the University of Johannesburg engaged in a research service learning program. The students were given extensive background on the study objectives and the theoretical issues involved and were given training on how to use the questionnaire. The field work took place over one week.

Summary of Patel's Main Conclusions

Patel’s research provides the following conclusions:

• The grant is well targeted to poor children and households which have no leakages to high income caregivers;
• The child support grant serves to mitigate the vulnerability of poor households with children to food insecurity in a local and global context of food price volatility.
• Contrary to the view that child support grant beneficiaries are passive recipients of public assistance, the research demonstrates quite the opposite as many are actively engaging in other strategies to generate income to support their families.
• Lack of financial support from fathers who are no longer living with the mothers of their children places an enormous burden on women to provide financially for their children. This situation points to the importance of not only improving the private child maintenance system but also to engage men in gender equality issues.
• In order for social protection to be transformative, it needs to embrace the gender equality agenda and to address the needs of beneficiaries holistically.
• An understanding of local community contexts and their particular social, cultural, economic, and demographic characteristics are crucial to the design of complementary social development interventions such as support for the beneficiaries’ livelihood strategies with seamless access to effective public services that take account of the gendered nature of care and of poverty itself. This optimise the impact of social assistance.