The political economy of lap dancing

The political economy of lap dancing
In general, you will need to identify the research question(s), hypotheses (if there are any), methods, findings, and limitations. You will also need to connect the article in a sociological manner pointing out any sociological aspects present in it. Be sure to be specific (e.g. How many people were in the study? What were some of the actual numbers in the findings?) in your description of the study.
Research Question: The author may not explicitly state, “this is the research question,” but you can figure it out by reading the article, looking at the abstract, and viewing the findings. Why does the author think this research question matters?
Note: You will almost definitely have to provide some background from the literature review/theory
section. For instance, is the research question testing how theory x explains phenomenon y? If so, then you need to explain theory x (and the competing theory it is being tested against) to adequately explain the research question.
Hypotheses: Not all articles will have hypotheses. It’s helpful when they do, however, because when you present the findings you can just explain which hypotheses were proven correct.
2 Methods: This is a very important section. Answer the following questions:
1. Is the study qualitative or quantitative?
2. What precise method did the authors use (e.g. surveys, interviews, content analysis, etc)?
a. Explain this in detail (e.g. if they used a survey, did they contact people through
telephone, was it a survey measured at several time points or just at one time
point?).
3. What was the sample?
a. How did they collect their sample?
b. How large was the sample?
c. Who was included in and excluded from the sample?
4. What variables did the authors use?
a. What are the independent and dependent variables?
b. How did they operationalize the variables?
i. E.g. did they operationalize obesity as BMI (Body Mass Index) or body fat
percentage?
5. When and where was the study conducted?
Findings: What are the main findings? Are they in line with what the researchers predicted? How do
they connect with the broader literature (look at the discussion/conclusion section of the article)?
Limitations: Are there any problems with the research or limitations? (Hint: often the sample isn’t
perfect or the operationalization of the variables isn’t ideal).
Class Relevance: You also need to connect the article to the class. How does it relate to the topics we’ve
discussed this semester?
Note: Don’t just say, “we talked about society and this has to do with society.” Be specific (e.g. “we
talked about theory x when discussing phenomenon y and this article tests theory x. The article
provides evidence for theory x which has z implication for this area of sociology.”).