Revision summary
Exploratory design maps unclear fields with flexible qualitative tools. Explanatory design tests named relations with comparison and controls. Durkheim’s suicide is explanatory; a first gig ethnography is exploratory. They often sequence; mixing is legitimate. Do not sell a case as a national explanation.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
Research design is the plan that links question to evidence. Exploratory design maps an unclear field. Explanatory design tests a stated relation. Both are scientific when their claims match their reach.
Body
Exploratory design
- Used when concepts are weak or the population is hidden.
- Tools: unstructured interview, participant observation, pilot survey, theoretical sampling after Glaser and Strauss.
- Example: first mapping of gig riders’ unpaid waiting time, or of a new sect’s household practice.
- Output: types, hypotheses, and better indicators, not a national rate.
Explanatory design
- Used when a relation is named: an independent and a dependent variable, with controls.
- Tools: comparative tables in Durkheim’s suicide, multivariate survey models, historical comparison.
- Example: does female education associate with lower fertility in NFHS after controlling wealth? Does contractor use raise injury in a mill sample?
- Max Weber still wants meaning-adequacy inside explanation.
How they sequence
- Exploration often precedes explanation. Reversing them produces false precision.
- Mixed designs are common: ethnography to interpret a Census pattern.
Indian caution
- An exploratory village case cannot “explain India”. An explanatory NFHS model cannot “understand” a ritual without further meaning work.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD EXPL[Exploratory] --> MAP[Types hypotheses] MAP --> EXPLN[Explanatory test] EXPLN --> REL[Stated relation] MIX[Ethnography plus survey] --> BOTH[Fuller claim]
Conclusion
Exploratory design discovers the map. Explanatory design tests a relation. Gig ethnography and Durkheimian or NFHS comparisons illustrate the pair. Match the design to the question’s maturity.
Quick related
Students also ask
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What, according to Pareto, are the basic characteristics of elites? Discuss.
Next question on this syllabus topic (2018 · Q7(c)). View answer →
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Is exploratory research unscientific?
It is unscientific if sold as a finished causal law. It is scientific as a designed first map.
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Must explanation be statistical?
No. Historical comparison can explain. It must still specify a relation.
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