The author has proposed a quantitative text analysis method and developed a free software package, called KH Coder, so that anyone can apply the method in their sociological research. The first version of KH Coder was released in 2001. Since then, over 1,500 published studies have applied it to their work. We can safely say that a considerable number of applied research studies have used KH Coder. It is now essential not only to continue increasing this number but also to ensure KH Coder is used correctly and effectively in performing valid applied research. The present study examines existing applied research using KH Coder in order to identify how sociologically meaningful findings can be obtained from textual data using the software.

This study first briefly explains why the quantitative text analytical method and KH Coder are proposed. Representative applied studies that produced valid sociological inferences from textual data are then selected. Because these selected studies analyze various types of textual data such as the content of mass and social network communication, social research data, and government proceedings, an overview of the relevant applied research can be obtained by reviewing these applications. Our review describes how our method and KH Coder software were used together with the aid of researcher creativity. Then, based on this review, we discuss how the two can be successfully employed and suggest their future development.

Text mining is used to discover new knowledge or verify hypotheses based on a large collection of electronic text and has become one of standard methods used in various academic fields involving sociology. Natural language processing (NLP), which researches a computer-based means of processing natural languages such as Japanese and English, is an interdisciplinary field involving disciplines such as computer science, linguistics, and cognitive science. NLP is also one of essential components of text mining that needs to process large collection of text. This paper provides an overview of NLP and its model of “text”, and discusses “text mining” in the anticipation that it will become increasingly common.

NLP drastically approximates a language and its texts by employing formal, mathematical, and simple models to develop new techniques. Consequently, considerable linguistic information such as that related to context is inevitably lost during text mining when using these general techniques of NLP. Furthermore, acquired fragments of knowledge and their interpretation as the last phase of text mining are affected. Experts must complement them with their knowledge of the object domain. Conversely, text mining is also an important field to which NLP has been applied. NLP not only provides generic analyses of texts but also tries to develop issue-based methods that aid the entire process of text mining.

This article aims to elucidate the Early Modern English conception of “society” through the process of data-mining of a vast corpus (125 e-texts of over 260,000 sentences from political literature of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries). The analysis displays the following facts.

First, early modern English literates considered “society” a foreign term particular to Neo-classicism found in other parts of Western Europe, so they equated “society” with their own vernacular words such as “fellowship” and “company”.

Second, throughout the two centuries “society” functioned as a general term encompassing all types of urban associations such as face-to-face relationships, religious groups, corporate bodies, and many others.

Third, there are several non-uniform chronological distributions of the above references to the use of “society”. For instance, in the early sixteenth century, the word implied transient relationships between two individuals. From mid-century onwards, it tended to denote more durable organizations. At the dawn of the next century, organizations and corporate bodies were predominantly thought of as “societies”. Finally by the late seventeenth century, the word came to be associated with the terms concerning central authorities such as “state”, “government”, “politic”. And simultaneously, the term “virtue”, which had once associated strongly with “society”, lost its influence. As the Early Modern Period waned, increases were also seen in the “protection of property” as the only and sole raison d'être for an engaged “political society.”

Today some leading social scientists negate the academic value of the term “society”. They disparage its use since it is synonymous with “nation-state”, which is seen as an outmoded concept. Nevertheless, the above facts suggest “society” continues to be a resilient and flexible term that will endure as a monitoring device for the process of extensive structural change.

In the field of social sciences, controversy over methods pertaining to quantitative and qualitative research has ensued since the late 1990s. In response to the assertion that quantitative methodology is more scientific than qualitative methodology, qualitative researchers continue to refine their own methodology in the process of rebuttal. The purpose of this paper is to focus on a Qualitative Comparison Analysis (QCA), which is part of debate over the use of these new methodologies. By examining this method controversy in the social science, we find positive significance in diversifying the methodological studies that are currently advancing in the field of sociology.

The structure of this paper includes the following outline. In Chapter 1 and 2, we discuss the issues about the Method Controversy in the Social Sciences which is related to the framework of quantitative and qualitative research. The argument will move to an examination of QCA methodology in Chapter 3. In turn, this will lead in Chapter 4 to a thorough study of how conflicted between the quantitative methodologists and the advocates of QCA are in terms of defining the two approaches. Through a summary of the evidence presented in the previous chapters, these methodologies reveal a deep-rooted problem. This extends not only to differences in technique but also to the world-view based on methodology, which could be considered a tradeoff between them. Chapter 5 will conclude by summarizing the findings of this study and seeks to explain the contribution to the current climate associated with the diversification in sociological methodology.

Several recently introduced methods in the social sciences, such as statistical causal inference and Bayesian statistics, have had profound effects on the science of sociology as well as the analysis of effect size. These methods share some fundamental concepts with traditional methods, especially Weber's adequate causation and interpretive sociology, and can be applied not only to numerical data but also to discourse.

For example, statistical causal inference is a method that accurately estimates the average causal effect based on the assumption that causality varies at the individual level. By assuming the joint distribution of potential outcomes, causal candidates, and all covariates, we can define the adequate causation more accurately and consistently. Thus, theoretically, this method can be applied to a one-time-only phenomenon. Additionally, interpretive sociology can be reformulated as a Bayesian update, which modifies subjective and hypothetical assumptions through iterative process applying objective and observable data.

These methods have both factual and assumptive aspects; therefore, the sociological phenomena inferred through these methods also have subjective and objective aspects.

In modern Japan, discussions on the emotional aspects of the ie (the traditional family) have been linked to the spontaneous rise of the modern family—its perceptions and norms. From the perspective of the modern family, a term circulating in the 1880s, home, was used to promote the new image of the family.

However, is it only the image of the modern family that reveals the emotional relationships in modern Japanese families? There is extensive discussion on emotional relationships connected with ie in modern Japanese family studies. Further, these relationships are often evaluated differently from those of the home. To clarify how the discourse on emotional relationships of ie has developed and is structured, I analyzed conservative family studies that focus on the period from the 1890s to the 1910s.

My findings showed that this discourse was contrary to the family image in the West, and was based on nationalist solidarity, which was a trend at that time.

In conclusion, I position the discourse on emotional relationships of ie as one type of traditional family image constructed from an imaginative reaction to modernization, which reviewed the relationship between the home and modern family in modern Japan from the perspective of emotional relationships.