Theoretical foundations of the application of triangulation strategy in sociological research

The purpose of this article is to examine the grounds for the use of triangulation in sociological research. The importance of the triangulation procedure is justified through the resolution of the so-called "reproducibility crisis" affecting sociology and related disciplines, in which the results of empirical research turn out to be difficult to repeat. The specifics of the social sciences (the subject-subjective nature of research, the complexity and variability of the object — individuals and groups with their norms and motives, the inevitable subjectivity) fundamentally distinguish their procedures from natural science and exacerbate the problem of reproducibility. The strategy of methodical triangulation, as the most frequently used modification of the triangulation procedure, is considered as a possible methodological solution. The article analyzes the formation of the concept of triangulation in the historical context, as well as its interaction with the strategy of mixed methods (mix-methods research). The result of the analysis is the formation of three main strategies for using triangulation – as a verification of the reliability of empirical research results, as a way to supplement data, and as a method of analyzing contradictions, substantiating them with various epistemological platforms such as realism and relativism. As part of the analysis, the application of the first strategy is justified as a possible solution to the "reproducibility crisis".