Social Research

Martyn Hammersley is an emeritus professor of educational and social research at The Open University, UK. He has carried out research in the sociology of education and the sociology of the media. However, much of his work has been concerned with the methodological issues surrounding social enquiry. He has written several books including (with Paul Atkinson) Ethnography: Principles in Practice (fourth edition, Routledge, 2019), The Dilemma of Qualitative Method (Routledge, 1989), The Politics of Social Research (SAGE, 1995), Reading Ethnographic Research (second edition, Longman, 1997), Taking Sides in Social Research (Routledge, 2000), Educational Research, Policymaking and Practice, (London, Paul Chapman/SAGE, 2002), Questioning Qualitative Inquiry (SAGE, 2008), Methodology Who Needs It? (SAGE, 2011), The Myth of Research-Based Policy and Practice (SAGE, 2013), The Limits of Social Science (SAGE, 2014), and The Concept of Culture (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019). Website: http://martynhammersley.wordpress.com/

Introduction PART ONE: PHILOSOPHY An Overall View of Positivism - Leszek Kolakowski Two Traditions - G H von Wright Qualitative Research and Psychological Theorizing - Karen L Henwood and Nick F Pidgeon The Elements of Critical Social Science - Brian Fay Traditions in Documentary Analysis - Victor Jupp and Clive Norris PART TWO: POLITICS Decolonializing Applied Social Sciences - Rodolfo Stavenhagen Towards a Methodology for Feminist Research - Maria Mies Intervention in New Social Movements - Elim Papadakis A Political Classification of Evaluation Studies in Education - Barry MacDonald The Value of Quantitative Methodology for Feminist Research - Toby Epstein Jayaratne `Race' and Statistics - Waqar I U Ahmad and Trevor A Sheldon PART THREE: PRACTICE Research Analysis of Administrative Records - Catherine Hakim How Official Statistics are Produced - Government Statisticians' Collective Views from the Inside `It's Great to Have Someone to Talk to' - Janet Finch Ethics and Politics of Interviewing Women Observation and the Police - Maurice Punch The Research Experience Increasing the Generalizability of Qualitative Research - Janet Ward Schofield The Obviousness of Social and Educational Research Results - N L Gage

`An important guide to current issues and debates in social research. Martyn Hammersley has assembled a useful range of source material for the beginning student' - Robert Burgess, University of Warwick `All the readings are clear and incisive and have been well chosen as exemplars of a particular tradition or type of critique. Since they can be studied individually as well as collectively, this book will be invaluable for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate methods courses' - Journal of Social Policy `Between them, the papers included in this book cover an impressive range of issues central to social research. The editor has succeeded in pulling together papers from a wide range of sources... and making them available in an easily-accessible form. The book could serve as a useful introduction to the field for undergraduate students, or as eye-opening background reading for research practitioners who have not had formal training in the philosophy of social investigation.' - ESRC Data Archive Bulletin `The book accomplishes its purpose of illuminating the 'profound differences in approach' and should help the users of social research as well as practitioners.' - Educational Research