While now widely accepted as an approach to social research, ethnography is still by no means uncontroversial. Current debates centre on its claim to capture an independent social reality and its relations to social and political practice. There has always been a relativistic strand in ethnographic thinking, but this has become stronger in recent years. For example, there are those who (under the influence of post-structuralism and other recent philosophical trends) regard ethnographic texts as constructing the `realities' they describe. Similarly, the distanced attitude of many ethnographers towards politics and practice has come under increasing challenge from those who seek to employ ethnography for the pursuit of practical and political goals. Even the long-standing debate about the relationship between quantitative and qualitative method has not been satisfactorily resolved. Martyn Hammersley examines three issues. He argues that traditional ethnographic thinking involves a naive relativism, an option that seems increasingly attractive to ethnographers. This book should be of interest to students of sociology, psychology, and ethnography.
- ISBN10 0415054761
- ISBN13 9780415054768
- Publish Date 5 December 1991
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 8 November 2009
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Imprint Routledge
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 240
- Language English