Ethnography: Principles and Practice - Softcover

Hammersley, Martin; Atkinson, Paul

3.56

118 ratings by Goodreads

9780415086646: Ethnography: Principles and Practice

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0415086647 ISBN 13: 9780415086646

Publisher: Routledge, 1994

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Thoroughly updated, this accessible introduction to the methods of ethnographic fieldwork reconsiders the status of ethnography and places it quite explicitly in a general methodological context.

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About the Author:

Martyn Hammersley is Professor of Educational and Social Research at the Open University. His early research was in the sociology of education, focusing in particular on teachers' perspectives, patterns of classroom interaction, and assessment regimes. More recently he has investigated the representation of social research findings in the mass media. His most recent books are Taking Sides in Social Research (2000), Educational Research: Policy Making and Practice (2002), and Media Bias in Reporting Social Research? (2006).

Paul Atkinson is Distinguished Research Professor of Sociology at Cardiff University, where he is Associate Director of the ESRC Centre for Economic and Social Aspects of Genomics. His main research interests include the sociology of cultural production, the sociology of medical knowleddge, with particular emphasis on the social consequences of new genetic technologies and the development of qualitative research methods, including applications of information technology. His most recent books have been Everyday Arias: An Operatic Ethnography (2005) and Interactionism with William Housley (2003). Together with Sara Delamont he edits the journal Qualitative Research.

Synopsis:

Thoroughly updated and substantially rewritten the second edition of this popular textbook is now even more relevant and useful for students and researchers. New material includes a section on the use of micro computers in research and a new chapter on the ethics of research. Ethnography provides a systematic and coherent account of ethnographic principles and practice. Rejecting the over-simplified contrast between positivism' and 'naturalism', but also questioning more recent critiques of these positions, the authors argue that ethnography is best understood as a reflexive process. Above all, what this means is that we must recognise that social research is part of the world that it studies. From an outline of the principle of reflexivity in Chapter One, the authors go on to discuss and exemplify the main features of ethnographic work: * the selection and sampling of cases * the problems of access * observation and interviewing * recording and filing data * the process of data analysis and writing research reports There is also consideration of the ethical issues surrounding ethnographic research.

Throughout, the discussion draws on a wide range of illustrative material from classic and more recent studies in Britain, America and elsewhere.

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