Martyn Hammersley

A common thread through many of my books has been an effort to understand the various forms that social science takes, and to think about how these should be evaluated. To a large extent this has involved a focus on methodology, and indeed some of my books are intended as teaching texts in that field, notably ETHNOGRAPHY, co-authored with Paul Atkinson. But in that book, and others, such as WHAT IS QUALITATIVE RESEARCH?, established ideas and practices are not simply taken for granted but subject to interrogation. Another book even asks the question: METHODOLOGY, WHO NEEDS IT?. This critical stance is also to be found in THE DILEMMA OF QUALITATIVE METHOD, WHAT'S WRONG WITH ETHNOGRAPHY?, and QUESTIONING QUALITATIVE INQUIRY, as well as in two more recent books, one concerned with TROUBLING SOCIOLOGICAL CONCEPTS, the other offering a critical guide to METHODOLOGICAL CONCEPTS. In terms of substantive fields, my early work concerned the sociology of education, and educational research more generally (for example, CONSTRUCTING EDUCATIONAL INEQUALITY, written with Peter Foster and Roger Gomm). Later empirical investigation focused on MEDIA BIAS IN REPORTING SOCIAL RESEARCH. This paralleled a similar concern about bias within social science itself, and several of my books – THE POLITICS OF SOCIAL RESEARCH and TAKING SIDES IN SOCIAL RESEARCH, most obviously – are concerned with the relationship between social science and politics. A related interest has been the links between research, policymaking and practice, both in the field of education (EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH, POLICYMAKING AND PRACTICE), and more generally (THE MYTH OF RESEARCH-BASED POLICY AND PRACTICE).