The Politics of 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: martynhammersley.wordpress.com/

Recent years have seen a growing range of challenges to the idea that research should be governed by the principle of value neutrality. In this stimulating and often controversial book, Martyn Hammersley weighs the arguments offered in support of these positions.

IntroductionParadigm Lost? Positivism and its Afterlife in the Philosophy of Social ResearchA Critique of `Critical¿ ResearchOn Feminist MethodologyResearch and `Anti-Racism¿ A Critical CaseWriting Wrong An Assessment of Textual RadicalismIs Social Research Political?Social Research, Policy-Making and Practice Reflections on the Enlightenment ParadigmThe Liberal University and its Critics