M e t h o d o l o g y W h o n e e d s i t ? • The literature on social science methods has grown considerably over the past M decade or so, and continues to increase today. Yet many social scientists are ar ambivalent about methodology. For some, it plays a central, perhaps even an ty all-encompassing, role; while for others it is regarded as an irrelevance, or even as n H detrimental to actually doing research. a M M In this book, Martyn Hammersley argues that the role of methodology must be viewed er against the background of a wider problem: the declining influence of the academic sl maasco awddeeell mlo afi scs oewcxoitareklr s.n c aMile, anarcntedy. nTin hHcisrae mhaasmsin eogrc seclrueoryrse idoden af eosn fa dt hrsee ts hiunislst tmoitfuo idtdioeeonl,la oslg pciecolalninld cgith iooaunllets nt thgheea sdt ,es imnutpeaprnnodarstl ey Methodology it places upon social scientists, and examining such issues as the nature of objectivity, the aspiration of some social scientists to be intellectuals or social critics, whether research is discovery or construction, the requirements of academic discussion, the ethics of belief, and the limits of academic freedom. Martyn Hammersley is Professor of Educational and Social Research at i t The Open University. He has carried out research in the sociology of education and the sociology of the media, but much of his work has been concerned with o methodological issues. h s W d e ? e n M a r H t a y M n M e r ISBN: 978-1-84920-205-3 s l e y 9 781849 202053 Cover design: Francis Kenney Hammersley Methodology AW.indd 1 16/9/10 15:18:24 Methodology, Who Needs It? Methodology, Who Needs It? Martyn Hammersley Hammersley_4109-Prelims.indd 1 29/09/2010 12:55:24 PM SAGE has been part of the global academic community since 1965, supporting high quality research and learning that transforms society and our understanding of individuals, groups, and cultures. SAGE is the independent, innovative, natural home for authors, editors and societies who share our commitment and passion for the social sciences. Find out more at: www.sagepublications.com Hammersley_4109-Prelims.indd 2 29/09/2010 12:55:24 PM Methodology, SAGE has been part of the global academic community Who Needs It? since 1965, supporting high quality research and learning that transforms society and our understanding of individuals, Methodology, groups, and cultures. SAGE is the independent, innovative, natural home for authors, editors and societies who share our commitment and passion for the social sciences. Who Needs It? Find out more at: www.sagepublications.com Martyn Hammersley Hammersley_4109-Prelims.indd 3 29/09/2010 12:55:26 PM © Martyn Hammersley 2011 First published 2011 Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form, or by any means, only with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers. SAGE Publications Ltd 1 Oliver’s Yard 55 City Road London EC1Y 1SP SAGE Publications Inc. 2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, California 91320 SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd B 1/I 1 Mohan Cooperative Industrial Area Mathura Road New Delhi 110 044 SAGE Publications Asia-Pacific Pte Ltd 33 Pekin Street #02-01 Far East Square Singapore 048763 Library of Congress Control Number: 2010925800 British Library Cataloguing in Publication data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978-1-84920-204-6 ISBN 978-1-84920-205-3 (pbk) Typeset by C&M Digitals (P) Ltd, Chennai, India Printed in India at Replika Press Pvt Ltd Printed on paper from sustainable resources Hammersley_4109-Prelims.indd 4 29/09/2010 12:55:26 PM For all ‘no-nonsense academics’ Hammersley_4109-Prelims.indd 5 29/09/2010 12:55:26 PM Hammersley_4109-Prelims.indd 6 29/09/2010 12:55:26 PM Contents Acknowledgements ix Introduction 1 Part 1: The role of the researcher: limits, obligations and virtues 15 1 Methodology, who needs it? 17 2 On the social scientist as intellectual 43 3 Should social science be critical? 75 4 Objectivity as an intellectual virtue 89 5 Too good to be false? The ethics of belief 105 Part 2: The dialectic of knowledge production 121 6 Models of research: discovery, construction, and understanding 123 7 Merely academic? A dialectic for research communities 138 8 Academic licence and its limits: the case of Holocaust denial 159 Epilogue 185 References 188 Name Index 209 Subject Index 212 Hammersley_4109-Prelims.indd 7 29/09/2010 4:13:33 PM Hammersley_4109-Prelims.indd 8 29/09/2010 12:55:26 PM ACknowledgements My thanks to Richard Palmer for providing me with an unpublished paper on Gadamer, and especially to Susan Haack for keeping me well supplied with her pub- lications, and thereby helping to preserve my sanity. An earlier version of Chapter 3 appeared in Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 35, 2, pp. 175–95, 2005. Chapter 4 was published in The Sage Handbook of Methodological Innovation, London, Sage, 2010. I have been working on many of these chapters for a long time. Earlier versions have been given as papers: Chapter 1: To a British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics meeting at the Open University in 1992, to the Sociology Society, University of Warwick, in 1993, and later at seminars at the Universities of Stirling and Keele. Chapter 3: At the British Educational Research Association Annual Conference in 2000 and also at the University of Sussex that year, and later at Cardiff University, Nottingham Trent University and the Institute of Education. Chapter 5: To a seminar at the School of Education, University of Durham, April 2005. Chapter 6: At Oxford Brookes University in 2002 and at University College, Worcester in 2003. I am grateful to all those who commented on my ideas at these events. Hammersley_4109-Prelims.indd 9 29/09/2010 12:55:26 PM