Methodological troubles as problems and phenomena

Ethnomethodology and the Question of 'Method' in the Social Sciences

Datos Bibliográficos

ID5609534
AutoresC Greiffenhagen (0000-0002-7544-9246, Chinese University of Hong Kong, autor de correspondencia), M Mair (0000-0003-0929-5426, University of Liverpool), W Sharrock (0000-0002-7029-8653, University of Manchester)
Año2015
Volumen66
Número3
Páginas460-485
Fecha de publicación2015-09-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaBritish Journal of Sociology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0007-1315 • E-ISSN: 1468-4446
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1468-4446.12136
PMID26364574
OpenAlexW1922513084
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas21
Referencias citadas64

Across the disciplinary frontiers of the social sciences, studies by social scientists treating their own investigative practices as sites of empirical inquiry have proliferated. Most of these studies have been retrospective, historical, after-the-fact reconstructions of social scientific studies mixing interview data with the (predominantly textual) traces that investigations leave behind. Observational studies of in situ work in social science research are, however, relatively scarce.Ethnomethodology was an early and prominent attempt to treat social science methodology as a topic for sociological investigations and, in this paper, we draw out what we see as its distinctive contribution: namely, a focus on troubles as features of the in situ, practical accomplishment of method, in particular, the way that research outcomes are shaped by the local practices of investigators in response to the troubles they encounter along the way. Based on two case studies, we distinguish methodological troubles as problems and methodological troubles as phenomena to be studied, and suggest the latter orientation provides an alternate starting point for addressing social scientists' investigative practices

Discipline · Epistemology · Ethnomethodology · Focus (optics · Social science · Sociology · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics · Social and Cultural Dynamics