Two (Very) Different Worlds

The Cultures of Policymaking and Qualitative Research

Bibliographic Data

ID2385689
AuthorsRobert Donmoyer (0000-0001-6956-4881, University of San Diego, CA, USA)
Year2012
Volume18
Issue9
Pages798-807
Publication date2012-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueQualitative Inquiry (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1077-8004 • E-ISSN: 1552-7565
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1077800412453128
OpenAlexW2058870155
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited10

This article brackets assumptions embedded in the framing of this special issue on "problematizing methodological simplicity in qualitative research" in a effort to understand why policymakers put pressure on all types of researchers, including those who use qualitative methods, to provide relatively simple, even somewhat mechanistic portrayals of social life. The article employs an auto-ethnographic approach to demonstrate that simplified thinking is a virtual prerequisite for making policy. The article also demonstrates that qualitative researchers normally have a diametrically opposed view of simplification, but that this view is not necessarily shared by other academics. These other academics, consequently, are likely to have a greater impact on policymakers. The article concludes with an account of how the article's author, who was attracted to qualitative methods because they promised to accommodate the complexity of social life, has attempted to influence policymakers and the policymaking process without completing losing his methodological soul

Epistemology · Ethnography · Framing (construction · Qualitative research · Simplicity · Social science · Social worlds · Sociology · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics

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