Martyn Hammersley (born 1949) is a British sociologist whose main publications cover social research methodology and philosophical issues in the social sciences. [1] [2]
Martyn Hammersley (born 1949) is a British sociologist whose main publications cover social research methodology and philosophical issues in the social sciences. [1] [2]
He studied sociology as an undergraduate at the London School of Economics (1967–70), and was subsequently a postgraduate student in the sociology department at the University of Manchester, obtaining an MPhil and PhD with a thesis reporting an ethnography of an inner-city secondary school. [3] At that time Manchester was a major centre for ethnomethodology, where it was in tension with symbolic interactionism and Marxism, and his work was influenced by all of these approaches. [4] [5]
After a research fellowship and temporary lectureship at Manchester, he obtained a permanent position at The Open University in 1975. He was recruited to work on E202Schooling and Society, a course that was subsequently embroiled in a public controversy about 'Marxist bias'. [6] He remained at the Open University until retirement in 2015, when he became emeritus Professor of Education and Social Research. [7]
Hammersley's early research was in the sociology of education, with a particular focus on processes of classroom interaction in secondary schools. [8] He joined the Open University at a time when it was one of the leading centres for the 'new sociology of education', [9] and was involved in subsequent debates about the character and value of the various kinds of work coming under this heading. [10] [11]
Many of his publications have been concerned with methodological and philosophical issues arising in sociology, and across the social sciences generally. These issues have included: the nature and role of theory, the criteria by which qualitative research should be evaluated, and the issues of objectivity and value neutrality. [12] [13] He wrote a book on Herbert Blumer's methodological ideas, locating these in historical context. [14] He has written a number of articles on analytic induction (an approach developed by Florian Znaniecki), examining its history. In What's Wrong with Ethnography?, he advocates what he referred to as "subtle realism", [15] as opposed to various forms of relativism and scepticism. [16] [17] [18] [19] With Paul Atkinson, he wrote an introduction to ethnography, now in its fourth edition. [20]
He has also examined issues surrounding the qualitative-quantitative divide, and the nature of qualitative research. [21] [22] [23]
More recently he has co-authored a book on ethics and qualitative research. [24] He is a critic of ethical regulation, in other words of institutional review boards and research ethics committees, [25] and has sought to clarify the concept of academic freedom. [26] [27]
Hammersley has been involved in a series of controversies, for example over feminist methodology, [28] about racism and anti-racist research, [29] and concerning the character of qualitative research and the criteria of validity appropriate to it. [30] [31] He has also questioned the arguments of the evidence-based practice movement. [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] In The Limits of Social Science, he argued that social science is limited to the discovery of value-relevant explanations for social phenomena, a position that is at odds with the grandiose claims frequently made for its potential contribution to public policy making and to transformative political action. [37]
He has written about ethnomethodology, assessing its radical claims. [38] He has produced books about the concept of culture and about other key sociological concepts. [39] Most recently, he has written articles about the sociologist Karl Mannheim, [40] a book on Methodological Concepts, and a Dictionary of Social Research Methodology . [41]
