Martyn Hammersley

Martyn Hammersley (born 1949) is a British sociologist whose main publications cover social research methodology and philosophical issues in the social sciences.[1][2]

Biography

He studied sociology as an undergraduate at the London School of Economics (1967–70). He 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 tendencies.[4][5]

After a research fellowship and temporary lectureship at Manchester, he obtained a permanent position at The Open University in 1975. The course he was recruited to work on, E202 Schooling and Society, 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]

Contribution

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]

Much of his work has been concerned with methodological and philosophical issues arising in sociology, and across the social sciences generally. These 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] In What's Wrong with Ethnography?, he advocates what he referred to as "subtle realism", as opposed to various forms of relativism and scepticism.[15][16][17] With Paul Atkinson, he wrote an introduction to ethnography, now in its third edition.[18]

He has written a number of articles on analytic induction (an approach developed by Znaniecki), examining its history, and also a book on ethics and qualitative research.[19] He is a critic of ethical regulation, in other words of institutional review boards and research ethics committees,[20] and has sought to clarify the concept of academic freedom.[21][22]

Hammersley has been involved in a series of controversies, for example over feminist methodology,[23] about racism and anti-racist research,[24] and concerning the character of qualitative research and the criteria of validity appropriate to it.[25][26] He questions the arguments of the evidence-based practice movement.[27][28][29][30][31]

In his most recent work, Hammersley emphasised the limits of social science.[32] He has argued that its contribution to public policy making and other forms of practice has been exaggerated.

External links

References

  1. ↑ "The British Sociological Association". Britsoc.co.uk. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
  2. ↑ "Google Scholar Citations". Scholar.google.com. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
  3. ↑ Hammersley, M. (1980). A Peculiar World? Teaching and Learning in an Inner City School, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Manchester.
  4. ↑ Psathas, G. (2008) 'Reflections on the history of Ethnomethodology: the Boston and the Manchester "Schools"', The American Sociologist, 39, pp. 38-67.
  5. ↑ Worsley, Peter (2008). An Academic Skating on Thin Ice. New York: Berghahn. p. Chapter 8.
  6. ↑ Gould, J. (1977) "Scholarship or propaganda?", Times Educational Supplement (London), 4 February 1977, p. 20.
  7. ↑ "The Open University: The Senate: Minutes" (PDF). Open.ac.uk. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
  8. ↑ Hammersley, Martyn (1989). Classroom Ethnography. Milton Keynes, UK: Open University Press.
  9. ↑ Brooks, C. St John. "Sociologists and education", New Society, 4 September 1980.
  10. ↑ Atkinson, P., et al (1988) 'Qualitative research traditions', Review of Educational Research, 58, 2, pp. 231-50.
  11. ↑ Hammersley, M. "An Ideological Dispute: Accusations of Marxist Bias in the Sociology of Education during the 1970s", Contemporary British History, December 2015.
  12. ↑ Hammersley, M. The Politics of Social Research, London, Sage, 1995.
  13. ↑ Hammersley, M. Taking Sides in Social Research: Essays on partisanship and bias, London, Routledge, 2000.
  14. ↑ Hammersley, Martyn (1989). The Dilemma of Qualitative Method: Herbert Blumer and the Chicago tradition. London, UK: Routledge.
  15. ↑ Brewer, John (2000). Ethnography. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press.
  16. ↑ Hillyard, S. (2010) "What's (still) wrong with ethnography?", New Frontiers in Ethnography, Bingley, Emerald.
  17. ↑ Banfield, G. (2004). "What's really wrong with ethnography?" (PDF). International Education Journal 4: 53–63.
  18. ↑ Hammersley, M. and Atkinson, P. (2007). Ethnography: Principles in Practice, Third edition. London, UK: Routledge.
  19. ↑ Hammersley, M. and Traianou, A. Ethics and Qualitative Research: Controversies and contexts, Sage, London: 2012.
  20. ↑ Hammersley, M. (2009) "Against the ethicists: on the evils of ethical regulation", International Journal of Social Research Methodology 12, 3, pp. 211-25
  21. ↑ "Let’s be serious about academic freedom". Times Higher Education. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
  22. ↑ Hammersley, Martyn (April 2016). "Can academic freedom be justified? Reflections on the arguments of Robert Post and Stanley Fish". Higher Education Quarterly Volume 70, Issue 2, pp. 108–26.
  23. ↑ Gelsthorpe, L. (1992) 'Response to Martyn Hammersley's paper "On Feminist Methodology"', Sociology, Vol. 26, No. 2, pp. 213-18
  24. ↑ Gillborn, D. and Drew, D. (1993) "The politics of research: Some observations on "methodological purity", New Community, 19, 2, pp. 354-60.
  25. ↑ Smith, J. K. and Hodkinson, P. (2009) 'Challenging neorealism: A response to Hammersley', Qualitative Inquiry, 15, 1, pp. 30-39.
  26. ↑ Hammersley, Martyn (2008). Questioning Qualitative Inquiry. London, UK: Sage.
  27. ↑ Hargreaves, D. H. (1997) "In Defence of Research for Evidence-based Teaching: a rejoinder to Martyn Hammersley", British Educational Research Journal, 23, 4, pp. 405-19.
  28. ↑ Hammersley, M. Educational Research, Policymaking and Practice, London, Paul Chapman, 2002.
  29. ↑ Chalmers, I. (2003) "Trying to do more good than harm in policy and practice: the role of rigorous, transparent, up-to-date evaluations", Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol 589, pp. 22–40.
  30. ↑ Hammersley, M. (2005) "Is the evidence-based practice movement doing more good than harm? Reflections on Iain Chalmers’ case for research-based policymaking and practice", Evidence and Policy, vol. 1, no. 1, pp 1–16.
  31. ↑ Hammersley, M. The Myth of Research-Based Policy and Practice, London, Sage, 2013.
  32. ↑ Hammersley, Martyn (2014). The Limits of Social Science. London, UK: Sage.
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