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]

Martyn Hammersley, London 2009

Biography

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 E202 Schooling 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]

Sociological work

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] and a book on Methodological Concepts.[41]

References
  1. "The British Sociological Association". Britsoc.co.uk. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
  2. "Google Scholar Citations". Google Scholar. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
  3. Hammersley, M. (1980). A Peculiar World? Teaching and Learning in an Inner City School, unpublished PhD 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. Hammersley, Martyn (1992). What's Wrong with Ethnography. London: Routledge. pp. ch3.
  16. Brewer, John (2000). Ethnography. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press.
  17. Hillyard, S. (2010) "What's (still) wrong with ethnography?", New Frontiers in Ethnography, Bingley, Emerald.
  18. Banfield, G. (2004). "What's really wrong with ethnography?" (PDF). International Education Journal. 4: 53–63.
  19. Martyn Hammersley 'A Response to Banfield's "What's really wrong with ethnography?"' (2012) https://martynhammersley.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/response-to-grant-banfield_s-e28098what_s-really-wrong-with-ethnographyf.pdf
  20. Hammersley, M. & Atkinson, P. (2019). Ethnography: Principles in Practice, Fourth edition. London, UK: Routledge.
  21. Hammersley, M. 'The relationship between quantitative and qualitative research', in J Richardson (ed.) Handbook of Qualitative Research Methods for Psychology and the Social Sciences, Leicester, British Psychological Society Books, 1996.
  22. Cooper, B., Glaesser, J., Gomm, R. and Hammersley, M. Challenging the Qualitative-Quantitative Divide: Explorations in Case-Focused Causal Analysis, London, Continuum, 2012.
  23. What is Qualitative Research?, London, Bloomsbury, 2012.
  24. Hammersley, M. and Traianou, A. Ethics and Qualitative Research: Controversies and contexts, Sage, London: 2012.
  25. Hammersley, M. (2009) "Against the ethicists: on the evils of ethical regulation", International Journal of Social Research Methodology 12, 3, pp. 211–25
  26. "Let's be serious about academic freedom". Times Higher Education. 22 April 2015. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
  27. Hammersley, Martyn (April 2016). "Can academic freedom be justified? Reflections on the arguments of Robert Post and Stanley Fish". Higher Education Quarterly. 70 (2): 108–26. doi:10.1111/hequ.12086.
  28. Gelsthorpe, L. (1992) 'Response to Martyn Hammersley's paper "On Feminist Methodology"', Sociology, Vol. 26, No. 2, pp. 213–18
  29. Gillborn, D. and Drew, D. (1993) "The politics of research: Some observations on "methodological purity", New Community, 19, 2, pp. 354–60.
  30. Smith, J. K. and Hodkinson, P. (2009) 'Challenging neorealism: A response to Hammersley', Qualitative Inquiry, 15, 1, pp. 30–39.
  31. Hammersley, Martyn (2008). Questioning Qualitative Inquiry. London, UK: Sage.
  32. 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.
  33. Hammersley, M. Educational Research, Policymaking and Practice, London, Paul Chapman, 2002.
  34. 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.
  35. 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.
  36. Hammersley, M. The Myth of Research-Based Policy and Practice, London, Sage, 2013.
  37. Hammersley, Martyn (2014). The Limits of Social Science. London, UK: Sage.
  38. For example:
    • The Radicalism of Ethnomethodology, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2018.
    • 'Understanding a Dispute About Ethnomethodology: Watson and Sharrock's Response to Atkinson's "Critical Review"', Forum Qualitative Research 20, 1, article no. 1, 2019.
    • 'Was Blumer a cognitivist? Assessing an ethnomethodological critique', Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 48 (3):273-287, 2018.
    • 'Ethnomethodological criticism of ethnography', Qualitative Research, 2019, 19(5) 578 –593. Published in Online First 2018.
    • 'Exploring the distinctive ontological attitude of ethnomethodology via suicide, death, and money', Journal of Classical Sociology, 19, 2, pp. 185-204, 2019.
    • 'Schutz and ethnomethodology: origins and departures', History of the Human Sciences, 32, 2, 59-75, 2019.
  39. The Concept of Culture: A history and reappraisal, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. Troubling Sociological Concepts, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2020.
  40. ‘Planning versus the market: The dispute between Hayek and Mannheim and its contemporary relevance’, British Journal of Sociology, 72, pp.1464– 1478, 2021. ‘Karl Mannheim on Fascism: Sociological Lessons About Populism and Democracy Today?, Sociological Research Online, online first 2021. ‘Encounters with Karl Mannheim’, British Sociological Association NETWORK Newsletter, Autumn 2021. ‘Karl Mannheim’s Ideology and Utopia and the public role of sociology’, Journal of Classical Sociology, Online first, 2021,  22(2), pp. 176–198, 2022. ‘Karl Mannheim and Jean Floud at the London Institute of Education: A false start for the sociology of education in Britain?’, London Review of Education, 20, 1, 2022. Available at: Karl Mannheim and Jean Floud: a false start for the sociology of education in Britain? – UCL Press (scienceopen.com)
  41. Hammersley, M. (2023) Methodological Concepts: a critical guide, London, Routledge.
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