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

Biography

He studied sociology as an undergraduate at the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 milli ...

(1967–70), and was subsequently a postgraduate student in the sociology department at the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The university owns and operates majo ...

, obtaining an MPhil and PhD with a thesis reporting an ethnography of an inner-city secondary school. At that time Manchester was a major centre for

ethnomethodology Ethnomethodology is the study of how social order is produced in and through processes of social interaction.Garfinkel, H. (1974) 'The origins of the term ethnomethodology', in R.Turner (Ed.) Ethnomethodology, Penguin, Harmondsworth, pp 15–18. I ...

, where it was in tension with

symbolic interactionism Symbolic interactionism is a sociological theory that develops from practical considerations and alludes to particular effects of communication and interaction in people to make images and normal implications, for deduction and correspondence ...

and

Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

, and his work was influenced by all of these approaches. After a research fellowship and temporary lectureship at Manchester, he obtained a permanent position at The

Open University The Open University (OU) is a British Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's underg ...

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'. He remained at the Open University until retirement in 2015, when he became Emeritus Professor of Education and Social Research.

Sociological work

Hammersley's early research was in the

sociology of education The sociology of education is the study of how public institutions and individual experiences affect education and its outcomes. It is mostly concerned with the public schooling systems of modern industrial societies, including the expansion of ...

, with a particular focus on processes of classroom interaction in secondary schools. He joined the Open University at a time when it was one of the leading centres for the 'new sociology of education', and was involved in subsequent debates about the character and value of the various kinds of work coming under this heading. 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. He wrote a book on

Herbert Blumer Herbert George Blumer (March 7, 1900 – April 13, 1987) was an American sociologist whose main scholarly interests were symbolic interactionism and methods of social research. Believing that individuals create social reality through collective ...

's methodological ideas, locating these in historical context. He has written a number of articles on

analytic induction Analytic induction is a research strategy in sociology aimed at systematically developing causal explanations for types of phenomena. It was first outlined by Florian Znaniecki in 1934. He contrasted it with the kind of enumerative induction charact ...

(an approach developed by Florian Znaniecki), examining its history. In ''What's Wrong with Ethnography?'', he advocates what he referred to as " subtle realism", as opposed to various forms of relativism and scepticism. With Paul Atkinson, he wrote an introduction to

ethnography Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject ...

, now in its fourth edition. He has also examined issues surrounding the qualitative-quantitative divide, and the nature of qualitative research. More recently he has co-authored a book on ethics and qualitative research. He is a critic of ethical regulation, in other words of institutional review boards and research ethics committees, and has sought to clarify the concept of academic freedom. Hammersley has been involved in a series of controversies, for example over feminist methodology, about racism and anti-racist research, and concerning the character of qualitative research and the criteria of validity appropriate to it. He has also questioned the arguments of the evidence-based practice movement. 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. He has written about ethnomethodology, assessing its radical claims. Most recently, he has produced books about the concept of culture and about other key sociological concepts.''The Concept of Culture: A history and reappraisal'', Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. ''Troubling Sociological Concepts'', Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2020.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hammersley, Martyn 1949 births Living people British sociologists Alumni of the London School of Economics Alumni of the University of Manchester Date of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people)