Description:
Adopting an approach based on ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, this book presents a close-up view of social science researchers engaged in fieldwork, discussions with colleagues and writing, thus shedding new light on epistemic cultures, the elusive materiality of conceptual objects, and on researchers' ways of grasping knowledge.
Review Quotes:
'Empirically, the book follows its actors in all potential corners of their doing and thinking, their movements and looks, their encounters with others and themselves. Notably, it is the theme of self-encounter that pervades the analysis. Time after time, observers are relating to themselves, to their actions, and their (non-)impact, their competencies and their (inchoate) knowledge. Thus, it becomes apparent that the classic definition of the "situation" is also at stake and that the interaction with oneself should be conceived as a social situation.' - Herbert Kalthoff, University of Mainz, Germany
'I find this an innovative, empirically wide-ranging, and conceptually rich and developed work (...), commensurate with its broad, discipline-transcending interest and potential impact. Although all kinds of textbooks, books of advice, and essayistic renderings of various aspects of the research process exist - more in the humanities than in sociology - none display the same level of detail, observational perceptiveness, and theoretical sensitivity to the research process and its various components as this one (...). The chapter on writing in particular comes close to a conversation analysis study of the "succession" of the writing process and its many aspects, including that of generating ideas while writing and of dissociating oneself from the text and then re-appropriating it as an interaction party - as a communicative other.' - Karin Knorr Cetina, The University of Chicago, USA
'...an ethnomethodological account of an oft-overlooked set of related practices common to social research. There will, undoubtedly, be readers interested in the sociality of research methods who will find this book a vital contribution.' - Phil Brooker, Symbolic Interaction