Abstract
This chapter considers the openness of the post-Positivism climate to engagement with ethnographic or qualitative method in social inquiry. It explores the main reasons for the historic move away from a strict positivist approach, a consequence largely of a pervasive sense of disappointment in its failure to yield a rich account of individual personality and of social life. It argues for the fundamental epistemological commonality of quantitative and qualitative method, both involving hermeneutic interpretation. Issues in the philosophy of science are discussed, especially the necessity to assume an empirical world, generally denied by the post-modernists, in order to establish validity, and the importance of acknowledging subjectivity in social science.
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Jessor, R. (1996). Chapter 1: “Ethnographic methods in contemporary perspective.” In R. Jessor, A. Colby & R. A. Shweder (Eds.), Ethnography and human development: Context and meaning in social inquiry (pp. 3–14). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
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Jessor, R. (2017). Restoring Context and Meaning in Social Inquiry: The Reach of Qualitative Methods. In: Problem Behavior Theory and the Social Context . Advancing Responsible Adolescent Development. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57885-9_15
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