Grumpy Old Ethnographers: A Review of David Silverman ’s A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book about Qualitative Research

Authors

Rachel Fang, University of MinnesotaFollow

Abstract

Renowned scholar of qualitative research methods David Silverman delivers an indictment of contemporary qualitative research methods. The book is meant to be an introduction (or “pre - textbook”) to the subject of qualitative research and definitely not a “how - to” manual. In evaluating contemporary qualitative research methods, Silverman’s book primarily focuses on ethnography and conversation analysis. Intentionally personal and biased, Silverman’s plainly - stated goal for this book is to “debunk the accepted understandings” of qualitative research and elicit an interest in the arguments within the field of qualitative inquiry , and he succeeds on both accounts .

Keywords

Qualitative Research Methods, Ethnography, Conversation Analysis

Publication Date

7-29-2013

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2013.1488

Recommended APA Citation

Fang, R. (2013). Grumpy Old Ethnographers: A Review of David Silverman ’s A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book about Qualitative Research. The Qualitative Report, 18(30), 1-3. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2013.1488