Grumpy Old Ethnographers: A Review of David Silverman 's A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book about Qualitative Research
In: Qualitative report: an online journal dedicated to qualitative research and critical inquiry
ISSN: 1052-0147
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.