Synopses & Reviews
In this remarkable collection of essays, Michael Burawoy develops the extended case method by connecting his own experiences among workers of the world to the great transformations of the twentieth centuryand#151;the rise and fall of the Soviet Union and its satellites, the reconstruction of U.S. capitalism, and the African transition to post-colonialism in Zambia. Burawoy's odyssey began in 1968 in the Zambian copper mines and proceeded to Chicago's South Side, where he worked as a machine operator and enjoyed a unique perspective on the stability of advanced capitalism. In the 1980s, this perspective was deepened by contrast with his work in diverse Hungarian factories. Surprised by the collapse of socialism in Hungary in 1989, he journeyed in 1991 to the Soviet Union, which by the end of the year had unexpectedly dissolved. He then spent the next decade studying how the working class survived the catastrophic collapse of the Soviet economy. These essays, presented with a perspective that has benefited from time and rich experience, offer ethnographers a theory and a method for developing novel understandings of epochal change.
Review
and#8220;Rich and provocative. . . . This book will be of interest for students and researchers.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;This is a well-crafted, beautifully written, and nicely organized book that seeks to take the task of qualitative social science methodsand#8212;especially ethnographic methods in anthropology and sociologyand#8212;to new levels of sophistication.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Inand#160;Abductive Analysis, Iddo Tavory and Stefan Timmermans make a case that the thought of pragmatist philosopher Charles S. Peirceand#8212;specifically, his theories of hypothetical reasoning and semioticsand#8212;can be used to guide and improve qualitative research. Every qualitatively-minded sociologist should consider their strong, well-crafted argument.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;In this ground-breaking book, Tavory and Timmermans open a new direction for qualitative inquiry that cuts across current internal divisions and debates.and#160; By reframing the logic and process of making sense of data within a pragmatic approach, they give new life to the craft of theorizing. Thoughtful and intellectually exciting, Abductive Analysis is both inspired and inspiring.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Thick description is no longer enough! Tacking back and forth from data to theorizing that data, thoughtful and systematic abduction enables the creative unfolding of a project, opening the researcher to precious moments of analytic surprise. Abductive Analysis is a major contribution to both the pragmatist renaissance and the transnational turn toward theorizing in qualitative research.and#8221;
Synopsis
The core idea of this book is abduction, a term coined by Charles S. Peirce (which gives away the pragmatist philosophical roots of the book). Itand#8217;s differentiated from induction (collecting new data in and using it to strengthen or problematize well-established theories ) and deduction (an initial hypothesis about specific observations already based on existing theory).and#160; Neither induction nor deduction, Peirce noted, were particularly creativeand#151;neither leads to new theories.and#160; Tavory and Timmermans maintain that theory-generation requires us to move away from our preconceived notions and to create new narratives about the phenomenon weand#8217;re trying to explain.and#160; Abduction occurs when we encounter observations that donand#8217;t neatly fit existing theory and we find ourselves speculating what the data plausibly could be a case of.and#160; Abduction thus refers to a creative inferential process aimed at producing new hypotheses and theories based on surprising research evidence.and#160; Abduction forms a new hypothesis for which we need to gather more data points to strengthen our hunch. Tavory and Timmermans offer much practical advice, and vivid examples from their own and othersand#8217; research, but their treatment is not in all respects a straightforward and#147;how toand#8221; methods book. What they concentrate on is providing a new way of thinking about data analysis grounded in the pragmatist tradition.
Synopsis
Inand#160;Abductive Analysis, Iddo Tavory and Stefan Timmermans provide a new navigational map for theorizing qualitative research. They outline a way to think about observations, methods, and theories that nurtures theory formation without locking it into predefined conceptual boxes. The book provides novel ways to approach the challenges that plague qualitative researchers across the social sciencesand#151;how to conceptualize causality, how to manage the variation of observations, and how to leverage the researcherand#8217;s community of inquiry. and#160;Abductive Analysisand#160;is a landmark work that shows how a pragmatist approach provides a productive and fruitful way to conduct qualitative research.
About the Author
Michael Burawoy teaches at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of a number of books, including Manufacturing Consent: Changes in the Process under Monopoly Capitalism, and coauthor of Global Ethnography and Ethnography Unbound (both UC Press).
Table of Contents
List of Tables
Prologue: Bringing Theory to the Field
Introduction: From Manchester to Berkeley by Way of Chicago
1. The Extended Case Method: Race and Class in Postcolonial Africa
2. The Ethnographic Revisit: Capitalism in Transition and Other Histories
3. Two Methods in Search of Revolution: Trotsky versus Skocpol
4. Multicase Ethnography: Tracking the Demise of State Socialism
Conclusion: The Ethnography of Great Transformations
Epilogue: On Public Ethnography
Notes
References