Hi Marj, In my experience reading across a broad range of qualitative inquiry, the terms get conflated. But drawing the distinction as you do can actually be very useful in teaching research methods courses. I take a slightly different tack than you do, but I think more for the sake of getting more precision at the method end and more reflexivity at the methodology end. For example, I would say that ethnography is more a methodology (or even an epistemology) than a method. It is useful to conceptualize as a broad sensemaking tool, lens or approach. An ethnographic project would involve multiple methods of collection (such as participant observation, interviewing) and methods of analysis (such as content analysis, discourse analysis, narrative, metaphor, etc., etc.). It would also include methods and methodologies for interpretation, which can then loop back to the the epistemological levels (say for instance, critical, feminist, postmodern, structuralist, and so forth) Separating the concepts helps one see that there are always multiple methods operating at different levels of sensemaking, from the broad conceptual to the specific. FWIW, I don't think 'method' has disappeared ...and if it has for some reason, I'll be soon getting on a soapbox to bring it back, annette ***************************************************** Annette N. Markham, Ph.D. Senior Research Fellow, Internet Research Ethics Center for Information Policy Research University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee amarkham@gmail.com http://www.cipr.uwm.edu/ http://markham.internetinquiry.org/ Co-Editor, International Journal of Internet Research Ethics http://www.ijire.net On Mon, Feb 8, 2010 at 2:52 PM, Marj Kibby <Marj.Kibby@newcastle.edu.au>wrote:
Has the distinction between method and methodology disappeared?
I tell my media students that: A research method is the tool or tools that we use to make sense of a text/audience/institution - broadly ethnography. or observation and interview eg. A research methodology is the rationale for the project design; a combination of the philosophical approach, the supporting theory and the research method.
Is use different in different places, or has 'method' disappeared? If so what do we now call 'methodology'?
Regards, Marj
Associate Professor Marjorie Kibby Discipline Convenor: Film, Media and Cultural Studies School of Humanities and Social Science The University of Newcastle Callaghan NSW 2308 Australia Marj.Kibby@newcastle.edu.au +61 2 49216604
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