Method : the tail that wants to wag the dog
By: MILLER, Hugh T
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ArticlePublisher: Thousand Oaks : SAGE, September 1998Administration & Society 30, 4, p. 462-470Abstract: Kenneth Hansens methodological disciplining of Fox and Millers warrants for discourse is a worthy aspiration, but at what point do we hand over too much to method? This implicit and sometimes explicit expectationthat method will yield an objective perspective on any public policy discoursewill not be realized. The understandable desire to overcome observer bias will be forever unfulfilled in the social sciences. Biases, backgrounds, socialization processes, educational experiences, personal histories, and so forth can be acknowledged and dealt with but not transcended. To claim that one actually occupies a bias-free platform (by virtue of ones methods) is an overbearing claim, indeed, and one that cannot be backed up
Kenneth Hansens methodological disciplining of Fox and Millers warrants for discourse is a worthy aspiration, but at what point do we hand over too much to method? This implicit and sometimes explicit expectationthat method will yield an objective perspective on any public policy discoursewill not be realized. The understandable desire to overcome observer bias will be forever unfulfilled in the social sciences. Biases, backgrounds, socialization processes, educational experiences, personal histories, and so forth can be acknowledged and dealt with but not transcended. To claim that one actually occupies a bias-free platform (by virtue of ones methods) is an overbearing claim, indeed, and one that cannot be backed up
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