ABSTRACT
We have worked like craftsmen, plunging into the material we are seeking to understand. Although it is true that the structure of a sociological study emerges in the course of the work - that the data are not simply 'there', ready to be collected - and that problems of selection and presentation are present throughout the work, we have noticed much more clearly than in other studies to what extent the phenomena selected themselves, rather than we selected them. Our work was craft-like in character, that is, isolated, and limited by the resources and help available. 1 At the quasi-manual stage in the development of research work, the craftsman has to be able to turn his hand to anything. This approach is less archaic and more satisfactory than might appear, because of the constant presence of all aspects of the question at once; it is also limiting, and one runs the risk of never crossing the river. We should perhaps examine the epistemology of our study, in order to present it in its true perspective, and, at the same time, to reveal the problems of general interest that it raises.
