ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author interprets methodology to include methodological aspects of theory. The review that follows is a personal statement. In it she explains some of the factors that led up to and shaped the study, and which are seldom discussed in sociological monographs. She hopes to make clear the central ideas underlying the methodology and how these were developed during the research. The chapter has a broadly chronological structure and shows how a general concern with the problems of society were shaped by her experience within the Department of Social Anthropology and Sociology at Manchester, and finally moulded into a methodology through her study of Hightown Grammar. The analyses of a wide range of fieldwork situations were united by Manchester's own peculiar blend of conflict theory and functionalism. She then explores most affected by social anthropological criticism and which itself contains an implied criticism of much social anthropological writing.
