ABSTRACT
In Chapter 1 we argued that, contrary to the views of some recent writers on qualitative research, the immediate goal of ethnography should be the production of knowledge – rather than, for example, the pursuit of political goals, serving evidence-based policymaking, or the improvement of professional practice. In this specific sense for us social research is not inevitably, and should not be, political; even though there are various other senses in which it could reasonably be described as necessarily political (see Hammersley 1995: ch. 6). Another way of putting this is to say that the only value which is intrinsic to the activity of research is truth: the aim should be to produce true accounts of social phenomena; though these should also be relevant to human concerns and have some news value. However, even if this position is adopted, it does not mean that all other values can be ignored in the course of doing research. Clearly, there are ways of pursuing inquiry that are unacceptable on other grounds.
