Reinventing evidence in social inquiry

"Reinventing Evidence in Social Inquiry throws serious grit into the knowledge-making machinery of much modern sociology. It is an invitation to sociologists to stop and pause, to take a closer look at some of their methodological routines, and to re-assess the confidence with which they view their findings. Biernacki's criticisms are meticulously assembled, and they cannot be ignored."--Steven Shapin, Franklin L. Ford Professor of the History of Science, Harvard University "This is an exemplary work of serious criticism that should spark fruitful debate about the use of formal methods in cultural analysis."--Rogers Brubaker, professor of Sociology and Foundation Chair, UCLA Reinventing Evidence in Social Inquiry overthrows the techniques for coding evidence that pervade the modern social sciences. Natural scientists produce facts and humanists interpret meanings. But what happens when social scientists who study culture try to forge a hybrid between the two? On the surface, they classify cultural meanings to produce facts or variables. With stunning case examples, this book dismantles the facts as circular inventions with no existence outside the false rituals in which they are spun. Social investigators must reclaim their roots with more direct, testable methods for recognizing patterns in human testimony.