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Method

The Tail that Wants to Wag the Dog

Florida Atlantic University

Kenneth Hansen’s methodological disciplining of Fox and Miller’s warrants for discourse is a worthy aspiration, but at what point do we hand over too much to method? This implicit and sometimes explicit expectation—that method will yield an objective perspective on any public policy discourse—will 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 one’s methods) is an overbearing claim, indeed, and one that cannot be backed up.

Administration & Society, Vol. 30, No. 4, 462-470 (1998)
DOI: 10.1177/0095399798304007


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