What, We Worry?

Abstract

Inevitably, more is forgotten than is remembered; what is lost to memory may be viewed as collective amnesia. This article considers the development of qualitative sociology as a distinct social world within the discipline; its emergence reflects sociology's growth and shifts in publishing practices that encouraged sociology's division into separate specialties. However, these developments have costs: ethnography is increasingly divorced from its historical context, and despite receiving considerable lip service, synthetic grounded theory is uncommon. Ethnographers need to consider both the benefits and the costs of these developments.