Video Analysis of Mathematical Practice? Different Attempts to "Open Up" Mathematics for Sociological Investigation

Authors

  • Christian Greiffenhagen University of Manchester

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-9.3.1172

Keywords:

video analysis, work­place studies, sociology of sci­entific knowl­edge, mathematics

Abstract

In this article I argue that in contrast to a large number of sociological studies of laboratory practices in the natural sciences, there have been relatively few studies that have investigated professional mathematical practice. I discuss three different methodological attempts to "open up" advanced mathematics for sociological investigation: (1) LIVINGSTON's "demonstrative sociology"; (2) MERZ and KNORR-CETINA's "e-mail ethnography"; and (3) my own "video ethnography." URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0803323

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Author Biography

Christian Greiffenhagen, University of Manchester

Christian GREIFFENHAGEN is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Manchester, currently conducting ethnographic research on mathematical practice, which aims to address a key challenge for the sociology of scientific knowledge: What could a sociology of mathematics look like? His doctoral research (at the University of Oxford) was a video-based ethnographic study of how a new innovative storyboarding software embedded in everyday classroom practice and how this reconfigured classroom interaction. His recent publications are "Unpacking tasks: the fusion of new technology with instructional work," Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), "Where do the limits of experience lie? Abandoning the dualism of objectivity and subjectivity," History of the Human Sciences (with Wes SHARROCK), and "School mathematics and its everyday other? Revisiting Lave's 'Cognition in Practice'," Educational Studies in Mathematics (with Wes SHARROCK).

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Published

2008-09-28

How to Cite

Greiffenhagen, C. (2008). Video Analysis of Mathematical Practice? Different Attempts to "Open Up" Mathematics for Sociological Investigation. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 9(3). https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-9.3.1172

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 3 (2008): Visual Methods

Section

Thematic Issue

License

Copyright (c) 2008 Christian Greiffenhagen

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.