The Methodology of Herbert Blumer is a comprehensive critical account of the contributions of this important American sociologist to the methodology of social research. In a close reading of Blumer's texts, the author charts the development of Blumer's thinking, revealing a tension between an essentially realist ontology and Blumer's emphasis on the relationship of theory to methodology. The author describes Blumer's conception of methodology as a self-reflective exercise in which the principles of scientific inquiry are developed and criticized, and not merely as a matter of technique....