This volume discusses ethnostatistics - the interpretative study of the construction and use of statistics in social research - and will be of equal interest to qualitative and quantitative researchers across the social sciences. On the understanding that the development of a statistic is inherently a qualitative act, the author shows how this act can be studied and analyzed. The interpretative factors in statistical work can be demonstrated at a variety of levels; Gephart shows how each can be usefully illuminated through the use of ethnostatistics to produce more effective, reflexive social research.

The Domain of Ethnostatics
Producing a Statistic
Statistics at Work
Statistics as Rhetoric
Summary and Conclusions

Robert P. Gephart Jr. is a professor of strategic management and organization at the University of Alberta's School of Business in Edmonton, Canada. He received his PhD from the University of British Columbia in 1979. Dr. Gephart has published in several important journals including the Administrative Science Quarterly, the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Management, Organization Studies, Organizational Research Methods, and Qualitative Sociology. He is also the author of Ethnostatistics: Qualitative Foundations for Quantitative Research (SAGE, 1988) and a coeditor of Postmodern Management and Organization Theory (SAGE, 1996). Dr. Gephart served as an associate editor of Organizational Research Methods and serves on the editorial boards of the Academy of Management Journal and the Academy of Management Review. He received the 2015 SAGE Distinguished Career Award from the Research Methods Division of the Academy of Management. His current research interests include ethnostatistics, risk sensemaking, and organizational change management.