I found John Law’s writing ‘After Method, Mess in social science research’ quite intellectual and  profound.

It is by no means an easy read. You really must pay attention and stay focused on what he is saying as it’s not exactly written in the most exciting or gripping style. However the ideas and notions behind what he is saying is extremely insightful and probably very true.

 

Human behaviour, and life happenings in general, are crazy and erratic.

I often feel certain emotions and have absolutely no idea why. Sometimes there is no pattern or exact meaning behind the ways we feel, the things we do, or the events that occur in life.

 

So often people yearn to discover an exact pattern, relationship, or reason for this or that. But I guess it’s just not always possible to do so. As intelligent an object that it is, I am not sure think the brain works in a way that mimics precise rhyme or reasoning. I know mine does not anyway.

 

The he things we experience in life and the emotions we feel are so incredibly unique and precious. We will never experience one day that is entirely the same as the last or meet a person who is an exact replica of someone else we know.

 

This is why methodology struggles to pinpoint any sort of precise formula within the social science field. Everything is constantly changing, nothing is ever the same, and every one is different.

I feel like it would be an impossible task to graph or decipher a pattern/explanation of even my own feelings, emotions, and moods. They are just far too complex and crazy and evolving.

 

I believe Law’s main point can be reflected in the statements that “the world in general defies any attempt at overall orderly accounting” and that  “the world is not meant to be understood in general by adopting a methodological version of auditing.” Law never dismisses metholodgical research and study. Instead he emphasises the way in which we ought to broaden the ways in which we seek to understand, decipher and explain the world around us.

 

My two favourite things about this entire reading are these two beautiful and rather illustrious quotes:

“A gathering unto a moment of novelty. It is perception of traces of hidden meaning. It is the perception that belongs to the stop.” Applebaum 1995

and

‘”There is no use in trying” said Alice; ‘one can’t believe impossible things.’ ‘I dare say you haven’t had much practice,’ said the Queen. ‘When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.’ -Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland