Abstract:

The author's many years of field research provide the base for the sociological discussion in this paper about the relationship between field research and everyday life logic as well as the relationship between theory and method. The study finds that there is an intermediate stage between experience and theory, namely, the everyday life logic that calls for an in-depth investigation.The logic of daily lives is a kind of "accumulated foundation" that is hidden in the details of everyday life and can only be uncovered by immersing oneself into the field. Steps such as from observing to understanding, from speculating to questioning, from predisposition to analysis, from techniques to social process, from tale-telling to facts finding, are suggested as desirable research methods. Individual case study and multi-case comparative study have different effects on research. While there is an increasing and interrelated relationship between the two, the difference exists in their focal points in different phases. Individual case study, with its focus on questioning, observing and interpreting, can provide evidence to test hypothesis and find the typical institutional logic in everyday life. Multi-case comparative study compensates the deficiency of individual case study by either expanding investigation ormaking comparison among different cases. This type of reasoning is an analytic reasoning, a form of inducing general conclusions from multi-case comparison. It contributes to the formation of a theoretical prototype.

Key words: field research, Case Study, everyday Life Logic