Research Design and Methods for Studying Cultures

This is a practical guidebook for conducting field research on cultural issues. The first third of the book describes how one constructs a research design. The rest of the book describes different methods that the author used during his own NSF sponsored cross-cultural research on romantic love in Russia, Lithuania, and the U.S. The methods described are: freelists, pile or Q sorts questionnaires, consensus analysis, interviews, process analysis, and participant observation. Participant observation is intentionally left to the end, to emphasize that it is the most difficult of all methods and also to show that participant observations is a more powerful tool when preceded by more structured and systematic methods of data collection. The strengths and weaknesses of these methods are discussed as are the 'pitfalls' that occur when a research design is implemented in the field. The book is useful for anyone who is preparing to conduct fieldwork on socio- cultural issues.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 Section 1: Research Design Chapter 2 Chapter 1: What do you want to Study? Chapter 3 Chapter 2: Research Design Chapter 4 Section 2: Methods Chapter 5 Chapter 3: Freelisting Chapter 6 Chapter 4: Pile sorting Chapter 7 Chapter 5: Designing questionnaires Chapter 8 Chapter 6: Consensus Analysis Chapter 9 Chapter 7: Long Interviews Chapter 10 Chapter 8: Process Methods Chapter 11 Chapter 9: Participant Observation Chapter 12 Chapter 10: Conclusion

About the Author :
Victor C. De Munck is associate professor of anthropology at SUNY New Paltz.

Review :
Professor de Munck is one of the brightest and most creative researchers and teachers in today's anthropology. Research Design and Methods for Studying Cultures brings a fresh and human perspective to the problem of designing anthropological field projects that are at once sensitively human and rigorously empirical. Students embarking on anthropological research will find this a stimulating and informative source and guide. De Munck makes a clear and compelling argument against the factorial framework and for an integrated, holistic approach. He demonstrates, with straightforward writing and plenty of concrete examples, a pragmatic model for research design that takes into account the contingent nature of fieldwork and the unruly character of culture. Better yet, he goes well beyond describing this model: he shows the reader how to apply it. Research Design and Methods for Studying Cultures takes an integrated approach that stresses the relationship between research design and methods and illustrates clearly how methods build upon one another in the process of pursuing research questions. De Munck allows novice researchers to understand that cultural anthropology fieldwork is a complicated and messy endeavor, and he does this in an accessible and entertaining way. De Munck takes a holistic view of cultural anthropology research and colors technical descriptions with insights and interesting examples gained from his own field research in Lithuania, Russia, and the United States. . . . Helpful, basic information on literature searching, grant writing, methodology, and ethics is included. . . . Thorough, yet not exhuastive, this practical guide to ethnology research design and methods would be especially useful to graduate students planning their first fieldwork experience. . . . Recommended. This is one of the most readable treatments of quantitative approaches to field research that I have encountered. The author begins by directing the reader's attention to an exceedingly important and fundamental issue: good research must be preceded by clear thinking and an equally clear question. The writing style is excellent and the author engages the reader with references to his own research. The result is a book that fills an important gap between highly technical treatments of quantitative research methods and comparatively loose presentations on fieldwork and participant observation.