Qualitative Research Practice

`This comprehensive collection of almost 40 chapters - each written by a leading expert in the field - is the essential reference for anyone undertaking or studying qualitative research. It covers a diversity of methods and a variety of perspectives and is a very practical and informative guide for newcomers and experienced researchers alike' - John Scott, University of Essex `The best ways in which to understand the issues and processes informing qualitative research is to learn from the accounts of its leading practitioners. Here they come together in what is a distinctive and wide-ranging collection that will appeal to postgraduates and social researchers in general' - Tim May, University of Salford `This excellent guide engages in a dialogue with a wide range of expert qualitative researchers, each of whom considers their own practice in an illuminating and challenging way. Overall, the book constitutes an authoritative survey of current methods of qualitative research data collection and analysis' - Nigel Gilbert, University of Surrey Learning to do good qualitative research occurs most fortuitously by seeing what researchers actually do in particular projects and by incorporating their procedures and strategies into one's own research practice. This is one of the most powerful and pragmatic ways of bringing to bear the range of qualitative methodological perspectives available. The chapters in this important new volume are written by leading, internationally distinguished qualitative researchers who recount and reflect on their own research experiences as well as others, past and present, from whom they have learned. It demonstrates the benefits of using particular methods from the viewpoint of real-life experience. From the outside, good research seems to be produced through practitioners learning and following standard theoretical, empirical and procedural formats. But from the inside we learn that qualitative research (like other forms of scientific endeavour) is also a biographical engagement, rendering its scholarly and practical contributions in its own terms. Standards take on practical meaning as the distinct activities of qualitative research resonate throughout the enterprise, complicating its accountability to itself and to others. In an authoritative yet accessible manner, Qualitative Research Practice reveals the special features of this engagement, teaching us that qualitative research is as much a craft and practice as it is a way of knowing. Presenting a comprehensive examination of contemporary and traditional varieties of qualitative research practice, Qualitative Research Practice will be an invaluable resource for advanced students and researchers in any discipline. It is an essential and definitive guide to the major forms of qualitative methods in use today, written by leaders in the relevant fields of research practice.

Table of Contents:
Introduction - Clive Seale et al Inside Qualitative Research PART ONE: ENCOUNTERING METHOD Interviews - Tim Rapley Oral History - Joanna Bornat Biographical Research - Gabriele Rosenthal Focus Groups - Phil Macnaghten and Greg Myers Grounded Theory - Ian Dey Performance and Rehearsal - Paul Atkinson The Ethnographer at the Opera PART TWO: ANALYTIC FRAMEWORKS Narrative Research - Molly Andrews et al Feminist Approaches - Celia Kitzinger The Foucaultian Framework - Gavin Kendall and Gary Wickham Ethnomethodology - Paul ten Have Conversation Analysis - Anssi Perakyla Discourse Analytic Practice - Alexa Hepburn and Jonathan Potter Critical Discourse Analysis - Ruth Wodak PART THREE: FIELD RELATIONS Ethnography and Participant Observation - Sara Delamont Ethical Issues - Anne Ryen Working in Hostile Environments - Nigel Fielding Politics, Research and Understanding - Les Back Collaborative and Team Research - Linda S Mitteness and Judith C Barker PART FOUR: CONTEXT AND METHOD Context - James Holstein and Jaber Gubrium Working it Up, Down and Across Working Qualitatively and Quantitatively - Julia Brannen Secondary Analysis of Archived Data - Louise Corti and Paul Thompson Reanalysis of Previously Collected Material - Malin Akerstr[um]om, Katarina Jacobsson and David W[um]asterfors The Internet as Research Context - Annette Markham Documents - Lindsay Prior Visual Methods - Sarah Pink PART FIVE: QUALITY AND CREDIBILITY Quality in Qualitative Research - Clive Seale Five Misunderstandings about Case Study Research - Bent Flyvbjerg Sampling, Representativeness and Generalizability - Giampietro Gobo Working with `Key Incidents′ - Bob Emerson Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis - Udo Kelle PART SIX: AUDIENCES AND APPLICATIONS Preparing and Evaluating Qualitative Research Proposals - Janice Morse Qualitative Market Research - Gill Ereaut Qualitative Evaluation Research - Moira Kelly Action Research - Donna Ladkin Teaching Qualitative Method - Martyn Hammersley Writing a Social Science Monograph - Barbara Czarniawska Publishing Qualitative Manuscripts - Donileen Loseke and Spencer Cahill PART SEVEN: THE INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT The Globalization of Qualitative Research - Pertti Alasuutari

About the Author :
Clive Seale is Professor of Medical Sociology at Queen Mary University of London. Giampietro Gobo, Ph.D., is Professor of Methodology of Social Research and Evaluation Methods at the Department of Social and Political Studies - University of Milan. He has published over fifty articles in the areas of qualitative and quantitative methods. His books include Doing Ethnography (Sage 2008) and Qualitative Research Practice (Sage 2004, co-edited with C. Seale, J.F. Gubrium and D. Silverman). He is currently engaged in projects in the area of workplace studies. Jaber F. Gubrium is professor and chair of sociology at the University of Missouri. He has an extensive record of research on the social organization of care in human service institutions. His publications include numerous books and articles on aging, family, the life course, medicalization, and representational practice in therapeutic context. David Silverman is Visiting Professor in the Business School, University of Technology, Sydney, Emeritus Professor in the Sociology Department, Goldsmiths' College and Adjunct Professor in the School of Education, Queensland University of Technology. He has lived in London for most of his life, where he attended Christ's College Finchley and did a BSc (Economics) at the London School of Economics in the 1960s. Afterwards, he went to the USA for graduate work, obtaining an MA in the Sociology Department, University of California, Los Angeles. He returned to LSE to write a PhD on organization theory. This was published as The Theory of Organizations in 1970. Apart from brief spells teaching at UCLA, his main teaching career was at Goldsmiths College. His three major research projects were on decision making in the Personnel Department of the Greater London Council (Organizational Work, written with Jill Jones, 1975), paediatric outpatient clinics (Communication and Medical Practice, 1987) and HIV-test counselling (Discourses of Counselling, 1997). He pioneered a taught MA in Qualitative Research at Goldsmiths in 1985 and supervised around 30 successful PhD students. Since becoming Emeritus Professor in 1999, he has continued publishing methodology books. David regularly runs qualitative research workshops for five universities in Sydney and Brisbane. He has also run workshops for research students in Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, France, Sri Lanka and Tanzania. Since 2000, he has done voluntary work with people with dementia. resident in an old people's home Besides all this, David's other interests include classical music, literary fiction, bridge, county cricket and spending time with his grandchildren.