Researching the Vulnerable: A Guide to Sensitive Research Methods

′This book is refreshing, both as an addition to the general literature and as a text that considers cultural and social issues in studies relating to improving the situation of vulnerable people…. [T]his book will be a helpful, accessible and interesting resource for novice and experienced researchers alike in a number of fields′ - Nurse Researcher ′Pranee Liamputtong has offered a well organized, clear and accessible work in Researching the Vulnerable…this book can offer very good guidance to the postgraduate student who is willing to focus in qualitative research methods, but also to an experienced researcher who may consider testing out its procedures or eventually is attempting to put into practice innovative qualitative research procedures′ - Sociological Research Online Researching Vunerable People takes as its starting point the particular considerations and sensitivities of being a researcher faced with a subject group at the margins of society, and explores the ethical, practical and methodological implications of working with such groups. Pranee Liamputtong is an experienced textbook author, and in this book she attempts to explore qualitative methods using examples, drawn from around the world, from the wide variety of contexts that might count as ′researching the vulnerable′. Numerous salient points for the conduct of research within vulnerable groups of people, including ethical and moral issues, are considered, and discussed in the context of sensitive and innovative research methods.

Table of Contents:
The Sensitive Researcher Introduction to Researching Vulnerable People Moral and Ethical Issues In Researching Vulnerable People The Vulnerable Research Participants Procedural Sensibilities The Sensitive and Vulnerable Researcher Traditional Interviewing Research Methods Appropriate for Researching Vulnerable People Flexible and Collaborative Investigative Methods Innovative and Alternative Research Methods in Consideration (Re)Presentation of Vulnerable Voices Writing Research Findings A Closing Word...For Now

About the Author :
Pranee Liamputtong is a medical anthropologist and holds a Personal Chair in Public Health at the School of Public Health, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. Pranee has her interests in issues regarding childbearing, childrearing, and women's reproductive and sexual health. She has conducted research with migrant and refugee women in Australia and with women in Southeast Asia. She has published several books and a large number of papers in these areas. Her recent books in the health and social science areas include: The Journey of Becoming a Mother Amongst Women in Northern Thailand (Lexington Books, 2007); Community , Health and Population (with Sansnee Jirojwong, Oxford University Press, 2008); Infant Feeding Practices : A Cross-Cultural Perspective (Springer 2011); Motherhood and Postnatal Depression : Narratives of Women and Their Partners (with Carolyn Westall, Springer, 2011); and Health , Illness and Well -Being : Perspectives and Social Determinants (with Rebecca Fanany and Glenda Verrinder, Oxford University Press, 2012). She has recently edited two books on HIV/AIDS for Springer including Women, Motherhood and HIV /AIDS: A Cross -Cultural Perspective and Stigma, Discrimination and HIV /AIDS: A Cross-Cultural Perspective. Both were published in 2013. Pranee is a qualitative researcher and has also published several method books. Her most recent method books include: Researching the Vulnerable : A Guide to Sensitive Research Methods (Sage, 2007); Performing Qualitative Cross-Cultural Research (Cambridge University Press, 2010); Focus Group Methodology: Principles and Practice (Sage, 2011); Qualitative Research Methods , 4th Edition (Oxford University Press, 2013); and Research Methods in Health: Foundations for Evidence-Based Practice, 2nd Edition (Oxford University Press, 2013).

Review :
′This book is refreshing, both as an addition to the general literature and as a text that considers cultural and social issues in studies relating to improving the situation of vulnerable people…. [T]his book will be a helpful, accessible and interesting resource for novice and experienced researchers alike in a number of fields′ - Nurse Researcher ′Pranee Liamputtong has offered a well organized, clear and accessible work in Researching the Vulnerable…this book can offer very good guidance to the postgraduate student who is willing to focus in qualitative research methods, but also to an experienced researcher who may consider testing out its procedures or eventually is attempting to put into practice innovative qualitative research procedures′ - Sociological Research Online