Qualitative Methodology and Sociology: Describing the Social World

This major new text in qualitative research reflects the new-found confidence and rigour of non-positivist approaches to methodology. It covers a wide range of methods and approaches including structuralism and 'realism' as well as interactionism and ethnomethodology. The book is intended for a wide readership among students taking courses in research methods in the social sciences and in applied areas, such as management. The aim has been to give an overall sense of how qualitative research is conducted, emphasizing the analytic issues as well as purely methodological problems. Part One is concerned with describing the practical and conceptual problems that arise during the research process. It shows the varying ways in which a research topic can be established and examines various ways in which the study may be made more rigorous, while avoiding a number of potential pitfalls. Part Two sets out major conceptual polarities that are likely to confront the researcher: society and the individual, structures and meanings, the parts and the whole , 'macro' and 'micro' relations. It shows how, properly understood, there is often no need to choose 'sides' in any of these polarities. Using work by Foucault and Saussure, Durkheim and Weber, it demonstrates that research may involve a fruitful dialogue, concerned to articulate the relations between a number of conceptual elements. Part Three examines the practice of qualitative research. It covers major research techniques (ethnography, interviews and conversational analysis) as well as the role of simple methods of counting in qualitative research. The aim is to provide a sensitive discussion of the analytic problems of these techniques, concluding with a discussion of the practical contributions that can arise from social research.