Qualitative Research brings together all of the major topics and issues in qualitative research in this major work which assembles the best published material in this field. Collectively, the contributions: give a panoramic view of qualitative research today; reflect the international and interdisciplinary character of qualitative research; document the essential issues in qualitative research; and demonstrate the relations between different research traditions.

Each of the four volumes carry an 8-10,000 word introduction which places the examination of qualitative research issues in the appropriate historical and intellectual context.

Volume 1 covers the fundamental issues about qualitative research, including epistemological ones. A wide range of case-studies are included.

Volume 2 covers the different methods with which qualitative research is associated.

Volume 3 deals with the analysis and interpretation of qualitative data, as well as with writing up the results of research.

Volume 4 contains selections relating to a wide range of specific issues in qualitative research in the appropriate historical and intellectual context.

VOLUME ONE: FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

PART ONE: PHILOSOPHICAL ISSUES

The Fundamental Concepts of Sociology - Max Weber

What Is Wrong with Social Theory? - Herbert Blumer

PART TWO: RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

The Debate about Quantitative and Qualitative Research - Alan Bryman

Deconstructing the Qualitative-Quantitative Divide - Martyn Hammersley

Attitudes toward Needle `Sharing' among Injection Drug Users - Robert G Carlson et al

Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methods

PART THREE: DEFINING QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

Real Men Don't Collect Soft Data - Silvia Gherardi and Barry Turner

Method Talk - Jaber F Gubrium and James A Holstein

PART FOUR: RESEARCH DESIGN

Building Theories from Case Study Research - Kathleen M Eisenhardt

What Can Case Studies Do? - Jennifer Platt

Case and Situation Analysis - J Clyde Mitchell

PART FIVE: THE RESEARCH PROCESS

Library Access, Library Use and User Education in Academic Sixth Forms - Lawrence Stenhouse

An Autobiographical Account

Scholarship and Sponsored Research - Robert G Burgess

Contradiction, Continuum or Complementary Activity

Hired Hand Research - Julius A Roth

PART SIX: GAINING RESEARCH ACCESS

The Study of Southern Labor Unions Organizing Campaigns - Donald Roy

Playing Back the Tape - John Van Maanen

Early Days in the Field

PART SEVEN: SAMPLING

Decision Taking in the Fieldwork Process - Janet Finch and Jennifer Mason

Theoretical Sampling and Collaborative Working

Strategy for Getting Organized - Leonard Schatzman and Anselm L Strauss

PART EIGHT: USING INFORMANTS

In the Company of Teachers - Robert G Burgess

Key Informants and the Study of a Comprehensive School

Key Informant Interviews - Valerie J Gilchrist

VOLUME TWO: METHODS OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

PART ONE: PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION

Participant Observation - Paul Rock

The Participant-Observer as a Human Being - Herbert J Gans

Observations on the Personal Aspects of Field Work

Problems of Inference and Proof in Participant Observation - Howard S Becker

PART TWO: INTERVIEWING

`It's Great to Have Someone to Talk to' - Janet Finch

The Ethics and Politics of Interviewing Women

Experience and Knowledge - Marianne A Paget

Active Interviewing - James A Holstein and Jaber F Gubrium

PART THREE: FOCUS GROUPS

The Focused Interview and Focus Groups - Robert K Merton

Continuities and Discontinuities

The Methodology of Focus Groups - Jenny Kitzinger

The Importance of Interaction between Research Participants

PART FOUR: LIFE HISTORY AND ORAL HISTORY

On Auto/Biography in Sociology - Liz Stanley

Introduction to The Jack Roller - Howard S Becker

Movement without Aim - Ronald J Grele

Methodological and Theoretical Problems in Oral History

Is Oral History Auto/Biography? - Joanna Bornat

PART FIVE: DOCUMENTARY RESEARCH

Evidence and Proof in Documentary Research - Jennifer Platt

1 Some Specific Problems of Documentary Research

Evidence and Proof in Documentary Research - Jennifer Platt

2 Some Shared Problems of Documentary Research

Qualitative Media Analysis - David L Altheide

PART SIX: DIARIES

Keeping a Research Diary - Robert G Burgess

Public and Private Meanings in Diaries - Linda Bell

Researching Family and Childcare

PART SEVEN: PHOTOGRAPHS, FILMS AND VIDEO

Finding a Silent Voice for the Researcher - Rob Walker

Using Photographs in Evaluation and Research

Film-Making and Ethnographic Research - Paul Henley

PART EIGHT: CONVERSATION AND DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Discourse Analysis as a Way of Analyzing Naturally Occurring Talk - Jonathan Potter

Analyzing Conversation - David Silverman

An Initial Investigation of the Usability of Conversational Data for Doing Sociology - Harvey Sacks

VOLUME THREE: ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF QUALITATIVE DATA

PART ONE: FIELDWORK NOTES AND TRANSCRIPTS

Data Logging in Observation - John Lofland and Lyn H Lofland

Fieldnotes

Transcription Quality as an Aspect of Rigor in Qualitative Research - Blake D Poland

First Days in the Field - Blanche Geer

PART TWO: RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THEORY AND DATA IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

What's Wrong with Ethnography? The Myth of Theoretical Description - Martyn Hammersley

Grounded Theory Methodology - Anselm Strauss and Juliet Corbin

An Overview

Temporality and Identity Loss Due to Alzheimer's Disease - Celia J Orona

PART THREE: ANALYTIC STRATEGIES

The Logical Sructure of Analytic Induction - W S Robinson

Symbolic Interactionism - Robin Williams

The Fusion of Theory and Research?

Some Guidelines for the Phenomenological Analysis of Interview Data - Richard H Hycner

PART FOUR: COMPUTERS IN QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS

Qualitative Data Analysis - Amanda Coffey, Beverley Holbrook and Paul Atkinson

Technologies and Representations

NUD·IST in Action - K Buston

Its Use and Its Usefulness in a Study of Chronic Illness in Young People

PART FIVE: NARRATIVE ANALYSIS

Sociological and Sociolinguistic Models of Narrative - Martin Cortazzi

Sounds of Still Voices - Tim Booth

Issues in the Use of Narrative Methods with People Who Have Learning Difficulties

The Codes of the Dead - Stephen R Barley

The Semiotics of Funeral Work

Dreams, Visions and Commercial Spaces - Mark Gottdiener

PART SIX: POSTMODERNISM MEETS ETHNOGRAPHY

On Ethnographic Authority - James Clifford

Evaluating Qualitative Research in the Poststructural Moment - Norman K Denzin

The Lessons James Joyce Teaches Us

The Challenges of Postmodernism - Peter K Manning

PART SEVEN: WRITING

Thick Description - Clifford Geertz

Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture

Appealing Work - Karen Golden-Biddle and Karen Locke

An Investigation of How Ethnographic Texts Convince

PART EIGHT: VALIDATION ISSUES

Establishing Trustworthiness - Yvonna S Lincoln and Egon Guba

On the Analysis of Observational Data - Michael Bloor

A Discussion of the Worth and Uses of Inductive Techniques and Respondent Validation

PART NINE: QUALITATIVE DATA AND ARCHIVING

Qualitative Data Archiving - Martyn Hammersley

Some Reflections on Its Prospects and Problems

Archiving Qualitative Research Data - Louise Corti, Janet Foster and Paul Thompson

VOLUME FOUR: ISSUES IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

PART ONE: ETHICAL ISSUES

Ethical Problems in Social Research - Martin Bulmer

The Case of Covert Participant Observation

The Ethics of Deception in Social Research - Erich Goode

A Case Study

Whose Side Are We on? - Howard S Becker

PART TWO: ISSUES OF GENDER AND FEMINISM

Interviewing Women - Ann Oakley

A Contradiction in Terms

Toward a Methodology for Feminist Research - Maria Mies

Talking and Listening from Women's Standpoint - Marjorie L DeVault

Feminist Strategies for Interviewing and Analysis

PART THREE: CULTURAL DIFFERENCE

Commonality, Difference and the Dynamics of Disclosure in In-Depth Interviewing - Miri Song and David Parker

Studying across Difference - Margaret L Anderson

Race, Class and Gender in Qualitative Research

PART FOUR: QUALITATIVE EVALUATION RESEARCH

The Nature of Qualitative Enquiry - Michael Quinn Patton

Ethnographic Contributions to Evaluation Research - Michael S Knapp

The Experimental Schools Program Evaluation and Some Alternatives

PART FIVE: QUALITATIVE RESEARCH AND POLICY

Developing Policy-Oriented Qualitative Research - Janet Finch

Disparities in the Social Construction of Long-Term Care - Rhoda Hurst Rojiani

PART SIX: ACTION RESEARCH

Action Research - Alison Kelly

What Is It and What Can It Do?

An Action Research Approach to Workplace Health - Margrit K Hugentobler, Barbara A Israel and Susan J Schurman

Integrating Methods

PART SEVEN: PRACTITIONER RESEARCH

Doubts, Dilemmas and Diary-Keeping - Gordon Griffiths

Some Reflections on Teacher-Based Research

Ethnography Addressing the Practitioner - Michael Bloor and Neil McKeganey

PART EIGHT: GETTING OUT

Leaving the Field - Stephen J Taylor

Research, Relationships and Responsibilities

Leaving the Newsroom - David L Altheide

PART NINE: DISSEMINATION

The British Association Scandal - D H J Morgan

The Effect of Publicity on a Sociological Investigation

The Sociologist as Celebrity - Peter Adler

The Role of the Media in Field Research

PART TEN: RESTUDIES

Studying and Restudying Bishop McGregor School - Robert G Burgess

Street Corner Society - W A Marianne Boelen

Cornerville Revisited

In Defense of Street Corner Society - William Foote Whyte