Key Themes in Qualitative Research

Continuities and Changes

By (author) Paul Atkinson, Amanda Coffey, Sara Delamont

Publication date:

16 April 2003

Length of book:

246 pages

Publisher

AltaMira Press

Dimensions:

228x148mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9780759101272

Key Themes in Qualitative Research is an attempt by three well-respected ethnographic researchers to present a balanced view of qualitative methodology and research. The book is structured around classic texts, written by methodological pioneers, which comprise the basic foundation of modern qualitative research. The authors examine key premises in these texts, such as intimacy, advocacy, and validity, and how they may be supported, redesigned, or made problematic in today's field. This allows for a critical analysis of Old Guard vs. Avant-Garde ideas and provides for the reader a guide to wade through the proliferation of texts and theories available since the postmodern turn. While not designed as a primer in qualitative research methods, anyone with modest experience in the field should find this book extremely useful.

Chapter 1 Introduction
2 The Old Guard and the Avant-Garde
3 Strangeness and Familiarity
4 From Over-Rapport to Intimacy and Autoethnography
5 Whose Side are We On?
6 Participation and Interviewing
7 How Do You Know if Your Informant is Telling the Truth?
8 From Interference to Difference
9 From Styles of Reporting to Poetics and Beyond
10 Conclusion: Continuities and Changes

This reading of the recent history of qualitative research from the leaders of the Cardiff school of ethnography provides a measured, useful analysis of a field now so vast as to be unwieldy, so conflicted (in part) as to be balkanized and so multi-faceted as to appear opaque when transparent, transparent when opaque. The authors present a balanced perspective in their book, referring to classic texts and themes in examining contemporary issues. Chapters such as 'Whose Side Are We On?' make this book a contender for required reading in a qualitative methods class where beginners too easily slip into an individualistic way of viewing respondents/participants. I enthusiastically recommend this book as an essential text to anyone wanting to better understand the field and literature of qualitative research.