Qualitative research encompasses a growing set of methods that eschew strictly empirical, quantitative data in favour of information gathered through ethnography, in-depth interviewing, focus groups, and visual research. While it is an important tool in the arsenal of the researcher, there is often a large gap between the theory behind qualitative research and the actual practice of its methods. This book couples theoretical articles with practical research examples to help students develop a holistic understanding of the process of qualitative research.

I. DISTINGUISHING QUALITATIVE RESEARCH 1. Competing Paradigms in Qualitative Research: Theories and Issues, Egon G. Guba and Yvonna S. Lincoln 2. Overcoming Dualisms: A Feminist Agenda for Sociological Methodology, Joey Sprague and Mary Zimmerman 3. How Standpoint Methodology Informs Philosophy of Social Science, Sandra Harding 4. The Blending of Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Understanding Childbearing among Welfare Recipients, Mark R. Rank 5. Dimensions of Desire: Bridging Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in a Study of Female Adolescent Sexuality, Deborah L. Tolman and Laura Szalacha II. INTERACTION AND POSITIONALITY WITHIN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH 6. Culture to Culture: Ethnography and Cultural Studies as Critical Intervention, bell hooks 7. "You Still Takin' Notes?" Fieldwork and Problems of Informed Consent, Barrie Thorne 8. Fieldwork in Lesbian and Gay Communities, Kath Weston 9. Depth Interviewing, William L. Miller and Benjamin F. Crabtree 10. "White Like Me?" Methods, Meaning, and Manipulation in the Field of White Studies, Charles A. Gallagher 11. Beginning Where We Are: Feminist Methodology in Oral History, Kathryn Anderson, Susan Armitage, Dana Jack, and Judith Wittner 12. Understanding Domestic Service through Orla History and the Census: The Case of Grand Falls, Newfoundland, Ingrid Botting 13. Focus Groups, David L. Morgan 14. Why Urban Parents Resist Involvement in Their Children's Elementary Education, Peter McDermott and Julia Rothenberg III. UNOBTRUSIVE METHODS, VISUAL RESEARCH, AND CULTURAL STUDIES 15. Following in Foucault's Footsteps: Text and Context in Qualitative Research, Lindsay Prior 16. Photographs wihtin the Sociological Research Project, Jon Prosser and Dona Schwartz 17. Analyses of Moving Images, Diana Rose 18. Introducing Online Methods, Chris Mann and Fiona Stewart 19. A Content Analysis of Internet-Accessible Written Pornographic Depictions, Denna Harmon and Scot B. Boeringer IV. ANALYSIS, INTERPRETATION, AND THE WRITING OF QUALITATIVE DATA 20. An End to Innocence: The Ethnography of Ethnography, John Van Maanen 21. The Art and Politics of Interpretation, Norman K. Denzin 22. Writing: A Method of Inquiry, Laural Richardson 23. Grounded Theory, Kathy Charmaz 24. "That's Not What I Said": Interpretive Conflict in Oral Narrative Research, Katherine Borland 25. Unleashing Frankenstein's Monster? The Use of Computers in Qualitative Research, Sharlene Hesse-Biber

Edited by Sharlene Hesse-Biber, Boston College, and Patricia Leavy, Stonehill College