Qualitative Researching

 When I wrote the original Qualitative Researching I was convinced that new and
would-be qualitative researchers needed a handbook that bridged the gap between
‘cookbook’ texts and abstract theoretical discussions of methodology. I wanted to
produce a book that would encourage readers to engage actively with the doing of
qualitative research, rather than simply to follow ‘recipes’. I wanted to help people
to use theory in a grounded way in their research practice, and to recognize how
they do so, rather than to set out for them my assessment of the full range of theoretical debates informing qualitative research. I wanted to write a book that was usable in the practice of research, rather than one that concentrated on telling stories about research. For that reason, I did not produce a book laden with rich
descriptions of qualitative research experience. Although such descriptions are
interesting and important for other purposes, I felt they were not the best way to
stimulate and support the active engagement of the researcher around their own
set of research questions, that I think is so vital to the conduct of good quality
qualitative research. Instead, I focused the book on ‘difficult questions’ that qualitative researchers need to ask themselves, and to resolve, in the process and
practice of doing their research.
My aims for this second, fully revised and updated version, are essentially the
same. Although research methods literature is a burgeoning field, there remains a
real need for books that support a theoretically engaged, grounded approach to
qualitative researching, and that take issues of quality and rigour very seriously. In
the light of contemporary theoretical debates about the state of qualitative
research, which are at the same time fascinating but often abstract and inaccessible, I would like this second edition of Qualitative Researching to be useful to
those who want to get on with the job of doing qualitative research in a theoretically cognizant way.
Qualitative research faces new opportunities in a social world that is increasingly thought to be complex and multi-dimensional, and where the particularly
qualitative strengths of understanding context, diversity, nuance and process might
potentially be very highly valued. It continues to represent a broad and pervasive
set of challenges to more fixed ways of perceiving and understanding that world.
It faces challenges too, however, to assemble and maintain its reputation and to
compete for resources in multiple new environments where the idea of ‘evidence’
about the social world is very definitely flavour of the month. Qualitative
researchers have to decide where they stand in all of this, and such decisions may
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not be easy. However, I think it is important that they do not take too long about
it, and risk getting left standing nowhere in particular. For these reasons, I want
the second edition of Qualitative Researching to be highly usable and useful in
helping to create qualitative researchers who will engage in high quality research,
and who will be keen to champion the qualitative cause with confidence and
energy.
The second edition thus retains the style and approach of the original, and in
particular its use of ‘difficult questions’ to stimulate the reader’s active engagement. However, it is fully revised and updated throughout, and includes extra chapters and extended discussions of visual methods, observation, and some of the
main qualitative theoretical approaches. The original eight chapters have been
replaced by nine chapters plus an Introduction, and there is now an Appendix
drawing together all of the ‘difficult questions’ raised in the book into one easy-reference resource at the end.
A number of people have helped me in the production of the second edition.
Thanks to Karen Phillips at Sage for her advice and support during the production
of both editions of the book, and for encouraging me to write the second edition.
Lynne Slocombe, the Development Editor, made some very helpful suggestions for
which I am grateful. Thank you also to all of those people who found time to contact me personally to tell me how useful they had found the first edition, and for
making me think that a second edition would be worthwhile. Thanks to students
on my modules of the MA in Social Research at Leeds University, and to Helen
Willmot, all of whom have continued to demonstrate to me how much it is possible to learn through teaching enthusiastic and committed people. Thanks to all of
the following people for useful discussions about qualitative methods in recent
years, and for keeping me on my toes: Bren Neale, Simon Duncan, Carol Smart,
Louise Ackers, Janet Finch, Jennifer Flowerdew, Amanda Wade. Most of all,
thanks to Andrew Jones, and to Rosa and Joseph.

An introduction to qualitative research

- Approach of the Book
This book has been written with two groups of readers in mind: the novice and
the experienced researcher. First of all, it addresses the novice to qualitative
research, maybe even to social research in general. For this group, mostly undergraduate and graduate students, it is conceived as a basic introduction to the principles and practices of qualitative research, the theoretical and epistemological
background, and the most important methods. Second, the researcher in the field
may use this book as a sort of toolkit while facing the practical issues and problems in the day-to-day business of qualitative research. Qualitative research is establishing itself in many social sciences, in psychology, in nursing, and the like. As a
novice to the field or as an experienced researcher, you can use a great variety of
specific methods, each of which starts from different premises and pursues different aims. Each method in qualitative research is based on a specific understanding
of its object. However, qualitative methods should not be regarded independently
of the research process and the issue under study. They are specifically embedded
in the research process and are best understood and described using a processoriented perspective. Therefore, a presentation of the different steps in the process
of qualitative research is the central concern of the book. The most important
methods for collecting and interpreting data and for assessing and presenting
results are presented and located in the process-oriented framework. This should
give you an overview of the field of qualitative research, of concrete methodological alternatives, and of their claims, applications, and limits. This should enable you
to choose the most appropriate methodological strategy with respect to your
research question and issues.
The starting point in this book is that qualitative research, above all, works with
text. Methods for collecting information—interviews or observations—produce
data, which are transformed into texts by recording and transcription. Methods of
interpretation start from these texts. Different routes lead towards the texts at the
center of the research and away from them. Very briefly, the qualitative research
process can be represented as a path from theory to text and as another path from text
back to theory. The intersection of the two paths is the collection of verbal or visual
data and their interpretation in a specific research design.
Structure of the Book
The book has eight parts, which aim at unfolding the process of qualitative research
in its major stages.
Part 1 sets out the framework of doing qualitative research as discussed in Chapters 2
through 4:
GUIDE TO THIS BOOK 5
• Chapter 2 explores and answers the fundamental questions of qualitative research.
For this purpose, the current relevance of qualitative research is outlined against
the background of recent trends in society and in social sciences. Some essential
features of qualitative research in distinction from quantitative approaches are
presented. To allow you to see qualitative research and methods in their context,
a very brief overview of the history of qualitative research in the United States
and Europe is given.
• Chapter 3 develops the relation between qualitative and quantitative research.
Here, I take several points of reference for spelling out the possible links of qualitative and quantitative research. In the end, you will find some guiding questions for assessing the appropriateness of qualitative and quantitative research.
This chapter allows you to identify various approaches and then decide which
one is best for your research.
• Chapter 4 focuses on a different framework for qualitative research—research
ethics. The ethics of qualitative research deserves special attention, as you will
come much closer to privacy issues and the day-to-day life of your participants.
Reflection and sensitivity to privacy are essential before launching a qualitative
study. At the same time, general discussions about research ethics often miss the
special needs and problems of qualitative research. After reading this chapter, you
should know the importance of a code of ethics before beginning your research
as well as the need for ethics committees. Whether research is ethical or not
depends as much on practical decisions in the field.
After setting out the framework of qualitative research, I focus on the process of a
qualitative study. Part 2 takes you from theory to text:
• Chapter 5 introduces the use of the literature—theoretical, methodological, and
empirical—in a qualitative study. It addresses the use of and the finding of such
resources while doing your study and while writing about it.
• Chapter 6 addresses different theoretical positions underlying qualitative research.
Symbolic interactionism, ethnomethodology, and structuralist approaches are
discussed as paradigmatic approaches for their basic assumptions and recent
developments. From these discussions, the list of essential features of qualitative
research given in Chapter 2 is completed. In the end, I will address two theoretical debates, which are currently very strong in qualitative research. Feminism
and gender studies and the discussion about positivism and constructionism
inform a great deal of qualitative research, in how to understand the issues of
research, in how to conceive the research process, and in how to use qualitative
methods.
• Chapter 7 continues the discussions raised in Chapter 6, as well as outlining the
epistemological background of constructionist qualitative research using text as
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