An analysis of thinking and research about qualitative methods

The qualitative approach to research has produced a remarkably wide range of thinking about how scholars should regard their phenomenon of interest, about what merits consideration as evidence of the phenomenon, about how to collect that evidence, and about how to look for patterns in that evidence. This book acknowledges the rich diversity in that thinking and seeks to illuminate the key issues in order to help readers navigate through the qualitative literature.

On each issue, the author displays the extent of options available under the qualitative approach and illuminates each of these options with examples from the research literature. No other book illuminates such a wide range of issues (axioms of belief, strategies, and techniques) over such a range of research topics (the examination of institutions, people, and texts) in as many contexts (historical, analytical, and critical) for both the thinking and practices within the qualitative approach.