Doing Qualitative Research

Joost Beuving teaches anthropology at Radboud University Nijmegen. He has a special interest in everyday economic life. He has studied car dealers in the second-hand car trade between Europe and West Africa, and fishermen in the Nile perch export business on Lake Victoria, East Africa. Geert de Vries teaches sociology at VU University Amsterdam and Amsterdam University College. He specializes in historical sociology. He has studied educational expansion, schools, the life-worlds of youngsters, and social problems and social change in the Netherlands.

• List of boxes 9 List of figures 11 Acknowledgements 13 Introduction: The arc of naturalistic inquiry 15 Naturalistic inquiry and qualitative research 19 Genesis and audience of the book 20 Outline 23 1. On naturalistic inquiry: Key issues and practices 27 1.1. Positivism and interpretivism: Auguste Comte versus Max Weber 28 1.2. Describing, understanding, and explaining 29 1.3. Definitions of situations and social facts 31 1.4. Positivist and naturalistic designs 36 1.5. Qualitative versus quantitative methods? 39 1.6. Validity and reliability in naturalistic inquiry 42 2. Theorizing society: Grounded theory in naturalistic inquiry 47 2.1. Dissatisfaction with structural functionalism and grand theory 49 2.2. The intellectual pedigree of symbolic interactionism 51 2.3. Grounded theory in naturalistic inquiry: The problem of generalization and inference 57 2.4. Conclusion 63 3. Looking at society: Observing, participating, interpreting 65 3.1. Enlightenment roots 66 3.2. Observations in social research: Positivism and naturalistic inquiry 68 3.3. Naturalistic observations: Looking at everyday life 73 3.4. The observer as participant 76 3.5. Practical methodology in looking at society 79 3.6. Conclusion 87 4. Talking about society: Interviewing and casual conversation 89 4.1. From workers’ inquiry to social survey 90 4.2. The open interview 92 4.3. The life history interview 97 4.4. The creative or active interview 103 4.5. Practical methodology in interviewing 105 4.6. Conclusion: Casual conversation 110 5. Reading society: Texts, images, things 113 5.1. Texts 114 5.2. Images: Drawings, paintings, maps, photographs, film 122 5.3. Things 127 5.4. Practical methodology in reading society 129 5.5. Conclusion 133 6. Disentangling society: The analysis of social networks 135 6.1. The analysis and theory of social networks 136 6.2. A note on key thinkers: Roles, sociogenesis, and transactions 140 6.3. Applications of social network analysis in naturalistic inquiry 147 6.4. Practical methodology in disentangling society 150 6.5. Conclusion 156 7. Not getting lost in society: On qualitative analysis 157 7.1. Text and interpretation 158 7.2. Practical methodology: Qualitative analysis in six steps 162 7.3. Conclusion 171 8. Telling about society: On writing 173 8.1. Thick description and social theory 174 8.2. Writing as Verstehen 178 8.3. Contested issues: The ‘I’, literary technique, composite cases 182 8.4. Practical methodology in telling about society 187 8.5. Conclusion 188 Epilogue: Present and future of naturalistic inquiry 191 Naturalistic inquiry in social research 193 Accountability in naturalistic inquiry 195 The future 198 References 201 Index of names 213 Index of subjects 215

'Throughout, the authors present an efficient synthesis of concepts and theoretical notions and innovative views of the qualitative research practice in easy-to-understand jargon-light language. Therefore, the book goes a long way in shaping a readable introductory text on qualitative research.' Educational Action Research 'Doing Qualitative Research is an important book for students at various stages and with various levels of experience conducting social science research and for instructors who want the insights not only of how-to manuals but also of critical reflections on research processes.' - Contemporary Sociology 'The stylistic accessibility, the refusal to build upon assumed or expected knowledge of the readers and the synthetic approach to each stage of social research [...] make it highly recommendable for teaching purposes.' - Qualitative Research 'An admirable book. Recommended for anyone who wants to learn about the craft of qualitative research' - Sociologie 'This book deserves special attention among the plethora of books that are available for methods teaching (...)' - The British Journal of Sociology ‘One of the best methodological treatments in contemporary social science literature. It is the type of book that students will remember as the text that moved them to serious study. I am a flat out admirer of this book.' - Michael Lewis, University of Massachusetts 'Beuving en De Vries wrote a masterful textbook about qualitative research that will hopefully be widely used in education.' - Sociologie Magazine'Doing Qualitative Research is a clear and very useful guide for how to do scholarly valid research into human actions and their possible meanings' - Forum+