Key Themes in Qualitative Research

Paul Atkinson, Amanda Coffey, and Sara Delamont are at the Cardiff School of Social Science in Wales and are well-known writers on qualitative research methods.

• 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.