Qualitative Research in Action

Tim May originally trained and worked as an agricultural engineer. After his PhD (1990), he was appointed to a lectureship at Plymouth (1989-95) and then moved to the University of Durham (1995-99) and was appointed at Salford in 1999. He became Director of the Centre for Sustainable Urban and Regional Futures in 2001. He is currently Professor of Social Science Methodology and Director of Research at the Sheffield Methods Institute, University of Sheffield. He has held research grants from many sources including: ESRC; EPSRC; AHRC; Mistra (Swedish Environmental Research Foundation; Regional Development Agencies; Core Cities Group; Office of the Deputy Prime Minister; Higher Education Funding Council; Local Government Management Board; Economic and Social Research Council; Manchester City Council; the CONTACT group of the four Greater Manchester Universities and the NHS. In addition to the books and journals listed below, Tim May has contributed chapters to the following publications:  May, T. and Perry, B. 2013 ‘Reflexivity and Data Analysis’. In Flick, U. (ed). Handbook of Qualitative Data Analysis. London: SAGE. May, T. 2013 ‘Reflexivity’. In Kaldis, B. (ed). Encyclopedia of Philosophy and the Social Sciences. London: SAGE. May, T. and Williams, M. 2010 ‘Commitment and Investigation in Knowing the Social World’. In Olsen, W. (ed). Realist Methodology, Volume 1: Practical Realist Ontology. London: SAGE. May, T. and Powell, J. 2007 ‘Michel Foucault’. In Edwards, T. (ed). Cultural Theory: Classical and Contemporary Positions. London: SAGE.May, T 2006 ‘Critical Theory’. In Booth, C. and Harrington, J (eds). Developing Business Knowledge. UWE/ SAGE. May, T. 2005 ‘Reflexivity and Sociological Practice’. In Williams, M. (ed). The Philosophical Foundations of Social Research, Volume 3: Social Reality and the Social Context of Social Research. London: SAGE. May, T. 2004 ‘Poststructuralism’, ‘Critical Theory’, ‘Postempiricism’. In Bryman, A., Lewis-Beck, M. and Futing Liao, T. (eds). Encyclopedia of Social Science Research Methods. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE.May, T. 2002 ‘The Discontented Epoch: Freedom and Security in Bauman’s Postmodernity′. In Beilharz, P. (ed). Zygmunt Bauman: 4 Volumes. Volume 3, ‘The Postmodern’. London: SAGE.

• IntroductionTransformation in Principles and PracticePART ONE: PUTTING THE PRACTICE INTO THEORY Institutional Ethnography - Dorothy E SmithCritical Realist Ethnography - Sam PorterFraming the Rational in Fieldwork - Peter K ManningAnalysing Interaction - Christian Heath and Jon HindmarshVideo, Ethnography and Situated ConductPART TWO: GENERALIZATION, INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSISGeneralization in Interpretive Research - Malcolm WilliamsRepresentation, Responsibilty and Reliability in Participant-Observation - Mart[ac]in S[ac]anchez-JankowskiAutomating the Ineffable - Nigel G FieldingQualitative Software and the Meaning of Qualitative ResearchSubjectivity and Qualitative Method - Valeria Walkerdine, Helen Lucey and June MelodyPART THREE: CHOICES IN CONTEXTObservation and Interviewing - Kathleen Gerson and Ruth HorowitzOptions and Choices in Qualitative ResearchQualitative Interviewing - Jennifer MasonAsking, Listening and Interpreting Narrative in Social Research - Steph LawlerPART FOUR: POWER, PARTICIPATION AND EXPERTISEEngagement and Evaluation in Qualitative Inquiry - Linda McKieNegotiating Power and Expertise in the Field - Lynne HaneyOn Relations between Black Female Researcher and Participants - Tracey ReynoldsPART FIVE: REFLEXIVITY, THE SELF AND POSITIONINGEthnography and the Self - Amanda CoffeyReflections and RepresentationsReflexivity and the Politics of Qualitative Research - Lisa AdkinsTechniques for Telling the Reflexive Self - Beverley SkeggsEmotions, Fieldwork and Professional Lives - Sherryl Kleinman

"Fortunately, this is not another how-to qualitative research text. Rather, it is a collection of innovative essays that will interest qualitative researchers eager to relate theory to methodological practice… the overall scope and caliber of this work make it an important contribution to the literature on qualitative research"