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.