Context and Method in Qualitative Research
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A range of methodological and practical issues central to the concerns of qualitative researchers are addressed. These include: the validity and plausibility of qualitative methods; the problems encountered using specific techniques in a range of social settings; and the moral issues raised in qualitative research. These themes are related to practical issues which are illustrated by a breadth of examples and in-depth case studies.
The contributors look at the methods and strategies that they have used to study everyday life, and make suggestions to readers on why and how they might conduct their own studies. They raise issues that go beyond `cookbookβ² discussions of issues such as how to enter social settings, manage the subjects of oneβ²s research and ask `goodβ² questions in the process of formulating research strategies. These issues are addressed within the framework of the larger purposes and uses of qualitative research where specific methodological problems are not used as ends in themselves.
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Robert Dingwall is a consulting sociologist through Dingwall Enterprises Ltd and part-time Professor of Sociology at Nottingham Trent University. He draws on more than forty yearsβ experience as an academic researcher studying health care, legal services, and science and technology policy at the Universities of Aberdeen, Oxford and Nottingham. Over that time, he has held grants and contracts worth more than Β£7 million (at 2017 prices) in total from the Leverhulme and Wellcome Trusts, ESRC, NERC, MRC, EPSRC, BBSRC, the EU, the UK Department of Health and various NHS/NIHR programmes, the Ministry of Justice, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and the Food Standards Agency. These have resulted in 30 books and more than 100 scientific papers. Robert Dingwall is also an experienced manager: he served for five years as head of a large social science department and founded and directed what was one of Europeβs leading research institutes in science and technology studies for 12 years. Robert has been a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences since 2002 and an Honorary Member of the Faculty of Public Health since 2014. He was awarded the 2019 Prize for Contributions to the Socio-Legal Community by the Socio-Legal Studies Association.
