Most writing on sociological method has been concerned with how accurate facts can be obtained and how theory can thereby be more rigorously tested. In The Discovery of Grounded Theory, Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss address the equally Important enterprise of how the discovery of theory from data--systematically obtained and analyzed in social research--can be furthered. The discovery of theory from data--grounded theory--is a major task confronting sociology, for such a theory fits empirical situations, and is understandable to sociologists and laymen alike. Most important, it...

Scholars have long recognized that ethnographic method is bound up with the construction of theory in ways that are difficult to teach. The reason, Allaine Cerwonka and Liisa H. Malkki argue, is that ethnographic theorization is essentially improvisatory in nature, conducted in real time and in necessarily unpredictable social situations. In a unique account of, and critical reflection on, the process of theoretical improvisation in ethnographic research, they demonstrate how both objects of analysis, and our ways of knowing and explaining them, are created and discovered in the give and...

Action Research and Organizational Development describes a process of change that encourages research and consulting skills. In this process, research data about an organization or culture is systematically collected to develop an understanding of the needs, issues and problems. The information provides the impetus for focusing the change and making discoveries. This work describes the characteristics of the action research process and the procedure for its implementation. This particular type of applied social research differs from other varieties in the immediacy of the...

This book portrays how participatory inquiry in a critical hermeneutic tradition moves the research process for social scientists from an epistemological place to an ontological event. Part One offers a critique of the technical, intellectual, and advocacy research enterprises and provides the reader a segue to a philosophical and historical discussion of critical hermeneutics. The discussion, in Part Two, lays the foundation for an ontologically-based field research protocol. In Part Three, the questions of research topic, research categories, questions and conversations, selection of...

This book explores the ways in which a diverse group of feminist and participatory action researchers experience, create meaning, and respond to the challenges of engaging in collaborative processes of reflection, action, and change.

While headed in similar directions, rarely have feminist researchers and participatory action researchers acknowledged each other as collaborators with mutually important contributions to the journey. Through the work presented in this volume, the contributors hope to influence feminist scholarship to be more participatory and action-oriented, and...

As the European Union grows together we are faced with an increasing number of European surveys and statistics that rely on national instruments or questionnaires. We lack valid instruments with functional equivalence that allow international comparative analysis. This problem is especially important in the case of demographic and socio-economic variables. The usual practice in comparative social research is to work with national questionnaires and classifications thereby making meaningful comparisons questionable. To overcome these problems this book offers rules of comparison, tested...