Social researchers increasingly find themselves looking beyond conventional methods to address complex research questions. This is the first book to comprehensively examine emergent qualitative and quantitative theories and methods across the social and behavioral sciences. Providing scholars and students with a way to retool their research choices, the volume presents cutting-edge approaches to data collection, analysis, and representation. Leading researchers describe alternative uses of traditional quantitative and qualitative tools; innovative hybrid or mixed methods; and new techniques facilitated by technological advances. Consistently formatted chapters explore the strengths and limitations of each method for studying different types of research questions and offer practical, in-depth examples.

About the Author

Sharlene Nagy Hesse-Biber is Professor of Sociology and Director of Women's Studies at Boston College. She is also the founder and former Executive Director of the National Association for Women in Catholic Higher Education. She has published widely on the impact of sociocultural factors on women's body image, as well as on feminist and qualitative research methods. She is codeveloper of the software program HyperRESEARCH, a computer-assisted program for analyzing qualitative data, and of the new transcription tool HyperTRANSCRIBE. Her article "Qualitative Approaches to Mixed Methods Practice" was the most downloaded article of 2010 in the journal Qualitative Inquiry.

Patricia Leavy, PhD, is an independent sociologist and former Chair of Sociology and Criminology and Founding Director of Gender Studies at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts. She is the author, coauthor, or editor of over 30 books, and the creator and editor of 10 book series. Known for her commitment to public scholarship, she is frequently contacted by the U.S. national news media and has blogged for The Huffington Post, The Creativity Post, and We Are the Real Deal. She is also co-founder and co-editor-in-chief of the journal Art/Research International. Dr. Leavy has received numerous awards for her work in the field of research methods, including the Distinguished Service Outside the Profession Award from the National Art Education Association, the New England Sociologist of the Year Award from the New England Sociological Association, the Special Achievement Award from the American Creativity Association, the Egon Guba Memorial Keynote Lecture Award from the American Educational Research Association Qualitative Special Interest Group, and the Special Career Award from the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry. In 2016, Mogul, a global women's empowerment platform, named her an "Influencer." The School of Fine and Performing Arts at the State University of New York at New Paltz has established the Patricia Leavy Award for Art and Social Justice in her honor. Dr. Leavy delivers invited lectures and keynote addresses at universities and conferences. Her website is www.patricialeavy.com.

Reviews

A 'must read' for anyone interested in remaining current with developing research techniques. The book provides a wealth of information regarding innovative approaches that will permit the investigation of novel research questions.--Larry Christensen, Chair, Department of Psychology, University of South Alabama

In the rapidly changing domain of qualitative methods, this comprehensive handbook places qualitative inquiry in context and provides a much-needed, in-depth view of the latest developments. The book describes the 'roots' of the major qualitative methods and how they are developing, outlines innovations in research design and analysis, and explores the impact that these developments are having on methods per se. Hesse-Biber and Leavy are to be congratulated for bringing together leaders in the field to create this seminal work, which will have a profound impact on qualitative methods.--Janice M. Morse, Professor and Barnes Presidential Endowed Chair, College of Nursing, University of Utah

Methods determine not only how we see, but also what we can see. This comprehensive handbook details creative new approaches to asking and exploring questions within the social sciences. These approaches offer liberation from the narrowing straits of logical positivistic measurement and quantification, and chart the paths to addressing more socially meaningful questions. They provide means for examining social reality with fresh tools. The range of chapters on different emergent methods will be enlightening to both new and experienced researchers.--Ruthellen Josselson, School of Psychology, Fielding Graduate University

With contributions from both emerging and established methodological scholars, this innovative, engaging work articulates a view of research less as a linear series of stages than as an unfolding and evolving process. This orientation is in tune with changes in theoretical underpinnings of research that underline many contemporary methodological approaches, including participatory, feminist, and other inclusive approaches. Readers are offered fodder for beginning to think outside of the traditional methodological box and for revitalizing such methods as focus group interviewing and oral history. This book will be of value to both novice and more well-established investigators who wish to pursue their research endeavors more flexibly, reflectively, and inclusively.--Bruce L. Berg, Department of Criminal Justice, California State University, Long Beach

Hesse-Biber and Leavy's timely and constructive response to the collapse of disciplinary authority and the postmodern challenge in the social sciences does not take an 'anything goes' position. The editors and their collaborators argue for a principled and rational approach to orchestrating research that welcomes and evaluates a bewildering array of emergent methods in the social sciences. This handbook both provides invaluable, specific guidance to researchers and frames the notion of methodological emergence as a theoretical challenge in its own right.--Davydd J. Greenwood, Goldwin Smith Professor of Anthropology, Cornell University

This is a powerful and valuable work for anyone involved in social science research. Hesse-Biber and Leavy have called together many experienced writers in qualitative methods to explore the emergent methods so critical to the current time. Whether deconstructing document research, arts-based approaches, or historical methods, or extending our understanding of interviewing, performance ethnography, and participatory approaches, all of the chapters provide greater clarity about how we do what we do in the qualitative research community. If their goals were to illuminate, transform, and inspire, these editors and contributors have certainly hit their mark. This book is a gift to both students and teachers of emergent methods.--Valerie J. Janesick, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, University of South Florida

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Book Information
ISBN 9781609181468
Author Sharlene Nagy Hesse-Biber
Format Paperback
Page Count 740
Imprint Guilford Publications
Publisher Guilford Publications
Weight(grams) 1274g