Provides a practical guide to the critical reading of ethnographic studies: discussing in detail how to identify the main arguments and what is involved in making an assessment of such studies.

How to Read Ethnography is an essential guide to approaching anthropological texts. It helps students to cultivate the skills they need to critically examine and understand how ethnographies are built up, as well as to think anthropologically and develop an anthropological imagination of their own. The authors reveal how ethnographically-informed anthropology plays a distinctive and valuable role in comprehending the complexity of the world we live in. This fully revised second edition includes fresh excerpts from key texts for analysis and comparison along with lucid explanations. In addition to concerns with argument, authority, and the relationship between theory and data, the book engages with the purpose, value, and accountability of ethnographic texts, as well as with their reception and usage. A brand new chapter looks at the kinds of collaboration between informants/consultants and anthropologists that go into the making of ethnographic writing.

This is the authoritative reference work in the field. An interdisciplinary set, it investigates the extensive history, design and methods of case study research.

Evaluating Research: Methodology for People Who Need to Read Research, Second Edition by Francis C. Dane offers readers a straightforward presentation of the key components of research and the skills they need to read and evaluate it. The book covers a range of research that students are most likely to encounter, from experimental to field research, and archival to evaluation research. The Second Edition features updated examples of research across disciplines, new and updated content on qualitative research and conceptual statistics, and a streamlined organization that better aligns with the order of information in a research article.

This best-selling book, designed for researchers embarking on their first ethnographic project, has been substantially revised and updated, with lots of exercises and advice to guide the embodied and creative ‘practice’ of ethnography. New additions include cyber-ethnography, sensual, visual and mobile ethnographies, and ‘field walking’.

This is a general and integrated introduction to qualitative and quantitative research design, data collection and analysis in the social sciences field and includes comprehensive and practical instruction (including screenshots) on the use of analysis software.

This is an accessible and practical introduction to research that addresses the broadest spectrum of research methodologies of interest to the student or new research, from experimental and survey approaches to program evaluation and ethnography. Research Essentials includes key interpretive and qualitative strategies. The book shows the role that research plays in the social sciences and education, followed by an overview of research traditions. It offers practical examples and relevant resources across the disciplines. Other features include study questions, lists of relevant journals, web sites, and organizations.

Published in 1996, this book comprises a number of essays by Paul Atkinson in which he reflects on processes of reading and writing in the social sciences. Topics covered include: ethnographers’ ‘confessions’, an analysis of the style of Erving Goffman, a reflection of his own experiences of re-reading work, and a discussion of the challenges of reading an alien discipline. This book was originally published as part of the Cardiff Papers in Qualitative Research series edited by Paul Atkinson, Sara Delamont and Amanda Coffey. The series publishes original sociological research that reflects the tradition of qualitative and ethnographic inquiry developed at Cardiff. The series includes monographs reporting on empirical research, edited collections focussing on particular themes, and texts discussing methodological developments and issues.

A clear demonstration of a range of ethnographic research techniques that offer a profound understanding of the subjects of the investigations and will undoubtedly stimulate many considering some form of research to assess carefully the advantages of ethnographic techniques for use in their own work' - "Evaluation and Research in Education " Ethnographic Research presents, in a single volume, a selection of ten recently published studies intended to illustrate the variety of social research which is currently being conducted within the ethnographic tradition. Together with an accompanying editorial introduction and a carefully selected range of Guided Reading Exercises, this text should provide students with a solid grounding of the different underlying assumptions, researchers' positions, methods of data collection and theoretical approaches within this broadly defined research tradition. The collection includes research from a range of different countries (Britain, The USA, Australia, Lebanon and India) and studies from a multitude of disciplines and contexts including work, policing, race and the environment. Consequently it should serve as an invaluable teaching resource on research methods courses across the social sciences, and in many neighbouring disciplines. The collection will be essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students on research methods courses, and more generally for students who are required to carry out empirical research as a core component on a wide variety of courses.

Now in its third edition, this leading introduction to ethnography has been thoroughly updated and substantially rewritten. It offers a systematic introduction to ethnographic principles and practice. New material covers the use of visual and virtual research methods, hypermedia software and the issue of ethical regulation. There is also a new prologue and epilogue. The authors argue that ethnography is best understood as a reflexive process. What this means is that we must recognize that social research is part of the world that it studies. From an outline of the principle of reflexivity the authors go on to discuss and exemplify main features of ethnographic work, including: the selection and sampling of cases the problems of access observation and interviewing recording and filing data the process of data analysis and writing research reports. Throughout, the discussion draws on a wide range of illustrative material from classic and more recent studies within a global context. The new edition of this popular textbook will be an indispensable resource for students and researchers utilizing social research methods in the social sciences and cultural studies.