Qualitative Methodologies for Geographers: Issues and Debates - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0340742267 ISBN 13: 9780340742266

Publisher: Routledge, 2001

Synopsis

Over recent years there has been an increasing trend towards the adoption of interpretative and critical approaches to research within human geography. Qualitative methodologies offer a gateway to exploring the processes shaping our social worlds, allowing the researcher to engage with the lives and experiences of others through interviews, group discussions or participant observation.



This book is a critical introduction to qualitative methodologies for those preparing to undertake their own qualitative research, or who need to better understand the processes to evaluate and interpret the geographic research of others. Its aim is to demystify the process of doing qualitative methodologies through the discussion and illustration of research in practice. Each chapter presents an insight into the author's own experiences of using qualitative research across a number of projects, and reflects on the dilemmas, thought-processes and questions involved. The reader is invited to engage in the issues and debates thrown up by these examples and, in doing so, to deepen their understanding of the research processes which may be applied to their own projects.

About this title

Review

An excellent resource and one that can be recommended both to senior undergraduates and postgraduate students. Well-written and sensibly structured.
Geographical Association

Synopsis

The practice of adopting interpretative and critical methodologies has been growing rapidly within geography, and increasing numbers of students are adopting these perspectives in their project and dissertation work. However, students often have little time to get to grips with the full gamut of methodological approaches open to them; many know they would like to do people-centred research but lack the first understandings of how to begin. Aimed specifically at geographers, this book provides a critical introduction to qualitative methodologies. It draws on the work of established researchers to illustrate the diversity of ways in which qualitative research is undertaken and to demonstrate the complex ways in which theory connects with practice. Contributors to this volume make their methods transparent to encourage awareness of both the benefits and the problems of interpretative and critical methodologies. This text is for students about to begin their project work intending to adopt qualitative methodologies in the course of their research.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0340742267
• ISBN 13: 9780340742266
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288
• Editor: Limb Melanie, Dwyer Claire