Summary

The second edition of the paperback series of the Handbook of Qualitative Research is virtually all new. Over half of the authors from the first edition have been replaced by new contributors - there are 33 new chapter authors or co-authors. There are six totally new chapter topics, including contributions on: queer theory, performance ethnography, testimonios, focus groups in feminist research, applied ethnography, and anthropological poetics. All returning authors have substantially revised their original contributions, in many cases producing a totally new and different chapter.

This second volume, Strategies of Qualitative Inquiry , consists of Part Three of the Handbook (`Strategies of Inquiry′).

Strategies of Qualitative Inquiry isolates the major strategies that researchers can use in conducting concrete qualtitative studies. The question of methods begins with the design of the research project, which Valerie Janesick describes in dance terms. Design issues also involve matters of money and funding, issues discussed by Julianne Cheek. Questions of design always begin with a socially situated observer who moves from a research question to a paradigm or perspective, and then to the empirical world. So located, the researcher then addresses a range of methods that can be employed in any study. The history and uses of these strategies are explored extensively in this volume. The chapters move from performance ethnography to case studies, issues of ethnogaphic representation, grounded theory strategies, testimonios, life histories, participatory action research, and clinical research.