ABSTRACT
Disciplinary traditions vary not only in their perspectives on the connections between work and family, as amply demonstrated in Section II of this volume, but also in the approaches or methods used to understand phenomena. The chapters that follow in Section IU have been selectcd to enable readers to gain an appreciation of the diversity of methodologies being applied to the study workplace and family relationships. In order for epistemologies to be shared, not only do basic assumptions and fundamental views need to be bridged, but also approaches to and ways ofknowing. When we looked at the existing books on work and family, we saw a critical gap-there is a lack of discussion of the breadth of methods, the varieties of technologies, and the range of sampling strategies being used by the different discipilines. Bridging these divides opens a horizon of new opportunities in the work and family field.
