ABSTRACT
This chapter identifies some of the key concepts of contemporary qualitative research, with sources in anthropology, sociology, and the humanities. The planning of empirical studies is described in terms of several strategic, tactical, and technical choices that must be made at different stages of the qualitative research process. The consolidation and institutionalization of qualitative research is witnessed in a number of standard reference works, handbooks, and anthologies – in addition to a growing number of journals, monographs, and textbooks in different disciplines and fields. Qualitative studies can be characterized further with reference to the two or more steps of sampling that they often involve. The chapter reviews the three main instruments of data collection in qualitative research: interviewing, observation, and document or discourse analysis. Interviewing is one of the commonly used methods of data collection, in research as in journalism and public administration. Observation refers to the continuous and often long-term presence, normally of one researcher, in one delimited locale.
