ABSTRACT
Qualitative, naturalistic and ethnographic research is a many-stranded enterprise, which is often far less straightforward and controllable than other kinds of research. Researchers working in this kind of research must be acutely aware of the many issues to be addressed, and this chapter indicates what these are. It sets out the scope and types of qualitative, naturalistic and ethnographic research, their foundations, ontologies, epistemologies and methodologies. It indicates key issues in planning and conducting qualitative research, including: naturalistic research and its methodologies, ethnography, critical ethnography, autoethnography and virtual ethnography, phenomenological research and reflexivity. The chapter addresses challenges in, and critiques of, qualitative, naturalistic and ethnographic research, and it identifies key decisions that researchers must take in working in these different kinds of research. The chapter provides plentiful practical advice to researchers on how to ‘do’ qualitative and naturalistic research at every one of twelve proposed stages of the process, and how to judge effectiveness here.
