ABSTRACT
The author was confronted by two key challenges: first, how to conceptualise culture in a manner that retained an emphasis on the material conditions of our existence without reducing culture to something akin to, or entirely separate from, 'the economy'; and second, how to demonstrate the viability of this conceptualisation through empirical research. The insights he gathered during his doctoral studies pushed him to investigate literatures and debates on qualitative research practices. The Fiona Devine/Sue Heath and Jane Ritchie/Jane Lewis books are more focused but for just that reason reveal much about the messy, compromise-driven, pragmatic nature of empirical, and especially qualitative, research. As Devine, Heath, Ritchie and Lewis so clearly demonstrate, one's research strategy can be systematic and rigorous even in an unideal world and can provide valuable contributions to existing literatures. Accepting that the navigation of research process is rooted in your judgements, your intuitions and your decisions leads to a heightened sense of both responsibility and empowerment.
