Qualitative research is a multifaceted approach that investigates culture, society and behaviour through an analysis and synthesis of people?s words and actions. Qualitative methods can produce compelling knowledge of how and why people behave as they do, whether in organisational, family, personal, or other social roles.

The primary objective of this book is to introduce students to the concepts underlying qualitative research and how this kind of research can be conducted in a practical manner. Thus, it discusses various approaches to qualitative research and provides examples of these approaches being carried out in practice. In doing so, the book shows how various disciplines all use qualitative research in order to discover answers to their own particular research questions. The various chapters present examples for dissertation students in terms of how they might go about conducting qualitative research. Additionally, the chapters? findings show how students might consider presenting their own findings. To this end, each of the chapters has been structured like a mini-dissertation with introductions, brief literature reviews, methodology sections, and finally analysis.

The book is primarily designed to be a qualitative research guidebook for undergraduate and postgraduate students undertaking dissertations as part of their course of study. As qualitative methodologies can be applied across a broad spectrum of disciplines, the book can be used by students working in any area of research from business studies to the social sciences. Although the book is highly theoretical, and methodologically rigorous, it is full of practical examples. Students should use this book as a handy reference guide and should see the chapters as mini-templates of what they should be aiming to produce themselves.

Approaches to Qualitative Research provides a unique insight into various approaches to qualitative research, as practiced at the cutting edge of academia in both Ireland and further afield. It brings together a number of academics from various universities and disciplines, each of whom contributes a chapter using a qualitative methodology of their own particular design. Additionally, the final chapter of the book contains a discussion conducted amongst a number of the contributing authors on various issues surrounding qualitative research methodologies, in general, and the conduct of research, in particular.

Book Contents

Author Biography