Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences

For courses in Research Methods in Political Science and Sociology, and in Qualitative Research Methods Raising questions, rather than giving answers Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences is written with the recognition that different researchers in different fields each bring their own needs and intentions to the process. Howard Lune and Bruce Berg aim to guide the reader through the process of research planning, carrying out one's projects, and making sense of the results. Each chapter provides examples of the best and worst approaches to the kinds of questions that arise with each form of research, as well as discussions of what makes an approach successful or not. Like its predecessors, the Ninth Edition stresses the importance of ethics in research and respect for subjects. NOTE: This ISBN is for a Pearson Books a la Carte edition a convenient, three-hole-punched, loose-leaf text. In addition to the flexibility offered by this format, Books a la Carte editions offer students great value, as they cost significantly less than a bound textbook.

Howard Lune is an Associate Professor of Sociology and the Director of the Graduate Social Research Program at Hunter College, CUNY. He specializes in research on organizations and organizational fields, with a particular focus on nonprofit organizations. The majority of his research concerns the efforts by relatively marginal groups to organize for greater political, social and/or economic power. He has published studies of organizing in response to HIV/AIDS, the development of zero tolerance drug policies in the US, state-community relations in political policy domains, and adolescent violence in public schools. He is presently working on a historical study of the development of the American Irish transnational identity, from the founding of the US to the turn of the twentieth century. Bruce L. Berg (1954-2009) received his PhD from Syracuse University in 1983. His first faculty position as Assistant Professor was at Florida State University, where he also served as Internship Director. In 1986, he took a position at University of Massachusetts-Boston Harbor campus. Then from 1988 to 1996, he moved up the academic ladder at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, achieving tenure and full professor status. He served as chair of many doctoral dissertation committees and thus influenced generations of young scholars. In 1997, he moved to Southern California and took a faculty position at CSULB, where he remained until his death in 2009.