- Title
- Qualitative methods in socio-spatial research
- Creator
- McGuirk, Pauline; O'Neill, Phillip
- Relation
- Handbook of Research Methods and Applications in Spatially Integrated Social Science p. 177-191
- Relation
- Handbooks of Research Methods and Applications
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.4337/9780857932976.00018
- Publisher
- Edward Elgar Publishing
- Resource Type
- book chapter
- Date
- 2014
- Description
- This chapter explores the rationale for qualitative methods, the origins of qualitative research, and a number of important issues relating to the conduct of qualitative research. The chapter is not intended to be a comprehensive guide to qualitative methods in socio-spatial research. Rather its intention is to stimulate the reader’s interest in qualitative methods and encourage their pursuit in a rigorous, effective manner. Comprehensive guides and key references to qualitative methods can be found in Crang (2003), Hall (2001) and Herbert et al. (2009). While the use of qualitative methods in the social sciences has a long history, in the context of a spatially integrated social science it was in the 1980s and 1990s that they were more widely developed as an alternative way to make observations, collect and analyse data, and create new knowledge. The impetus for this arose from widespread dissatisfaction among some researchers with positive empiricism as the dominant form of research inquiry in the social sciences. It also arose from the desire of many researchers that their work make more direct connections with projects seeking to enhance both distributive and non-distributive forms of justice and the empowerment of marginalized groups.
- Subject
- economics and finance; regional economics; urban and regional studies; research methods in urban and regional studies; geography; economic geography; environmental geography; human geography; research methods in geography; research methods; research methods in economics
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1067665
- Identifier
- uon:18452
- Identifier
- ISBN:9780857932976
- Language
- eng
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