Doing Good Qualitative Research

In Doing Good Qualitative Research, Jennifer Cyr and Sara Wallace Goodman bring together over forty experts to provide one of the first comprehensive introductions to using qualitative methods across the social sciences. From concept formation and case selection to fieldwork, analysis, write-up, and publication, this volume provides accessible and practical advice to completing a qualitative research project. In addition to the basics of practicing qualitative research, chapters also discuss rarely covered but important topics, including fieldwork and mental health, interviewing vulnerable populations, fieldwork in violent contexts, and conducting fieldwork as a minoritized scholar. Each chapter introduces the theoretical considerations and best practices involved in the application of qualitative data collection and analysis. Additionally, contributors provide first-person accounts of methodology in action, address the expected and unexpected challenges associated with conducting qualitative research, and demonstrate the real-world applications of academic debates. Doing Good Qualitative Research is an engaging one-stop primer for both scholars and students carrying out qualitative research-based projects, from start to finish.

Jennifer Cyr is Associate Professor of Political Science at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is the author of The Fates of Political Parties: Institutional Crisis, Continuity, and Change in Latin America and Focus Groups for the Social Science Researcher. She has also published in a wide variety of journals, including Comparative Political Studies, Comparative Politics, PS: Political Science and Politics, Quality & Quantity, Studies in Comparative International Development, Sociological Methods and Research, and Revista de Ciencia Política, and has several chapters in edited volumes.

Sara Wallace Goodman is a Chancellor's Fellow and Dean's Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). She is the author of Citizenship in Hard Times: How Ordinary People Respond to Democratic Threat, co-author of Pandemic Politics: The Deadly Toll of Partisanship in the Age of COVID, and author of Immigration and Membership Politics in Western Europe, which received the Best Book Award from the European Politics and Society section of the American Political Science Association. Her work has also appeared in various journals including the American Political Science Review, Journal of Politics, World Politics, Comparative Political Studies, International Organization, and other venues.

List of Contributors
List of Tables and Figures

1. Introduction
Jennifer Cyr and Sara Wallace Goodman

Part One: Setting up a Research Project

2. Choosing a Research Question
Julia Lynch

3. The Researcher's Gaze: Positionality and Reflexivity
Lahoma Thomas

4. Theorization and Causality
Cathie Jo Martin

5. The Construction of Knowledge
Jooyoun Lee

6. Case Study and Selection
Sara Wallace Goodman

7. The Potential of Mixed Methods for Qualitative Research
Thalia Gerzso and Rachel Riedl

8. Preparing a Causal Research Design
Jody LaPorte

9. Preparing an Interpretivist Research Design
Tanya Schwarz and Carrie Reiling

Part Two: Preparing for the Field

10. Preparing for the Field: The Nuts and Bolts
Hannah Lebovits

11. Sampling Hard-to-Reach Populations
Rana Khoury

12. Power Dynamics between Researcher and Subject
Rachel Ayrton

13. Developing a Flexible Data-Collection Plan
Lindsay Mayka and Jessica Rich

14. Considering Collaboration as Part of Your Research Design
Mneesha Gellman

15. A Plan for Managing and Storing Your Data
Verónica Pérez Bentancur

Part Three: Collecting Qualitative Data

16. Interviewing Elites
Lantian Li

17. Interviewing and Listening to Ordinary People
Katherine Cramer

18. Interviewing Vulnerable Populations
Wendy Pearlman

19. Focus Groups
Jennifer Cyr

20. Ethnography
Jessica Pisano

21. Supplementing Qualitative Work with Surveys, and Vice Versa
Emily Thorson and Emily Farris

22. Locating and Working with Historical Data
Diana Kim

23. Fieldwork in Fragile Contexts and with High Risk Populations: Ethics, Relationships, and Rapport
Julie Chernov Hwang

24. Studying Indigenous Peoples' Politics: Recommendations for Non-Indigenous Researchers
Tulia Falleti

25. Fieldwork as a Minoritized Scholar
Robin L. Turner

26. Mental Health, Identity, and Fieldwork
Dana El-Kurd and Calla Hummel

27. Navigating Ethical Issues and Choices in the Field
Lauren Duquette-Rury

28. Digital Fieldwork: Opportunities and Challenges
Lauren MacLean, Lahra Smith, and Diana Kapiszewski

Part Four: Analyzing Qualitative Data

29. Reading Closely
Antje Ellermann

30. The Role of Description
Deborah Avant

31. Content Analysis
Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana

32. Qualitative Social Network Analysis
Jennifer Spindel

33. Process Tracing
Amy Liu

34. Comparative Historical Analysis
Prerna Singh

35. Discourse Analysis
Tania Islas Weinstein

36. Qualitative Comparative Analysis
Ioana-Elena Oana

Part Five: Publishing Qualitative Research

37. Research Transparency in Qualitative Inquiry
Diana Kapiszewski

38. Ethics of Transparency and Data Sharing
Samantha Majic

39. Strategizing Fit and Legibility
Shantel Buggs and Jennifer Simms

40. Publishing Qualitative Research
Sara Wallace Goodman and Jennifer Cyr