Interpretive research design : concepts and processes PDF
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ROUTLEDGE SERIES ON INTERPRETIVE METHODS INTERPRETIVE RESEARCH DESIGN Concepts and Processes Peregrine Schwartz-Shea and Dvora Yanow INTERPRETIVE RESEARCH DESIGN Research design is fundamental to all scientific endeavors, at all levels and in all institutional settings. In many social science disciplines, however, scholars working in an interpretive–qualitative tradition get little guidance on this aspect of research from the positivist-centered training they receive. This book is an authoritative examination of the concepts and processes underlying the design of an interpretive research project. Such an approach to design starts with the recognition that researchers are inevitably embedded in the intersubjective social processes of the worlds they study. In focusing on researchers’ theoretical, ontological, epistemological, and methods choices in designing research projects, Schwartz-Shea and Yanow set the stage for other volumes in the Routledge Series on Interpretive Methods. They also engage some very practical issues, such as ethics reviews and the structure of research proposals. This concise guide explores where research questions come from, criteria for evaluating research designs, how interpretive researchers engage with “world-making,” context, systematicity and flexibility, reflexivity and positionality, and such contemporary issues as data archiving and the researcher’s body in the field. Peregrine Schwartz-Shea is Professor of Political Science at the University of Utah. Dvora Yanow is Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Amsterdam and in the Communication Sciences Department, Faculty of Social Sciences, at Wageningen University. Together they are co-editors of Interpretation and Method: Empirical Research Methods and the Interpretive Turn, and they created and run the “Methods Café” at both the American and Western Political Science Associations’ annual meetings. Routledge Series on Interpretive Methods Edited by: Dvora Yanow, University of Amsterdam and Wageningen University Peregrine Schwartz-Shea, University of Utah The Routledge Series on Interpretive Methods comprises a collection of slim volumes, each devoted to different issues in interpretive methodology and its associated methods. The topics covered will establish the methodological grounding for interpretive approaches in ways that distinguish interpretive methods from quantitative and qualitative methods in the positivist tradition. The series as a whole engages three types of concerns: (1) methodological issues, looking at key concepts and processes; (2) approaches and methods, looking at how interpretive methodologies are manifested in different forms of research; and (3) disciplinary and subfield areas, demonstrating how interpretive methods figure in different fields across the social sciences. Approachable yet authoritative, the volumes are especially useful for graduate students looking for sources that lay out the reasoning and terminology of interpretive methodologies. Academic and independent researchers writing research plans for grant applications or sabbaticals can use these volumes to support the systematic procedural character and rigorous argumentation of interpretive research. Instructors teaching research methods courses will find the books valuable in providing an explanation of the differences between interpretive research methods and those of “traditional” positivist research. These may also be useful volumes for journal editors and reviewers of manuscripts who are not familiar with these differences. Interpretive Research Design: Concepts and Processes Peregrine Schwartz-Shea and Dvora Yanow Elucidating Social Science Concepts: An Interpretivist Guide Frederic Charles Schaffer Interpreting International Politics Cecelia Lynch Postcolonial Theory and Analysis in Political Studies Kevin Bruyneel Ethnography and Interpretation Timothy Pachirat Analyzing Social Narratives Shaul R. Shenhav International Advisory Board Mark Bevir Patrick Thaddeus Jackson University of California, Berkeley American University Pamela Brandwein Timothy Kaufman-Osborn University of Michigan Whitman College Kevin Bruyneel Bernhard Kittel Babson College Oldenburg University Douglas C. Dow Jan Kubik University of Texas, Dallas Rutgers University Vincent Dubois Beate Littig University of Strasbourg Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna Raymond Duvall Joseph Lowndes University of Minnesota University of Oregon Martha S. Feldman Timothy W. Luke University of California, Irvine Virginia Tech Lene Hansen Cecelia Lynch University of Copenhagen University of California, Irvine Victoria Hattam Navdeep Mathur New School India Institute of Management Emily Hauptmann Julie Novkov Western Michigan University State University of New York at Albany Markus Haverland Ido Oren Erasmus University, Rotterdam University of Florida David Howarth Ellen Pader University of Essex University of Massachusetts, Amherst Frederic Charles Schaffer Joe Soss University of Massachusetts, Amherst University of Wisconsin, Madison Edward Schatz Camilla Stivers University of Toronto Cleveland State University Ronald Schmidt, Sr. John Van Maanen California State University, Long Beach MIT James C. Scott Katherine Cramer Walsh Yale University University of Wisconsin, Madison Samer Shehata Lisa Wedeen Georgetown University University of Chicago Diane Singerman Jutta E. Weldes American University Bristol University INTERPRETIVE RESEARCH DESIGN Concepts and Processes Peregrine Schwartz-Shea and Dvora Yanow First published 2012 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Simultaneously published in the UK by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2012 Taylor & Francis The right of Peregrine Schwartz-Shea and Dvora Yanow to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Schwartz-Shea, Peregrine, 1955– Interpretive research design : concepts and processes / Peregrine Schwartz-Shea and Dvora Yanow. p. cm.—(Routledge series on interpretive methods) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Science—Methodology. 2. Experimental design. I. Yanow, Dvora. II. Title. Q175.S4144 2011 001.4'34—dc23 2011033462 ISBN: 978–0–415–87807–4 (hbk) ISBN: 978–0–415–87808–1 (pbk) ISBN: 978–0–203–85490–7 (ebk) Typeset in Bembo by Swales & Willis Ltd, Exeter, Devon Printed and bound in the United States of America on acid-free paper by Walsworth Publishing Company, Marceline, MO. DEDICATION This book is dedicated to Howard Becker, Bud Duvall, Murray Edelman, Richard Fenno, Clifford Geertz, Egon Guba, Yvonna Lincoln, Lloyd Rudolph, Susanne Rudolph, Jim Scott, to name but a few, and others in many fields who have walked these paths before us; to our colleagues and students who walk them with us now, leading us to new ways of seeing, knowing, and thinking about these matters; and to the leaders of those directorates within the US National Science Foundation which have begun to grapple with some of these issues, in the hope that they, along with their counterparts in other states’ funding organizations, will pave new paths in the near future. CONTENTS List of Illustrations xii Acknowledgments xiii Introduction 1 A Sketch of the Book 9 1 Wherefore Research Designs? 15 Research Design: Why Is It Necessary? 18 An Outline of a Research Proposal, Including the Research Design 19 2 Ways of Knowing: Research Questions and Logics of Inquiry 24 Where Do Research Questions Come From? The Role of Prior Knowledge 25 Where Do Research Questions Come From? Abductive Ways of Knowing 26 Where Do Research Questions Come From? The Role of Theory and the “Literature Review” 34 Do Concepts “Emerge from the Field”? More on Theory and Theorizing 38 Where Do Research Questions Come From? Ontological and Epistemological Presuppositions in Interpretive Research 40
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