Researching Culture
Qualitative Method and Cultural Studies
- Pertti Alasuutari - University of Tampere, Finland
The growth of interdisciplinary cultural studies poses new challenges for the process of doing research. In this textbook, Pertti Alasuutari introduces the range of approaches and methodological tools available for undertaking critical research, and shows how cultural studies transcend traditional divisions between qualitative and quantitative methods and between social sciences and humanities.
He draws upon three main sources: the qualitative traditions of sociological and anthropological research, including ethnography and symbolic interactionism; methods for the study of language and interaction - semiotics, narrative analysis, conversation analysis and discourse analysis; and quantitative analysis in terms of its relevance to data produced by research on culture.
`This clearly written, well-illustrated text satisfies a long-standing need for an authoritative account of the methodology of cultural studies. It will become required reading on many courses' - David Silverman, Goldsmiths College, University of London
`This is a most welcome book. Alasuutari's work is engagingly written, concrete in terms of examples and details, and thoroughly conversant with current controversies' - Norman K Denzin, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
This book offers students with a cultural slant towards research method. Students will be recomended to read this publication in order to explore their research design.
