Interpreting Qualitative Data: Methods for Analysing Talk, Text and Interaction

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SAGE Publications, 1993 - Social Science - 224 pages
Based on worked-through examples and student exercises, David Silverman's critical text spans the range of different approaches within the qualitative tradition. The author considers the relations between qualitative and quantitative methods in social research and the strengths of specific methodologies.

In particular, the book focuses on: issues of observation, analysis and validity in qualitative research; the theoretical underpinnings, methodological consequences and practical applicability of major traditions of qualitative research, including ethnography, symbolic interactionism, conversation analysis and ethnomethodology; the centrality of language as the medium of communication of the subjects of qualitative research

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Contents

The Logic of Qualitative Methodology
20
PART TWO METHODS
30
Texts
59
Copyright

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About the author (1993)

David Silverman is Visiting Professor in the Business School, University of Technology, Sydney, Emeritus Professor in the Sociology Department, Goldsmiths’ College and Adjunct Professor in the School of Education, Queensland University of Technology. He has lived in London for most of his life, where he attended Christ's College Finchley and did a BSc (Economics) at the London School of Economics in the 1960s. Afterwards, he went to the USA for graduate work, obtaining an MA in the Sociology Department, University of California, Los Angeles. He returned to LSE to write a PhD on organization theory. This was published as The Theory of Organizations in 1970. Apart from brief spells teaching at UCLA, his main teaching career was at Goldsmiths College. His three major research projects were on decision making in the Personnel Department of the Greater London Council (Organizational Work, written with Jill Jones, 1975), paediatric outpatient clinics (Communication and Medical Practice, 1987) and HIV-test counselling (Discourses of Counselling, 1997). He pioneered a taught MA in Qualitative Research at Goldsmiths in 1985 and supervised around 30 successful PhD students. Since becoming Emeritus Professor in 1999, he has continued publishing methodology books. David regularly runs qualitative research workshops for five universities in Sydney and Brisbane. He has also run workshops for research students in Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, France, Sri Lanka and Tanzania. Since 2000, he has done voluntary work with people with dementia. resident in an old people’s home Besides all this, David's other interests include classical music, literary fiction, bridge, county cricket and spending time with his grandchildren.

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