We still lack practical answers to one of the most basic questions in empirical research: How should researchers interpret meanings? The contributors take seriously the goals of both post-modernist and positivist researchers, as they offer detailed guidance on how to apply specific tools of analysis and how to circumvent their inherent limitations.
Introduction; A.Klotz PART I: RESEARCH DESIGN Thinking Tools; A.Leander Feminist Methodological Reflection; B.Ackerly Case Selection; A.Klotz PART II: CLASSIC QUALITATIVE TOOLS Discourse Analysis; I.B.Neumann Historical Representations; K.C.Dunn Ethnographic Research; H.Gusterson Process Tracing; J.T.Checkel PART III: BOUNDARY CROSSING TECHNIQUES Political Personality Profiling; J.M.Post Content Analysis; M.G.Hermann Pragmatic Analysis; G.Duffy Agent Based Modeling; M.J.Hoffmann PART IV: IMPLICATIONS 'Qualitative' Methods?; S.Barkin Practicing Pluralism; D.Prakash
