In this innovative introduction to research in the social and human sciences, Valerie Malhotra Bentz and Jeremy J. Shapiro guide students through the maze of research traditions, cultures of inquiry, and epistemological frameworks that blanket the intellectual landscape. The goal of their approach is to help the researcher survive and flourish in today′s often confusing multicultural, multiparadigm research environment where disciplines overlap. Postmodernism and multiculturalism have shattered the traditional unitary model of scientific research; and the emerging global, informational economy is producing new economic, social, cultural, and political problems and new research questions. Their solution is mindful inquiry-empowering the researcher both psychologically and philosophically by putting the researcher, rather than research techniques, at the center of the research process. The mindful inquirer uses awareness of self-personal, social, and historical - to shape the research project or dissertation and keep it expressive and responsible to the traditions of scholarly research. While grounding their own approach in a synthesis of critical theory, phenomenology, hermeneutics, and Buddhism, Bentz and Shapiro explain the forces that have produced the current epistemological crisis and introduce the reader to the underlying logic, rather than the detailed methods and techniques, of 10 cultures of inquiry-ethnography, quantitative behavioral science, phenomenology, action research, hermeneutics, evaluation research, feminist research, critical social science, historical-comparative research, and theoretical research. Mindful Inquiry in Social Research not only clarifies conceptual and intellectual traditions in research but also puts researchers squarely in the investigative saddle, able to choose, justify, and explain the intellectual framework and personal rationale of their research. For many students, beginning researchers, and scholarly practitioners, Mindful Inquiry in Social Research will provide clarity, grounding, and good preparation for a challenging research task such as a dissertation, thesis, major paper, or professional research project. While helping the researcher survive epistemological diversity, it will also help turn the research project into a positive contribution to the researcher′s life and personal development, rather that a detour or a hindrance.

This innovative introduction to research in the social sciences guides students and new researchers through the maze of research traditions, cultures of inquiry and epistemological frameworks. It introduces the underlying logic of ten cultures of inquiry: ethnography; quantitative behavioral science; phenomenology; action research; hermeneutics; evaluation research; feminist research; critical social science; historical-comparative research; and theoretical research. It clarifies conceptual and intellectual traditions in research, and puts researchers firmly in the investigative saddle - able to choose, justify, and explain the intellectual framework and personal rationale of their research.

The SAGE Handbook of Social Research Methods is a must for every social-science researcher. It charts the new and evolving terrain of social research methodology, covering qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods in one volume. The Handbook includes chapters on each phase of the research process: research design, methods of data collection, and the processes of analyzing and interpreting data. The volume maintains that there is much more to research than learning skills and techniques; methodology involves the fit between theory, research questions research design and analysis. The book also includes several chapters that describe historical and current directions in social research, debating crucial subjects such as qualitative versus quantitative paradigms, how to judge the credibility of types of research, and the increasingly topical issue of research ethics. The Handbook serves as an invaluable resource for approaching research with an open mind. This volume maps the field of social research methods using an approach that will prove valuable for both students and researchers.

Ethnography, with all its limitations, has as its strongest impulse the quest to see and understand “others” on their own terms and to step out of our own viewpoints in order to do so. Conjoining ethnography with mindfulness, this book aims to support the best aspects of ethnography by enhancing the capacity to listen more deeply, see more expansively, keep a check on our biases and connect more compassionately with others. Mindful Ethnography addresses a central dilemma of ethnography: the relationship of self and other. It suggests ways of viewing the world from different perspectives, getting beyond the categories of our culture and working with our own thoughts and feelings even as we aim to understand those of our participants. Chapters address various stages of ethnographic research: entering a field and seeing it for the first time, immersing in ongoing participant observation, writing up elaborated fieldnotes, analysis, the re-presentation of results and letting it go. It offers illustrations and activities for researchers to try. The book is aimed at students and researchers who are stepping into the craft of ethnography or looking for new ways in and through ethnographic research. It is for researchers who want to integrate scholarship, social activism and spiritual pursuits in order to do research that is deeply engaged with and transformative of the world.

This book is an innovative attempt to examine and restructure the field of qualitative research methods. It develops a series of -rules- which not only give qualitative inquiry a firmer methodological grounding but also serve as specific guidelines for the practicing researcher. Additionally, the book situates the conduct of qualitative inquiry the broader framework of epistemological concerns drawn from contemporary debates in the philosophy of science and social science. The book can be used, then, as an in-depth introduction to qualitative research methods as well as a social epistemological foundation for the justification of these methods."

Qualitative researchers incorporate the principles of holism, storytelling, ethics, body and mind links, relational focus, and creativity as key features of their practice. So do practitioners of Zen Buddhism. Leading qualitative researcher Valerie J. Janesick describes how qualitative inquiry can be informed and improved through an understanding of Zen principles. She calls for a contemplative qualitative inquiry that draws on the understandings of both East and West. In the book, she-explains how key Zen principles of impermanence, non-self, and nirvana apply to qualitative research projects;-advocates important Zen-based practices of meditation, journaling, and poetic thinking;-presents Zen stories, meditation techniques, and writing exercises to improve research practice.