Where and when have investigators aspired to study human culture with more trustworthy or 'objective' methods borrowed from the natural sciences? This book revisits the dominant scientific method, 'coding,' with which investigators from sociology to literary criticism have sampled texts and catalogued their cultural messages. By returning to the primary documents used in canonical examples of such research, the author demonstrates that the celebrated hard outputs rest on misleading samples and on unfeasible classifying of the texts' meanings. The problems are so consistent, they reveal why it is a contradiction in principle to try to create 'data' out of such complex texts. As an alternative, the author illustrates how a purely humanistic reliance on families of symptomatic exemplars sponsors research that is retraceable and more accurate and transparent in its conclusions. The book addresses scholars in the field of science studies as well as practitioners across the social sciences who investigate culture.

Advances in qualitative methods and recent developments in the philosophy of science have led to an emphasis on explanation via reference to causal mechanisms. This book argues that the method known as process tracing is particularly well suited to developing and assessing theories about such mechanisms. The editors begin by establishing a philosophical basis for process tracing - one that captures mainstream uses while simultaneously being open to applications by interpretive scholars. Equally important, they go on to establish best practices for individual process-tracing accounts - how micro to go, when to start (and stop), and how to deal with the problem of equifinality. The contributors then explore the application of process tracing across a range of subfields and theories in political science. This is an applied methods book which seeks to shrink the gap between the broad assertion that 'process tracing is good' and the precise claim 'this is an instance of good process tracing'.

Providing a complete portal to the world of case study research, the Fourth Edition of Robert K. Yin's bestselling text "Case Study Research" offers comprehensive coverage of the design and use of the case study method as a valid research tool. This thoroughly revised text now covers more than 50 case studies (approximately 25 per cent new), gives fresh attention to quantitative analyses, discusses more fully the use of mixed methods research designs, and includes new methodological insights. The book's coverage of case study research and how it is applied in practice gives readers access to exemplary case studies drawn from a wide variety of academic and applied fields. The fourth edition highlights each specific research feature through 44 boxed vignettes that feature previously published case studies. It provides methodological insights to show the similarities between case studies and other social science methods. It suggests a three-stage approach to help readers define the initial questions they will consider in their own case study research. It covers new material on human subjects protection, the role of Institutional Review Boards, and the interplay between obtaining IRB approval and the final development of the case study protocol and conduct of a pilot case. It includes an overall graphic of the entire case study research process at the beginning of the book, then highlights the steps in the process through graphics that appear at the outset of all the chapters that follow. It offers in-text learning aids including 'tips' that pose key questions and answers at the beginning of each chapter, practical exercises, endnotes, and a new cross-referencing table. "Case Study Research, Fourth Edition" is ideal for courses in departments of Education, Business and Management, Nursing and Public Health, Public Administration, Anthropology, Sociology, and Political Science.

《质的研究方法与社会科学研究》是国内第一部系统评介“质的研究方法”（qualitative research）的专著，对目前国际社会科学界提出的有关理论问题以及新近发展出来的操作手段进行了深入的探讨，并结合有关西方学者以及作者自己的研究实例对其进行了生动的展示和说明。“质的研究方法”目前在社会科学研究领域是与“量的研究方法”相提并论、交相辉映的一种研究方法，它要求研究者深入社会现象，通过亲身体验了解研究对象的存在方式和意义解释，在原始资料的基础之上建立相关理论。