Interpreting Qualitative Data

David Silverman trained as a sociologist at the London School of Economics and the University of California, Los Angeles. He taught for 32 years at Goldsmiths, University of London, where he is now Emeritus Professor in the Sociology Department as well as Visiting Professor in the Business Schools, King’s College, London, Leeds University and University of Technology Sydney and Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Education, Queensland University of Technology. He is interested in conversation and discourse analysis and he has researched medical consultations, shelters for homeless people and HIV-test counselling. He is the author of Doing Qualitative Research (sixth edition, 2022) and A Very Short, Fairly Interesting, Reasonably Cheap Book about Qualitative Research (second edition, 2013c). He is the editor of Qualitative Research (fifth edition, 2021) and the Sage series Introducing Qualitative Methods. In recent years, he has offered short, hands-on workshops in qualitative research for universities in Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia.  Now retired from full-time work, he aims to watch 100 days of county cricket a year. He also enjoys spending time with his grandchildren and great-grandsons as well as voluntary work in an old people’s home where he chats and sings with residents.  

Part I: Theory and Method in Qualitative Research
Chapter 1: What is Qualitative Research?
Chapter 2: Designing a Research Project
Chapter 3: Generalising from Qualitative Data
Chapter 4: Credible Qualitative Research
Chapter 5: Data Analysis
Chapter 6: Research Ethics
Part II: Methods
Chapter 7: Interviews
Chapter 8: Focus Groups
Chapter 9: Ethnography
Chapter 10: Documents
Chapter 11: Naturally Occurring Talk
Chapter 12: Visual Images
Chapter 13: Mixed Methods
Part III: Implications
Chapter 14: Writing Your Report
Chapter 15: The Relevance of Qualitative Research
Chapter 16: The Potential of Qualitative Research