An Introduction to Qualitative Research

Uwe Flick is Senior Professor of Qualitative Research in Social Science and Education at the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. He is a trained psychologist and sociologist and received his PhD from the Freie Universität Berlin in 1988 and his Habilitation from the Technical University Berlin in 1994. He has been Professor of Qualitative Research at Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences in Berlin, Germany and at the University of Vienna, Austria. Previously, he was Adjunct Professor at the Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John’s, Canada; a Lecturer in research methodology at the Freie Universität Berlin; a Reader and Assistant Professor in qualitative methods and evaluation at the Technical University Berlin; and Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Medical Sociology at the Hannover Medical School. He has held visiting appointments at the London School of Economics, the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris, Cambridge University (UK), Memorial University of St John’s (Canada), University of Lisbon (Portugal), Institute of Higher Studies in Vienna, in Italy and Sweden, and the School of Psychology at Massey University, Auckland (New Zealand). His main research interests are qualitative methods, social representations in the fields of individual and public health, vulnerability in fields like youth homelessness or (forced) migration and chronical illness in everyday live. He is the editor of The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research Design (2 Vols.; Sage 2022). The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Data Analysis (Sage, 2014), The SAGE Qualitative Research Kit (Sage, 2nd edn, 2018), A Companion to Qualitative Research (Sage, 2004), Psychology of the Social (Cambridge University Press, 1998). His most recent publications are the seventh edition of An Introduction to Qualitative Research (Sage, 2023), Doing Grounded Theory (Sage, 2018), Doing Triangulation and Mixed Methods (Sage, 2018), The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Data Collection (editor, Sage, 2018), the third edition of Introducing Research Methodology – Thinking Your Way through Your Research Project (Sage, 2020) and Doing Interview Research - The Essential How To Guide (Sage 2022). In 2019, Uwe Flick received the Lifetime Award in Qualitative Inquiry at the 15th International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry.

PART ONE: FRAMEWORK
Guide to this Book
Qualitative Research: Why And How to Do It
Qualitative and Quantitative Research
Approaches to Qualitative Research
Ethics of Qualitative Research
PART TWO: THEORY IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
Using the Existing Literature
Theories Underlying Qualitative Research
Texts as Data in Qualitative Research
PART THREE: RESEARCH DESIGN
Designing Qualitative Research
The Qualitative Research Process
Research Questions
Entering the Field
Sampling
Triangulation
PART FOUR: VERBAL DATA
Collecting Verbal Data
Interviews
Focus Groups
Using Narrative Data
PART FIVE: DATA BEYOND TALK
Collecting Data Beyond Talk
Observation and Ethnography
Visual Data: Photography, Film & Video
Using Documents as Data
PART SIX: QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS
Qualitative Data Analysis
Transcription and Data Management
Grounded Theory Coding
Thematic Coding and Content Analysis
Naturally Occuring Data: Conversation, Discourse, and Hermeneutic Analysis
Using Software in Qualitative Data Analysis
PART SEVEN: GROUNDING, WRITING AND OUTLOOK
Quality of Qualitative Research: Criteria and Beyond
Writing Qualitative Research
State of the Art and the Future