Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction 2 The Old Guard and the Avant-Garde 3 Strangeness and Familiarity 4 From Over-Rapport to Intimacy and Autoethnography 5 Whose Side are We On? 6 Participation and Interviewing 7 How Do You Know if Your Informant is Telling the Truth? 8 From Interference to Difference 9 From Styles of Reporting to Poetics and Beyond 10 Conclusion: Continuities and Changes

About the Author

Paul Atkinson, Amanda Coffey, and Sara Delamont are at the Cardiff School of Social Science in Wales and are well-known writers on qualitative research methods.

Reviews

This reading of the recent history of qualitative research from the leaders of the Cardiff school of ethnography provides a measured, useful analysis of a field now so vast as to be unwieldy, so conflicted (in part) as to be balkanized and so multi-faceted as to appear opaque when transparent, transparent when opaque. The authors present a balanced perspective in their book, referring to classic texts and themes in examining contemporary issues. Chapters such as 'Whose Side Are We On?' make this book a contender for required reading in a qualitative methods class where beginners too easily slip into an individualistic way of viewing respondents/participants. I enthusiastically recommend this book as an essential text to anyone wanting to better understand the field and literature of qualitative research.
*Virginia Olesen, University of California, San Francisco*

The three authors, especially Atkinson, are experienced in studies of ethnography and qualitative research methods from a postmodern perspective...Highly recommended.
*CHOICE*

Overall, Key Themes is a useful book for educational researchers conducting ethnographic inquiries—and for those engaged with participant observation and/or interview as research method. The historical contextualization in anthropology and sociology is helpful, as is the delineation of key classic texts. The tensions outlined are relevant to all involved with qualitative research.
*Canadian Journal of Education*

This is an important book, a manifesto written by the leaders of the Cardiff School of Social Sciences.
*Journal Of The Royal Anthropological Institute*