You are to undertake a comparative critical review of a qualitative research method/s and submit a 2,500 word paper.
The qualitative paper should address one of the following research methods:
- case study analysis;
- environmental narrative;
- participatory rural appraisal;
- rapid rural appraisal;
- GIS and spatial mapping.
You are to select between three and five published research papers (papers which are not listed in the course syllabus) that have each adopted one of the above methods. Then you will carry out a comparative critical analysis and written discussion of how the paper authors have conceptualized, designed and implemented that research method.
research issue or problem (e.g. community based natural resource management, resource policy reform, resource commodity network studies, etc) or on different topics.
Burawoy, Michael 1998. “The Extended Case Method.”Sociological Theory. 16(1): 4-33.
Flyvbjerg, Bent 2006. “Five Misunderstandings About Case Study Research” Qualitative Inquiry. 12(2): 219-245.
Hyett, N., Kenny, A., & Virginia Dickson-Swift, D. (2014).Methodology or method?A critical review of qualitative case study reports. International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being, 9
Lund, C. (2014). “Of What is This a Case? Analytical Movements in Qualitative Social Science Research.”Human Organization. 73(3): 2014..
George, A.L., A. Bennett. 2005. Case Studies and Theory Development in the Social Sciences. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.Read Chapter 4 “Designing case study research” (pp 73-88).
Gerring, J. 2008. “Case study selection for case study analysis: qualitative and quantitative techniques.” pp. 645-84. Chapter 28 In J.M. Box-Steffensmeier, H.E. Brady, D. Collier. The Oxford Handbook of Political Methodology. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Rasul, G., G.B. Thapa, M.B. Karki. 2011. “Comparative analysis of evolution of participatory forest management institutions in South Asia.” Society and Natural Resources. 24(12): 1322-1334
George, A.L., A. Bennett. 2005. “Case Studies and Theory Development in the Social Sciences.” MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.Chapter 10 Process-tracing and historical explanation, pp. 205-232.
Baxter, P. and S. Jack (2008). “Qualitative Case Study Methodology: Study Design and Implementation for Novice Researchers.” The Qualitative Report. 13(4): 544-559.
Small, M. (2009). “How many cases do I need?” Ethnography. 10(1), pp. 5-38.
Castree, N. (2005). “The Epistemology of Particulars: Human Geography, Case Studies and ‘Context’. Geoforum. 36: 541-544.
Hart, Gillian 2002. Disabling Globalization: Places of Power in Post-Apartheid South Africa. Berkeley: University of California Press. Read the Introduction, on the idea of “situated and relational comparisons” (pp. 1-15).
Ragin, C. and H. Becker (1992). What is a Case? Exploring the Foundations of Social Inquiry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.