Qualitative Research in Action

"This is an excellent collection at the cutting edge of thinking about qualitative research.... The breadth of coverage and the sophistication of the discussion make this an important addition to the increasing literature on qualitative work."

- Jonathan Potter, Loughborough University

"This book is likely to have a broad appeal to a rising generation of qualitative researchers seeking to relate theoretical debates to methodological practice."

- Clive Seale, Goldsmiths College

This exciting new book brings together contributions from world-leading scholars as well as younger researchers and focuses on cutting-edge issues related to the practice of qualitative research in the field. It provides a forum for contributors to discuss the issues and processes

which inform qualitative research in its various forms as based on fieldwork experiences.

In achieving this in an accessible manner to both practising students and researchers, it seeks to enable a dialogue over ideas and provide the reader with a 'state of the art' overview of the topic from a contemporary perspective.

Rather than being a 'how to do' book, this volume should prove vitally useful for advanced students and researchers who wish to engage with those ideas and practices in terms of their applicability for an understanding and explanation of the place of qualitative research in the social sciences. It is also a forum in which leading scholars make an original contribution to the subject.

Lively and highly readable throughout, Qualitative Research in Action will be essential reading for advanced undergraduates and above in a variety of disciplines, as well as researchers who wish to engage with contemporary ideas and practices in relation to qualitative research.

Tim obtained degrees from the London School of Economics and Political Science (1985) and the Universities of Surrey (1986) and Plymouth (1990). This followed a first career as an engineer in the agricultural sector and then an evening return-to-study course, during which time he worked in the retail sector. After his degrees, Tim was employed at the Universities of Plymouth and Durham before moving to Salford in September 1999.

Tim’s interests centre upon the relationship between knowledge, strategy, context and practice. He has developed these in a variety of fields and settings including the following: universities; local government; regional and city innovation and knowledge partnerships; international and national research council funded programmes; Whitehall and regional agencies; health, probation, prison and social services and urban and regional policy in general. He has taken this work to examine how it relates to knowledge generation and reception, sustainability, policy formulation and implementation and organizational actions and outcomes at different levels: from the local, to city, regional, national and international scales. The roles of management, culture, communication and coordination and intelligence, as well as developing more holistic views on city-regional development, feature in his work for SURF, along with concerns over the future of the university, active intermediation and urban arenas in knowledge exchange and the production and reception of different forms of knowledge. He is currently seconded half-time to the Mistra Urban Futures Centre, based in Gothenburg, Sweden and working on an EPSRC funded Retrofit programme with partners in Cardiff, Oxford and Cambridge. Mistra entails a lead role in developing and producing international comparative work, as well as the development of the scientific programme for the Centre.
In addition to his managerial, research and policy activities, Tim has given numerous talks nationally and internationally, as well having served on selection committees and commissioning bodies. He has written and edited fourteen books that, to date, have been translated into fourteen languages. The topics of his writings include: urban policy; universities and regional development; science policy; innovation; knowledge and sustainability; management and organizational change; politics and regional representation; social theory; research methodology and methods; thinking sociologically and philosophy of science and social science.

Tim is the series editor of ‘Issues in Society’ – an international book series with Open University Press/Mc Graw-Hill in which 17 books have been published. Among his current publications are a book on Social Research and Reflexivity (with Beth Perry, Sage Publications, 2011); a 4th edition of Social Research: Issues, Methods and Process (Open University Press/Mc Graw-Hill, 2011) and a co-edited special edition of the ‘Built Environment’ journal, with Beth Perry, on ‘The Roles of Universities in Building Knowledge Cities’.