I am editor for the Americas of a major qualitative methods journal (International Journal of Qualitative Methods), I am a self-identified ethnographer, and I teach courses on the topic. Therefore, knowing good books that I can recommend to my students is very important to me. Dr. Layna Mosley (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) assembled a fantastic edited volume that responds to my frequent query: “which texts should my students use to learn how to conduct interviews?”. While written by political scientists and aimed at students of political science/international relations/public policy/public administration, this volume is an extraordinary contribution to social science methods’ teaching. Interview Research in Political Science reads like a Who’s Who in the field.
This volume, edited by the incomparable @thwillow (Dr Layna Mosley) is the perfect combination of scholars studying political phenomena through interviewing. The late Lee Ann Fuji has a chapter and I almost cried when I re-read it. Lee Ann was amazing. pic.twitter.com/T1ktZPu1Ps
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) September 6, 2018
The table of contents for @thwillow ‘s volume reads like a Who is Who in Political Science and Qualitative Methods. Her introductory chapter is a must-read for everyone doing research methods whether qualitative or quantitative – particularly because it addresses epistemology pic.twitter.com/eX1sWeRFJ2
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) September 6, 2018
I consider myself an ethnographer, and I follow a similar positivist view of the world as @thwillow posits in her introductory chapter (sue me) – I use qualitative methods to posit research questions and testable hypotheses. pic.twitter.com/wsjsCcrUnH
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) September 6, 2018
.@sarahmbrooks ‘s chapter on ethical treatment of human subjects and IRBs is also a must-read. Full disclosure: I strongly respect Dr Brooks’ scholarship and I recently published a piece with @kateparizeau on the ethics of doing ethnography of vulnerable communities pic.twitter.com/TbyeVHW6vm
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) September 6, 2018
Dr Lauren M. Maclean is a professor at @IUBloomington and an expert in comparative political economy. She has recently published a paper with @jennifer_brass on NGOs in development. I loved her chapter in this book, focusing on power asymmetries between interviewer and subject pic.twitter.com/y7HKBfVxeK
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) September 6, 2018
One complaint I often get is that qualitative methods can’t capture causal effects. We can argue about that, but I would encourage you all to read Dr Cathie Jo Martin on how you can better design interviews to capture causal mechanisms pic.twitter.com/JCT2UyK5jC
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) September 6, 2018
Of course, if people feel like they need more on how qualitative methods can capture causal effects, they can go to @beach_methodman and Rasmus Brun Pedersen's book https://t.co/PGauMp6ctk or @IRgetsreal and George's book (my thread -) https://t.co/DhoaO2HyLF
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) September 6, 2018
The late Lee Ann Fuji wrote on language fluency and interviews. @smsaideman @laderafrutal and others know how I feel about this. But I find Lee Ann’s reasoning quite solid and I feel more at ease now. pic.twitter.com/folSX8jkrU
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) September 6, 2018
As I said on Twitter, overall “Interview Research in Political Science” is an amazing volume, so we owe a big “thank you” to Layna for putting this together. Great for teaching and as a volume to be consulted frequently. My only complaint (and forgive the self-promotion) is that interviews with marginalized populations were not addressed in the volume. But my recently published paper with Dr. Kate Parizeau (University of Guelph) can be used to remedy this absence.
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