Field research in political science : practices and principles
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Field research in political science : practices and principles
(Strategies for social inquiry)
Cambridge University Press, 2015
- : hardback
- : pbk
Available at 18 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 416-446) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Field research - leaving one's home institution in order to acquire data, information or insights that significantly inform one's research - remains indispensable, even in a digitally networked era. This book, the first of its kind in political science, reconsiders the design and execution of field research and explores its role in producing knowledge. First, it offers an empirical overview of fieldwork in the discipline based on a large-scale survey and extensive interviews. Good fieldwork takes diverse forms yet follows a set of common practices and principles. Second, the book demonstrates the analytic benefits of fieldwork, showing how it contributes to our understanding of politics. Finally, it provides intellectual and practical guidance, with chapters on preparing for field research, operating in the field and making analytic progress while collecting data, and on data collection techniques including archival research, interviewing, ethnography and participant observation, surveys, and field experiments.
Table of Contents
- 1. Field research in political science: practices and principles
- 2. A historical and empirical overview of field research in the discipline
- 3. Preparing for fieldwork
- 4. Managing in the field: logistical, social, operational, and ethical challenges
- 5. Thinking outside the (archive) box: discovering data in the field
- 6. Interviews, oral histories, and focus groups
- 7. Site-intensive methods: ethnography and participant observation
- 8. Surveys in the context of field research
- 9. Experiments in the field
- 10. Analyzing, writing, and retooling in the field
- 11. The future of field research in political science.
by "Nielsen BookData"