Explore the vast range of titles available.

\"This book examines a basic problem in critical approaches to political and social inquiry: in what way is social inquiry animated by a practical intent? This practical intent is not external to inquiry as an add-on or a choice by the inquirer, but is inherent to the process of inquiry. The practical intent in inquiry derives from the connection between social inquiry and the participant's perspective.\"

To what extent can an ethnographic sensibility enhance comparison? In recent years, there has been renewed interest in controlled comparisons in qualitative research designs within political science (e.g., Dunning 2012; Gisselquist 2014; Slater and Ziblatt 2013; Snyder 2001; Tarrow 2010). Broadly, the recent work on controlled comparison--an approach that emphasizes case selection based on either contrasting outcomes despite similar potentially explanatory characteristics or similar outcomes despite contrasting potentially explanatory characteristics--suggests that the method combines the best of both the qualitative and quantitative traditions. Controlled comparisons are useful, this literature argues, because they allow scholars to trace out dynamic political processes while accounting for the effects of possible confounding explanations. Such methodological moves, however, are not without cost. In particular, this approach to case selection can lead researchers to deemphasize context and, in the process, potentially diminish the greatest methodological strength of qualitative research: providing contextualized understandings of political processes. We contend that approaching comparison with an \"ethnographic sensibility\" (Pader 2006; Schatz 2009)--that is, being sensitive to how informants make sense of their worlds and incorporating meaning into our analyses--can strengthen comparative qualitative research. Adopting an ethnographic sensibility would enhance the quality of scholarly arguments by incorporating the processes through which actors ascribe meanings to their lived experiences and the political processes in which they are enmeshed. Because social-science arguments often involve accounts of individual actors' interests, ideas, and impressions, it is imperative to place such cognitive arguments in a broader cultural context. Adopting an ethnographic sensibility requires attention not only to that context but also to the political and social meanings that make it intelligible. This approach builds on recent scholarly efforts to embrace complexity in historical analysis (see Slater and Simmons 2010). However, it pushes us beyond the methods of difference and agreement that continue to guide much qualitative comparative work (for a discussion, see Slater and Ziblatt 2013) by asking scholars to make the complex meanings that often shape politics the object of inquiry--which is rare even in the best recent qualitative comparative work. This article is organized in three sections. First, we discuss what we mean by an \"ethnographic sensibility\" and how such a sensibility can productively contribute to comparative research. Second, we argue that an ethnographic sensibility encourages three core shifts in how scholars think about comparison. By recognizing the limits of our ability to control in comparative research designs, appreciating the ways that meaning enhances comparative analyses, and focusing on processes as the object of comparison, an ethnographic sensibility allows scholars to think differently about how and what they compare. Third, to demonstrate the analytical use of meaning for comparative research designs, we describe a recent research project that implicitly approaches comparison with an ethnographic sensibility. We conclude by considering how an ethnographic sensibility can enhance comparative research at all stages of the research process.

\"There is increasing pressure on university scholars to reach beyond the \"ivory tower\" and engage in collaborative research with communities. But what exactly is community-based participatory research (CBPR) and what does engagement look like? This book presents stories about CBPR from Manitoba Research Alliance projects in marginalized communities. Bringing together experienced researchers with new scholars and community practitioners, the stories describe the impetus for the projects, how they came to be implemented, and how CBPR is still being used within the community. By providing space for researchers and their collaborators to share the stories behind their research, this book offers rich insights into the power and practice of CBPR.\"-- Provided by publisher.

The participant observation method involves numerous methodological competencies and procedures, yet no systematic research has been found to date that evaluates the qualitative practice. The method has played a foundational role in the field of journalism and is growing in use among researchers. Despite its contributions to knowledge about organizations, movements, and cultures, the procedures that encompass the method may be unfamiliar or unclear for some researchers according to the literature. The study analyzed journalism researchers’ reporting of methodological information in studies involving news contexts and assessed scholars’ adherence to methodological reporting best practices in 150 journal articles. The results showed participant observation researchers employed data trustworthiness techniques by primarily using qualitative formal interviews and they also provided site selection logic. The results, however, also showed evidence of methodological conceptual ambiguity when referring to participant observation method techniques and low reporting of several specific recommended techniques associated with participation observation. The narrative reflects our desire to help other researchers learn more about the method, while also encouraging methodological transparency to improve the collective understanding of the method. We put forth eight participant observation reporting recommendations rooted in anthropology and sociology to consider when reporting methodological practices. The hope is this introduction and the proposed measures will initiate discussions and support community around the practice of participant observation.

\"Community-based research (CBR) offers useful insights into the challenges associated with conducting research and ensuring that it generates both excellent scholarship and positive impacts in the communities where the research takes place. This depends on two important variables: the capacity of CBR to generate good information, and the extent to which CBR is understood and constructed as a two-way relationship that includes a set of responsibilities for both researchers and communities. Offering expert advice on the crucial relationship between communities and researchers, the authors outline the main stages of the CBR process to guide researchers and practitioners. They discuss the reasons for conducting CBR, provide tips on how to design research, detail how researchers and communities should get to know one another, as well as how best to work in the field, and how to turn fieldwork into research that counts. By focusing on the lessons learned from the use of CBR, the authors make the messages, lessons, and practices applicable to a variety of research settings. Drawing collectively from decades of community-based research experience and including vignettes from researchers from around the world who share their CBR experiences, Doing Community-Based Research is an essential handbook for scholars, students, and practitioners.\"-- Provided by publisher.

PurposeAs social infrastructures, public libraries are increasingly recognised as providing more than access to books and information; librarians’ work is importantly centred around practices of care. However, the ways in which they provide care is poorly researched, let alone conceptualised. This paper explores how this important part of librarians’ daily work is practiced through the lens of infrastructuring.Design/methodology/approachThe paper first theoretically discusses the concepts of social infrastructuring, care and tinkering. Then, it turns to ethnographic research conducted in the public library networks of three European cities: Vienna (Austria), Rotterdam (the Netherlands) and Malmö (Sweden). The paper comprises empirical materials from all three countries and unpacks 16 librarians’ daily working routines of care through participant observations.FindingsThe empirical analysis resulted in three modes of social infrastructuring in public libraries: (1) maintaining, (2) building connections and (3) drawing boundaries. Practices of care are prominent in each of these infrastructuring modes: librarians infrastructure the library with and via their care practices. Whilst care practices are difficult to quantify and verbalise, they are valuable for library patrons. By using the concept of tinkering, the article conceptualises librarians’ infrastructuring enactments as crucial community-building aspects of libraries.Originality/valueBy focusing on the enactment of social infrastructuring, the paper goes beyond a descriptive approach to understanding public libraries as important social infrastructures. Rather, the paper unpacks how libraries come into being as infrastructuring agencies by highlighting what librarians do and say. Our international study articulates the importance of care practices in public libraries across different national contexts.

Is there an ethnographic turn in political science research and, if so, what does it contribute to the discipline? As this symposium recounts, methodological approaches to political science research have produced notable debates and disputes within the profession. Schwartz-Shea and Majic suggest this may be a \"late methodological moment,\" in any event, an opportune time to take a fresh look at old battles and, more importantly, take the next steps toward building an understanding of ethnographic strategies, clarifying their use, and considering their contributions. Contributions to this forum provide a glimpse into the state of the art and present examples suggestive of the variety and range of studies that have benefited from the use of ethnographic methods. They also indicate that work remains to be done to clarify and better elaborate these tools of the trade, when, and how they are used. Ethnographic research is presented here as a big tent proposition, with the editors leaving it to authors to define the terms on which they use ethnography and to discuss the types of methods they deploy. This definitional looseness (about which I will say more later) is likely to be problematic over the longer-term; but it may be strategic in the short-term, avoiding splintering an already small subset of political science research and opening new possibilities to consideration.

Um den Herausforderungen der Gegenwart nachhaltig begegnen zu konnen, ist transdisziplinar und partizipativ ausgerichtete Forschung zentral. Diese Art der Forschung erfordert verstarkten Austausch und verstarkte Vernetzung zwischen den Forschenden. Auf Initiative der Plattform tdAcademy wurde dazu die Gesellschaft fur transdisziplinare und partizipative Forschung (GTPF) gegrundet, die sich als Anlaufstelle und unabhangige Interessenvertretung der transdisziplinaren und partizipativen Forschung versteht--auch gegenuber Politik und Forderinstitutionen. Die Mitglieder engagieren sich in Vernetzung, Aus- und Weiterbildung sowie bei der Konsolidierung dieser Forschungsansatze und der Qualitatsstandards. Keywords: capacity building, network, participatory research, tdAcademy, transdisciplinary research