Field Research in Political Science: Practices and Principles (Strategies for Social Inquiry) - Hardcover

Kapiszewski, Diana; MacLean, Lauren M.; Read, Benjamin L.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1107006031 ISBN 13: 9781107006034

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2015

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Authors

Diana Kapiszewski is Assistant Professor in the Department of Government at Georgetown University.

Lauren M. MacLean is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Indiana University.

Benjamin L. Read is Associate Professor in the Politics Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1107006031
• ISBN 13: 9781107006034
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 470