An Introduction to Qualitative Research

"Flick′s An Introduction to Qualitative Research is quite simply the most important text on qualitative research methods in the world today. I continue to envy Flick′s command of the field and its ever-expanding literature, much of which he has managed to include in his new edition." 
―Norman K Denzin, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign



This Third Edition of Uwe Flick′s bestselling textbook has been fully revised, expanded and updated but retains all of the student-friendly elements and carefully structured qualities of the previous edition.

Brand new features include:

• Updated discussions and references throughout the text
• The integration into all chapters of additional features including chapter overviews, case studies, lists of key points and end-of-chapter exercises
• 6 new chapters including a guide to using the book, a chapter on ethics, the uses of literature in qualitative research, an overview of research design, a discussion centered on using documents, and a final chapter on qualitative online research.

This new edition will ensure that An Introduction to Qualitative Research preserves its status as the essential introductory text for all students of qualitative research.


"Ideal for anyone wishing to understand fully the theoretical constructs behind the qualitative research methodology."
―JOURNAL OF FAMILY STUDIES

"From conceptualizing research questions to entering the field, making sampling decisions to constructing interview guides, Flick offers practical counsel...This updated edition maintains the authors′ admirably practical focus―their primary aim is to offer a step by step approach to crafting a viable qualitative research proposal."
―Stefan Krug, Simmons College

Uwe Flick is Senior Professor of Qualitative Research in Social Science and Education at the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. He is a trained psychologist and sociologist and received his PhD from the Freie Universität Berlin in 1988 and his Habilitation from the Technical University of Berlin in 1994. He has been Professor of Qualitative Research at Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences in Berlin, Germany and at the University of Vienna, Austria. Previously, he was Adjunct Professor at the Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John’s, Canada; a Lecturer in research methodology at the Freie Universität Berlin; a Reader and Assistant Professor in qualitative methods and evaluation at the Technical University of Berlin; and Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Medical Sociology at the Hannover Medical School. He has held visiting appointments at the London School of Economics, the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris, at Cambridge University (UK), University of Lisbon (Portugal), Institute of Higher Studies in Vienna, in Italy and Sweden, and at the School of Psychology at Massey University, Auckland (New Zealand). His main research interests are qualitative methods, social representations in the fields of individual and public health, chronical illness and vulnerability in fields like youth homelessness, peer relations or migration, and technological change in everyday life. He is the author of Introducing Research Methodology: A Beginner’s Guide to Doing a Research Project (4th edn, London: Sage: 2025) and editor of A Companion to Qualitative Research (London: Sage, 2004) and The Psychology of the Social (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998). As his most recent publications, he has written Designing Qualitative Research (2nd edn, London: Sage, 2018), Doing Grounded Theory (London: Sage, 2018), Doing Triangulation and Mixed Methods (London: Sage, 2018), and Managing Quality in Qualitative Research (2nd edn, London: Sage, 2018) and Doing Interview Research – The Essential How To Guide (London: Sage, 2022). He edited The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Data Analysis (London: Sage, 2014), The SAGE Qualitative Research Kit (2nd edn, London: Sage, 2018), The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Data Collection (London: Sage, 2018) and The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research Design (London: Sage, 2022) and The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research Quality (London: Sage, 2025).