Qualitative Inquiry and the Politics of Evidence (International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry Series)

What is evidence in qualitative inquiry and how is it evaluated? What is true or false in research is strongly influenced by socially defined criteria and by the politics of academia. In providing an alternative to conservative science, qualitative researchers are often victimized by these politics. The use of qualitative evidence within the policy arena is also subject to social and political factors. Within qualitative inquiry itself, evidence is defined differently in different discourses―law, medicine, history, cultural, or performance studies. The interdisciplinary, international group of contributors to this volume address these questions in an attempt to create evidential criteria for qualitative work. Sponsored by the International Center for Qualitative Inquiry.

Norman K. Denzin is Distinguished Professor of Communications, College of Communications Scholar, and Research Professor of Communications, Sociology, and Humanities at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. One of the world’s foremost authorities on qualitative research and cultural criticism, Denzin is the author or editor of more than two dozen books, including Reading Race; Interpretive Ethnography; The Cinematic Society; The Voyeur’s Gaze; and The Alcoholic Self. He is past editor of The Sociological Quarterly, co-editor (with Yvonna S. Lincoln) of three editions of the landmark Handbook of Qualitative Research, coeditor (with Michael D. Giardina) of two plenary volumes from prior Congresses of Qualitative Inquiry, co-editor (with Lincoln) of the methods journal Qualitative Inquiry, founding editor of Cultural Studies/Critical Methodologies, and editor of three book series.

Michael D. Giardina is an Assistant Professor in the College of Education at Florida State University.  He is the author of Sporting Pedagogies: Performing Culture & Identity in the Global Arena (Peter Lang, 2005) and Sport, Spectacle, and NASCAR Nation: Consumption and the Cultural Politics of Neoliberalism (2011, Palgrave), editor of series of books on qualitative inquiry (with Norman Denzin), and editor of numerous other volumes. He is the Associate Editor of the Sociology of Sport Journal.