Situational Analysis Paperback - 2005 - 1st Edition

Situational Analysis: Grounded Theory After the Postmodern Turn provides an innovative approach to grounded theory useful in a wide array of qualitative research projects. Extending Anselm Strauss′s ecological social worlds/arenas/discourses framework, situational analysis offers researchers three kinds of maps that place emphasis on the range of differences rather than commonalities, as found via the traditional grounded theory approach:

* Situational maps lay out the major human, nonhuman, discursive, and material elements in the research situation of concern and provoke analysis of relations among them
* Social worlds/arenas maps lay out the collective actors and their arenas of commitment, framing mesolevel interpretations of the situation
* Positional maps examine the major positions taken (and not taken) in the discourses

Using extensive examples, author Adele E. Clarke covers why and how to do these maps with traditional qualitative data such as interviews and ethnographic materials. The book then follows in Foucault′s footsteps, offering ambitious chapters on mapping and analyzing discourse materials--narrative, visual, and historical. Situational analysis helps researchers examine variations, differences, silences in data, conditionality, and complexity. It is also very useful for multi-site research projects, which are increasingly common not only in the social sciences but also in the humanities and related professional fields.

Situational Analysis can be used in a wide array of research projects that draw on interview, ethnographic, historical, visual, and other discursive materials including multi-site research. It is a perfect supplement to any graduate-level qualitative research course, and will also support professional researchers and consultants from diverse backgrounds pursuing qualitative projects.

"Through this book, grounded theory has been thoroughly remodeled. Pulling together diverse traditions in social theory and providing a coherent methodological translation for them, this renovation is both scholarly and practical. The text is as an exemplar for updating and reinterpreting research approaches in light of contemporary philosophical and methodological sensibilities."
--Karen D. Locke, College of William and Mary

"A timely and erudite critique of grounded theory, clearly favoring the Straussian line, and none the worse for that."
--Antony Bryant, Leeds Metropolitan University, U.K.

"With passion and bravura Situational Analysis maps the structures, discourses, and silences hidden in qualitative research. Adele Clarke offers the best of both worlds: a theoretically grounded methodology and a methodologically useful theory. This book is a must read for every researcher contemplating a study of people doing things together."
--Stefan Timmermans, Brandeis University