Craft of Inquiry

"Knowledgeable, reflective, and humane, Robert Alford applies strong colors with a sure hand as he produces a well-crafted group portrait of sociologys multiple personalities." --Charles Tilly, Columbia University"Excellent! Fills a huge gap in the field."--Patricia Morgan, University of California, Berkeley"Knowledgeable, reflective, and humane, Robert Alford applies strong colors with a sure hand as he produces a well-crafted group portrait of sociologys multiple personalities." --Charles Tilly, Columbia University"The Craft of Inquiry is a pathbreaking and inspiring book, which bridges the chasm between theory and methods by demonstrating that there is a continuous interplay between theoretical assumptions and the objects of inquiry. With elegance and grace, Robert Alford leads the student through a series of analytic tasks designed to teach them how to define and pursue a research question. Regardless of their area of interest, all students who read this bookwill develop the skills and confidence required to conduct sociological research." --Jill Quadagno, President of the American Sociological Association"It conveys, more honestly than any other book I have read, the real confusion and messiness of doing research. Most texts on methods make it all sound so rational and straightforward. Yet anyone who has done research successfully knows that taking on a project inevitably involves great uncertainty....Alfords book goes some distance in letting students in on the liberating secret that virtually all of us who keep writing have learned to live with deepintellectual discomfort and emotional ambiguity as each research project unfolds....He offers a vocabulary of sorts to guide especially novice researchers through the maze of the process." -- David A. Karp,Boston College"Alfords book acquaints students with the work of such luminaries as Durkheim, Goffman, and Marx from the inside out. His treatment of works such as these will itself be worth the price of the book for advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and folks like me who just like reading a different twist on the strengths and limitations of these famous pieces....Provides a new tool for critically reading the research of others and for assessing the adequacy ofones own data interpretations". -- David A. Karp, Boston College"Most of us struggle with how to formulate sociological questions and then how to revise and reformulate projects once they are launched. The attempt by Professor Alford to codify the process of doing research will be a major contribution to the discipline. During the past few years, he has been 'testing' out parts of his book at workshops for graduate students at various universities here and abroad. Workshop participants wrote to say that Professor Alford'sideas have greatly enhanced their ability to move forward with their projects. Few graduate professors have the kinds of impact that Professor Alford consistently has given his students." --RosannaHertz, Wellesley College

• Introduction 1: The Craft of Inquiry 2: Designing a Research Project 3: The Construction of Arguments 4: Foreground Multivariate Arguments 5: Foreground Interpretive Arguments 6: Foreground Historical Arguments 7: The Theoretical Power of Multiple Paradigma 8: Dialectical Explanations and the Sociological Imagination Notes, Selected Readings, Index