Bren Neale - The Craft of Qualitative Longitudinal Research

An engaging, timely and tremendously generous guide to qualitative longitudinal research. This book will be of great value to both readers already using this method and those new to the field. Julia Cook, University of Newcastle

Bren is the authoritative voice of qualitative longitudinal enquiry and methods. Her accessible and engaging style is both informative and captivating and makes this text a must read. Anna Tarrant, University of Lincoln

Written by a world-renowned scholar, this is a seminal text for qualitative longitudinal research. Bren Neales wealth of experience, thought-provoking reflections and synthesis of other key studies, provides an accessible, comprehensive and timely guide for researchers, students and teachers. Susie Weller, University of Southampton

Exploring social life over time opens up exciting research possibilities, Bren Neale provides a lucid and insightful guide to all aspects of qualitative longitudinal research. This engaging, informative and readable book is gold standard. Highly recommended. Jane Millar, University of Bath

A sensitive and thorough examination of qualitative longitudinal research, Neales volume presents the rewards, challenges and ethical demands of researching lives and communities through time. She sets out the history and value of QL, offers a clear discussion of the necessary craft and commitment to collaboration and shared authority, and provides examples of cases that illustrate themes and strategies. A superb and authoritative history and guide. Anya Peterson Royce, Indiana University

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There do not exist things made, but only in the making, not states that remain fixed, but only states in process of change in the process of becoming. [We] arrive at fluid concepts, capable of following reality in all its windings. (Henri Bergson, Introduction to Metaphysics in The Creative Mind 1946 [1903]: 188, 190)

[Class] is not a thing, it is a happening Not this or that part of the machine, but the way the machine works once it is set in motion the friction of interests the movement itself, the heat, the thundering noise. [T]he definition can only be made in the medium of time, that is, action and reaction, change and conflict. (E.P. Thompson, The Poverty of Theory 1978: 85)

For groups, as well as for individuals, life itself means to separate and to be re-united, to change form and condition, to die and to be reborn. It is to act and to cease, to wait and rest, and then to begin acting again, but in a different way. And there are always new thresholds to cross. (Arnold van Gennep, The Rites of Passage 1960 [1909]: 189)

Bren Neale is Emeritus Professor of Life Course and Family Research at the University of Leeds, UK, and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. She was the director of the ESRC-funded Timescapes study from 2007 to 2012. She has contributed to advances in qualitative longitudinal methods across academia, government and the voluntary sector, both in the UK and internationally, and continues to provide training and support in this methodology for new and established researchers.

This book is built on the accumulated wisdom of generations of researchers who have pioneered qualitative longitudinal research. It has been a privilege and pleasure to meet and work alongside a good number of these researchers in recent years. This was made possible through a series of research grants from the Economic and Social Research Council, including a methodological fellowship, national and international seminar series, and funding for a five-year programme of QL research and archiving (the Timescapes study). I owe a particular debt of gratitude to my Timescapes colleagues, and to the affiliated researchers, archivists, legacy data researchers and time theorists who enriched the programme. This was a cutting-edge environment in which to develop the ideas for this book. It has also been a pleasure to be part of an international network of QL researchers, which has grown rapidly over the past two decades, and to have the opportunity to deliver courses and training programmes to international researchers from many fields of scholarship. Through these events, I have met many enthusiastic proponents of QL methodology, and each time I have learnt something new about its power and creativity, and its capacity to grip and inspire people.

At the core of QL enquiry, shaping our research methods and ethics, can be found the research participants, whose contributions make our research possible. Over a long research career, I have walked alongside many people, of all ages and living in many different circumstances. They have generously shared the stories of their lives with me, and enriched my own life in the process. This book is in no small measure a tribute to them.

More specifically, many colleagues offered ideas and advice, or donated materials as this book was taking shape. Id particularly like to thank Libby Bishop, Ann Del Bianco, Maureen Haaker, Kahryn Hughes, Sarah Irwin, Hannah Kinsey, Linzi Ladlow, Jane Millar, Hanna Pettersson, Fiona Shirani, Anna Tarrant, and Rachel Proudfoot and the Timescapes Archive team. At Sage, I am grateful to Jai Seaman for the invitation to write this book and for her support throughout; and to Lauren Jacobs and the Sage production team for gently steering the project through to completion. Finally, special thanks (and apologies) to my family members, not least to Jess for her technical wizardry, and to Alan for being there every step of the way.