Nick Emmel - Sampling and Choosing Cases in Qualitative Research

SAGE has been part of the global academic community since 1965, supporting high quality research and learning that transforms society and our understanding of individuals, groups, and cultures. SAGE is the independent, innovative, natural home for authors, editors and societies who share our commitment and passion for the social sciences. Find out more at: www.sagepublications.com

NICK EMMEL

a realist approach

SAGE Publications Ltd
1 Olivers Yard
55 City Road
London EC1Y 1SP

SAGE Publications Inc.
2455 Teller Road
Thousand Oaks, California 91320

SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd
B 1/I 1 Mohan Cooperative Industrial Area
Mathura Road
New Delhi 110 044

SAGE Publications Asia-Pacific Pte Ltd
3 Church Street
#10-04 Samsung Hub
Singapore 049483

Editor: Jai Seaman

Assistant editor: Anna Horvai

Production editor: Ian Antcliff

Copyeditor: Jennifer Hinchliffe

Proofreader: Nicola Marshall

Indexer: Martin Hargreaves

Marketing manager: Ben Griffin-Sherwood

Cover design: Francis Kenney

Typeset by: C&M Digitals (P) Ltd, Chennai, India

Printed in India at Replika Press Pvt Ltd

Nick Emmel 2013

First published 2013

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form, or by any means, only with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013932701

British Library Cataloguing in Publication data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-0-85702-509-8

ISBN 978-0-85702-510-4 (pbk)

Theory does not fall out of data and this book has not fallen out of my experiences of doing research, although each of my research projects is represented in one way or another throughout the book. I am grateful to the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), which funded three methods research programmes of which I have had the good fortune to be part: Developing Methodological Strategies to Recruit and Research Socially Excluded Individuals and Groups as part of the Research Methods Programme; Connected Lives, part of the Real Life Methods Node of the National Centre for Research Methods; and Intergenerational Exchange, part of Timescapes, the ESRCs Qualitative Longitudinal Initiative. Within these programmes the colleagues with whom I do research have all contributed. There are far too many to mention here, but one of the arguments rehearsed in is the way in which interpretation and explanation are produced through discussion and debate within research teams. This book is no different in this regard.

While my colleagues can take comfort from my insistence that the ideas in this book are my own, they must accept at least a small part of the responsibility through encouraging me, putting forward their ideas, and arguing their corner in many memorable hours of interpreting and explaining method and substance in our research together. I would particularly like to thank Kahryn Hughes, Joanne Greenhalgh, Andrew Clark, Adam Sales, and Lou Hemmerman. Sarah Irwin, Bren Neale, Jennifer Mason, and Mike Savage listened to my thinking about choosing cases and provided insightful comments. James Newell has always acted as wise interlocutor between qualitative and quantitative methods. Lisa Buckner guided me through the mysteries of quantitative sampling and answered my questions. I thank them all for their time and patience. Joseph Maxwell, Graham Crow, Michelle OReilly and Karen Henwood responded to my requests for hard-to-access papers and books with generosity. Martyn Hammersley read and commented on a very early draft of what is now . His incisive comments were invaluable, my thanks.

I have received wonderful support from Patrick Brindle, Jai Seaman, and Anna Horvai at SAGE. I am enormously grateful to one anonymous reviewer and one reviewer who made himself known, Bob Carter. Of course, for all their support, these are my interpretations of choosing cases in qualitative research. But, one person can take some of the blame for what is written here, Ray Pawson. It was he who came up with the alliteration in the title of the book and enthused about this project since I first had the idea of writing a realist account of sampling in qualitative research. His comments on drafts have been incisive, witty and occasionally irreverent the support anyone writing a book needs in my view. Finally, my partner Inna and our daughters Elena Rosa and Nina Clara have shown infinite patience. My thanks and love to them.

Nick Emmel teaches research methods and the sociology and social policy of international health and health care at the School of Sociology and Social Policy, the University of Leeds. He has conducted extensive research in the UK and India interpreting and explaining processes of vulnerability, with a focus on inequalities and inequities in health. He is particularly interested in the methodological challenges of access to hard-to-reach individuals and groups and how these processes contribute to insight in our research. He has published extensively on these issues, including with Kahryn Hughes in the SAGE Handbook of Case Study Research (edited by David Byrne and Charles Ragin, SAGE, 2009). He was a co-investigator in the Real Life Methods Node of the ESRCs National Centre for Research Methods and in Timescapes, the ESRCs Qualitative Longitudinal Initiative.