`This is a superb book. It covers the broad sweep of current qualitative work, while being appropriately selective and always on the side of quality. Its clarity is faultless, and its introduction of the various relevant concepts is neatly integrated with an excellent set of exercises which will bring them alive. David Silverman has written the best general textbook in qualitative methods; I shall use it in my teaching′ -
Jonathan Potter, Loughborough University
`This is an elegant text on the cutting edge. David Silverman has taken the most recent developments, methodologies and interpretive strategies in qualitative research and made them immediately accessible to the student′ - Norman Denzin, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
`The Second Edition... is a fascinating book.... It includes enlightening discussions of ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, of discourse analysis and ordinary talk, as well as of what can be learned from visual (non-linguistic) materials′ - David Kalekin-Fishman, Forum for Qualitative Social Research
In this much expanded and updated Second Edition of his bestselling introductory textbook for the beginning researcher, David Silverman: takes account of the flood of qualitative work since the 1990s; includes a new chapter on Visual Images; and provides an expanded treatment of discourse analysis.
All chapters have been substantially rewritten with the aim of greater clarity and to take into account the growing interdisciplinary interest in qualitative research. To aid the student researcher the number of exercises has been increased and Key Points and Recommended Readings appear at the end of each chapter.
David Silverman trained as a sociologist at the London School of Economics and the University of California, Los Angeles. He taught for 32 years at Goldsmiths, University of London. He is interested in conversation and discourse analysis and he has researched medical consultations and HIV-test counselling.
He is the author of Interpreting Qualitative Data (Seventh Edition, 2024) and A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book about Qualitative Research (Second Edition, 2013). He is also the editor of Qualitative Research (Sixth Edition, 2026) and the Sage series, Introducing Qualitative Methods. In recent years, he has offered short, hands-on workshops in qualitative research for research students and faculty at universities in Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia.
Now retired from full-time work, David aims to watch one hundred days of cricket a year. He also enjoys voluntary work in an old people’s home where he sings with residents with dementia and strokes.
