Review: Henry E. Brady & David Collier (Eds.) (2004). Rethinking Social Inquiry: Diverse Tools, Shared Standards

Abstract

The book Rethinking Social Inquiry, edited by Henry E. BRADY and David COLLIER, is a response to a book by KING, KEOHANE and VERBA (1994) that aimed to introduce quantitative standards to qualitative research. The authors of the book reviewed here criticize many of the suggestions made there because they argue that qualitative research requires other tools. Nevertheless, they agree that the foundations of research design are similar. The book comprises a comprehensive critique of mainstream quantitative techniques, describes a set of qualitative tools for research, and addresses issues of how to combine qualitative and quantitative approaches to maximize analytical leverage. It is an excellent contribution to the methodological debate in the social sciences. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0602309

Keywords

• methods
• methodology
• quantitative versus qualitative
• inference
• research design