My next workshop and I’ve sold two tickets already! ReflexivityInPractice.eventbrite.co.uk

Role or whole person?  When I was teaching last week, I was reminded of the distinction I make in my book between interviewing a person as a representative of a role or as a whole person. Quite a few people have found this a useful distinction to make. When you are interviewing someone in their…

Qualitative Sampling Event on Wednesday Sign up now

My first solo run online mini course is next Wednesday. It’s on qualitative sampling. This is a trial run to see if it’s something people find useful. Please share with anyone who might be interested. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/qualitativ...

For 56 minutes Sky News and BBC News interrupted everything else and carried a Reform UK feed live, uninterrupted, unchallenged. The stream spluttered, froze, pixelated - dozens of times - still they stuck with it. FOR ONE HOUR. This is an editorial choice. No other party gets this coverage. ~AA

@ottoenglish.bsky.social nice to see your book in the most prestigious book shop in London

Why a Toolkit for Qualitative Research? In my new book, Qualitative Research Methods for Everyone: An Essential Toolkit, I use a toolkit approach. But what do I mean by this? The toolkit for qualitative research is a collection of expert skills, knowledge, procedures, tools, or information. The…

It’s come to this: Keir Starmer is now just the warm-up act for Nigel Farage | Aditya Chakrabortty www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

NEXT WEDS @18:30: Why did “lifestyle migration” capture so many social scientists’ imagination? How has it travelled in the 25 years since The British on the Costa del Sol? Join author @profkarenoreilly.bsky.social, @michaelacbenson.bsky.social, Matthew Hayes & Graham Crow online. buff.ly/fHs6cNK

Why a Toolkit for Qualitative Research? In my new book, Qualitative Research Methods for Everyone: An Essential Toolkit, I use a toolkit approach. But what do I mean by this? The toolkit for qualitative research is a collection of expert skills, knowledge, procedures, tools, or information. The…

Why a Toolkit for Qualitative Research? In my new book, Qualitative Research Methods for Everyone: An Essential Toolkit, I use a toolkit approach. But what do I mean by this? You might also enjoy The Qualitative Research Methods for Everyone Podcast  wherever you get your podcasts The toolkit for…

What is in this blog? There is a lot of information in this blog. For example: Exercises for every chapter of my book. Assessing the value of qualitative research – is valid, transparent, useful, representative? Does it give us hope? What is sample fitness? The discussion of sampling and sample…

Assessing the value of qualitative research Qualitative research should be guided and evaluated according to its methodological principles not by any false or imported ideas of how it should be. In my book Qualitative Research Methods for Everyone: An Essential Toolkit, Policy Press, 2025, I argue…

Goldman Sachs analysis on growth forecasts and “How Spain Became Europe's Fastest-Growing Economy” Largely due to the immigrant influx it is now the economic engine of the eurozone since the end of the pandemic. Immigration benefits an economy. We knew that! www.huffingtonpost.es/virales/gold...

“Modern retreat must not seem appealing. The people of Hiroshima built nothing behind walls after the Pacific War; they rebuilt with international engagement, peace treaties, and economic ordering grounded in transparency.” bylinetimes.com/2025/08/06/l...

Qualitative Data Analysis is not (just) Thematic Analysis. It is always (also) Interpretive.  In my book, Qualitative Research Methods for Everyone: An Essential Toolkit (25 March 2025), I introduce the new term ‘Interpretive Analysis’ and I don’t (just) use thematic analysis. My main reason for…

I’ve seen recent reports that show that the majority of people in the UK care more about the NHS and education than they do about immigration, and the majority support taxing the wealthy more. So what on earth is happening to democracy?

Trump is playing with money again. He and his mates will be sure to profit from stock market turmoil.

ECR opportunity: 20 funded places on our Early Career Researchers Day. Successful applicants will join us in Glasgow for workshops on migration studies & ethnographic practice led by Shahram Khosravi & @profkarenoreilly.bsky.social Apply by 8 September. thesociologicalreview.org/announcement...

Farage should never be interviewed without being forced to answer for failures of Brexit. That the man whose lies fuelled Brexit vote which has cost UK Billions & who said Liz Truss budget was “best Tory budget since 1986” could be trusted on *anything* is mind-boggling #bbclaura

This cause is close to my heart - please sign: you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/ba...

"Accordingly, it is my pleasure and my honor to announce my nomination of Jerome Powell to be the next Chairman of the Federal Reserve." - Donald Trump

Nine Heuristics for qualitative analysis  In my new book, Qualitative Research Methods for Everyone: An Essential Toolkit (Policy Press), I outline a new approach for interpretive qualitative analysis using Nine Heuristics. These are: Learning as you go Inductive immersion (becoming very familiar…

We even have a real-life experiment that proves paying farm workers a fair wage can be done. And prices went up so little, PEOPLE DIDN'T EVEN NOTICE. In 2005, tomato pickers in FL struck a deal with Yum! Brands (Taco Bell, KFC, & others) to guarantee higher wages. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coaliti...

Not to be flippant but evolution did see to it that we're really good at getting food off of trees & bushes. We have a rather meaningful several-million-year head start over the robots here.

This helps explain why it's so hard to automate farm labor! It's not that it's too hard to make a robot pick crops. It's that humans are really, REALLY good at it. It's hard to make a robot that's BETTER at it than people.

A *slow* strawberry picker can get 20lbs/hr. If they make $20/hr, that's only $0.25 for a pint basket. Sure, that's a noticeable price difference. And it's still nowhere near "doubling or tripling" the cost of food, as I've seen people claim repeatedly. t.co/HMUhFats0x

The average orange picker pulls 876 lbs/hour. At $20/hr, that would cost 2 cents per pound for labor. Here's the source I'm using for lbs/hr btw: swfrec.ifas.ufl.edu/docs/pdf/eco...

I know "650 lbs an hour" sounds crazy, because it kinda is. But that also just means filling one of these buckets every ~3 minutes. That's doable for the average healthy adult. (Doing it 10hrs/day for weeks in a row is the hard part.)

Ex-farm worker here. We need to talk about this whole "But a living wage for farm workers would spike the cost of food!" thing. Not true AT ALL. Y'all don't understand how fast experienced farm workers are. The average tomato picker pulls 650lbs per hour. At $20/hr, that's $0.03/lb for labor.

Majority of Brits support sanctions against Israel, new polling finds The majority of Brits would support the UK putting economic sanctions on Israel, new polling has revealed. www.globaljustice.org.uk/news/majorit...

Grab this (free!) book, with contributions from CMR’s @pkaczmarczyk.bsky.social @kamilafialkowska.bsky.social and Agata Gorny

Exercises for Chapter 7 Being creative I am sharing exercises to accompany each chapter of Qualitative Research Methods for Everyone: An Essential Toolkit (Policy Press). Here are the exercises for Chapter 7 Design. I strongly recommend designing and practicing some creative approaches. Write an…

Exercises for Chapter 8 Analysing and interpreting I am sharing exercises to accompany each chapter of Qualitative Research Methods for Everyone: An Essential Toolkit (Policy Press). Here are the exercises for Chapter 8 Practice. As it says in the book: The best exercises for this chapter are to…

Exercises for Chapter 8 Analysing and interpreting I am sharing exercises to accompany each chapter of Qualitative Research Methods for Everyone: An Essential Toolkit (Policy Press). Here are the exercises for Chapter 8 Practice. As it says in the book: The best exercises for this chapter are to…

Exercises for Chapter 7 Being creative I am sharing exercises to accompany each chapter of Qualitative Research Methods for Everyone: An Essential Toolkit (Policy Press). Here are the exercises for Chapter 7 Design. I strongly recommend designing and practicing some creative approaches. Write an…

Our book is currently free on kindle. Please share with migration researchers #ruralmigration #practicetheory again @kamilafialkowska.bsky.social @samscott23.bsky.social

Launching our new book, Rethinking Rural Studies, at #ESRS2025 in Riga this week - David Brown and @markshucksmith.bsky.social @esrs.bsky.social @elgarpublishing.bsky.social

Our book is currently free on kindle. Please share with migration researchers #ruralmigration #practicetheory again @kamilafialkowska.bsky.social @samscott23.bsky.social

Just received news that 27 people have been arrested in Parliament Square under the Terrorism Act 2000 for holding signs saying "I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action". This is real police state behaviour.

A mural of the Statue of Liberty covering her eyes in shame was created by Dutch artist Judith de Leeuw. It is in a high population area of immigrants in France…!!! She said ‘The values that the statue once stood for - freedom hope, the right to be yourself - have been lost for many’…!!!

"Companies such as Facebook, TikTok and X will have to act immediately to remove material such as hate speech, incitement to violence or 'anti-democratic acts', even without a prior judicial takedown order."

Today the order banning #PalestineAction as "terrorists" came into effect. But they are not terrorists. They are protesters trying to stop a genocide. This is a "first they came for ..." situation. Unless we stand in solidarity against this assault on our freedom, they will pick us off one by one.

Exercises for Chapter 6 Being Ethnographic I am sharing exercises to accompany each chapter of Qualitative Research Methods for Everyone: An Essential Toolkit (Policy Press). Here are the exercises for Chapter 6. Try doing some ethnographic observations: to emulate the experience of participant…

Exercises for Chapter 5 Group Discussions (Focus Groups) I am sharing exercises to accompany each chapter of Qualitative Research Methods for Everyone: An Essential Toolkit (Policy Press). Here are the exercises for Chapter 5. Assessing the quality of your focus group questioning skills: Prepare…

The Government is hiring for a chief scientific adviser for the Home Office - tough job but important to bring evidence to that Department. £125k-£145k. The current post holder is a social scientist, and it could lend itself to someone from that background www.gov.uk/government/n...

Exercises for Chapter 4 Interviewing I am sharing exercises to accompany each chapter of Qualitative Research Methods for Everyone: An Essential Toolkit (Policy Press). Here are the exercises for Chapter 4. Discussion guides. Find at least three examples of topic or discussion guides and contrast…

Exercises for Chapter 3 Being Ethical and Reflexive I am sharing exercises to accompany each chapter of Qualitative Research Methods for Everyone: An Essential Toolkit (Policy Press). Here are the exercises for Chapter 3. Gaining consent. Try to obtain at least three versions of a participant…

I’m enjoying this @drcrmatthews.bsky.social I will be telling my summer school participants about immersive research