Research Alive

Book excerpt: What makes qualitative research really worth doing? When do people feel most alive and energized in their research? This book offers insights into doing qualitative research by focusing on the specific moments that are experienced as generative. The focus on these generative moments illuminates what is life-giving, transformative, and expansive, both with regards to the imagination of ideas and the development of scholars in the process of doing research. The book offers a unique array of 40 stories, from both new and established scholars, covering the full arc of the research process, from the conception of the initial idea to publication and other forms of interaction with users of research. These personal, back-stage accounts provide readers with insights about the everyday micro-moments that compose the doing of qualitative research, which are typically invisible and not discussed, yet are the wellsprings of motivation and insight that sustain and inspire qualitative researchers. Readers will gain critical new understanding about research practice and will acquire important perspectives that are an inherent part of becoming a research scholar.