Qualitative Inquiry and the Politics of Advocacy

The plenary volume from the Seventh International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry (2011) examines the politics of advocacy and the context in which scholars are encouraged to pursue social justice agendas, be human rights advocates, and do work that honors the core values of human dignity and freedom from fear and violence. Contributions from many of the world's leading qualitative researchers in communications, education, sociology, and related disciplines address topics including community research, transformative education, and researcher ethics, and guide the field toward an engaged, activist research agenda.

Norman K. Denzin is Distinguished Professor of Communications, College of Communications Scholar, and Research Professor of Communications, Sociology, and Humanities at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. One of the world’s foremost authorities on qualitative research and cultural criticism, Denzin is the author or editor of more than two dozen books, including The Qualitative Manifesto; Qualitative Inquiry Under Fire; Reading Race; Interpretive Ethnography; The Cinematic Society; The Voyeur’s Gaze; and The Alcoholic Self. He is past editor of The Sociological Quarterly, co-editor (with Yvonna S. Lincoln) of four editions of the landmark Handbook of Qualitative Research, coeditor (with Michael D. Giardina) of a series of plenary volumes from the annual Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, co-editor (with Lincoln) of the methods journal Qualitative Inquiry, founding editor of Cultural Studies/Critical Methodologies and International Review of Qualitative Research, editor of three book series, and founding director of the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry.Michael D. Giardina (PhD, University of Illinois) is an Assistant Professor in the College of Education at Florida State University. He is the author of Sport, Spectacle, and NASCAR Nation: Consumption and the Cultural Politics of Neoliberalism (Palgrave, 2011, with Joshua Newman) and Sporting Pedagogies: Perfoming Culture & Identity in the Global Arena (Peter Lang, 2005), which received the 2006 Outstanding Book Award from the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport, and editor or co-editor of ten books on qualitative inquiry and interpretive research, including a series of books with Norman Denzin published by Left Coast Press. He is the associate editor of Cultural Studies<=>Critical Methodologies and Sociology of Sport Journal, and the associate director of the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry.